#70 - The Great Ziegfeld

Is it over yet? Are we done now? Seriously, I watched this movie a week ago, and I'm pretty sure it's only half way through. I'm mean come on!! This thing is THREE HOURS LONG. Emphasis on the word "long". Here's a sign that the movie you are watching is way too long: It's not really a musical(check the previous review), and yet it has an intermission. Hell, it has an overture for chrissakes. Overtures are okay if you are watching a stage production. Or, if the overture is more like an opening song with some sort of animated credit sequence, that would be fine. This just has a graphic that says overture. BOOOO!!! I know, I know, they played it while people were actually getting settled into the movie theatre and all that crap, but it's not a freaking musical. Why is it that Hollywood has to lump any movie that relates to music into the musical category? When stuff like that happens, people like WAH-Keen Phoenix win a musical Golden Globe for Walk the Line. That's just not right.

So this is the point in the review where I begin to explain why I didnt really like an Oscar winning movie or the Oscar winning performance by the leading lady. Just thought I would put it all out on the table right away. You see, I understand why it won an Oscar, but I still just thought it was only okay. I think the best way to describe it is to say that it was a Titanic type of Oscar. I think what they looked at was the fact that the scope of the movie was so massive, and yet the movie was complete and well made. I just don't think it was THAT great. Of course, I dont know what other movies were nominated that year, so it may have been the best movie anyways.

You see, I think it could have been at least forty-five minutes shorter. The production numbers in the middle of the movie were amazing technical achievements. The massive scope of of the two scenes was amazing, even by todays standards. The design, and execution of everything is even more amazing when you realize that they were done with only one or two shots. I also understand that it was probably an accurate recreation of the types of productions that Ziegfeld made, but spectacle only goes so far in my book and since these numbers were in the middle of the marathon, I was almost already out to lunch. I know it may sound odd to have someone recognize all of the achievments of a movie, and still not like it that much, but that is what I am doing.

I tell you what William Powell was AMAZING. His performance should have won an Oscar. I would have been more than fine with that. But the actual Oscar winner was Luise Rainer, and I gotta tell you, I was none too impressed. I think the problem I had was with the way the character was written. I hated the wishy washy, whiny, "you don't really love me", "I can't live without you" nature of the character. I am aware that at the begining it was intended to be humorous, but when it kept happening into the dramatic moments, I was over it, WAY over it.

I also didnt like the episodic nature of the film. I'm not talking about a Mother Courage kind of episodic structure. More like one story about Ziegfeld after the other. It made the life of Ziegfeld seem choppy instead of a sweeping epic that this kind of movie normally is. But hey, if I could dance like Ray Bolger none of this would matter because I would be the coolest person in the world. And if I was as awesomely funny as Fanny Brice, you might just have to close all the stores and put the kids to bed early cause it would be going down TONIGHT!!! What the hell does that mean?