Oldie But A Goodie

I watched the Newsies today, for the first time in years. I first experienced this movie in the living room of my best friend Sarah's house. Her dad played the dulcimer and loved this movie. Not sure what the dulcimer reference is for, but I feel it's important in some way.

The first time I saw the film, I didn't catch a lot of the references, and as an under-traveled middle school student, I couldn't understand a lot of the regional dialects that were happening. So I missed a lot of the dialogue. But the singing was great, the dancing was great, and hey! a musical about newspapers! Whoop whoop!

I found the dvd in the $5 bin at Walmart a few months ago, and just haven't had the time to watch it. Boy, was the wait worth it! I caught very reference, understood all the dialects, and as a seasoned dancer myself now- the choreography was even more amazing!

This time around, however, I wasn't as impressed with the singing. It was a little sub-par for a musical, if you ask me. But I'm used to seeing stage shows where the principal characters are always singer-actors, as opposed to this film, which cast mainly actor-singers (and sometimes just actors who had been asked to sing) as the principals. But I really liked that all the singing was done by the actors themselves, and not voice-overs. I also really liked that, because most of the actors were not professional singers, I could get more into the characters and the relationships they had with each other. There was a much stronger emphasis on character development and storytelling via singing, rather than simply sounding out lovely music.

And how can I not say anything about Christian Bale? Geez Louise.  Tolerable singer, tolerable dancer, PHENOMENAL actor. Wow. He had such incredible charisma even back when he was a teenager. He just draws you into his performance. We should have all known what was in store for him.

It was also interesting to re-visit this movie after having seen Ann Margaret in Grumpy Old Men. She is lovely! And a real performer. So classy.

Lastly, I just want to take a moment and praise Robert Duvall. Wow! What a character actor! His little mannerisms, his sounding out the "calculator" when he was attempting to figure out salaries, his subtle hints at hypochondria- were just all amazing! I was completely floored by his performance.

And to think- as a 12-year-old I just thought he was a weird guy. Huh.