I haven't had any time in the last few weeks to read any screenplays at all. But a few days ago I watched Chicago for the first time in a few years, and I want to talk about it because it's so darn clever.
I've never seen the original musical it's based on, so I don't know how much is kept or changed. But the movie uses the genre of a musical perfectly to tell its armature: the world is a show, and there is no justice in it.
How does it do this?
Instead of characters breaking out into song in the middle of their lives, the "music" part of the musical takes place in an alternate vaudeville-like reality in which characters sing about their true feelings. In this reality there is an MC, and there are wild costumes, and spotlights and chorus lines and elaborate set pieces are all over the place. While a scene will be going on in the "real" world, a song will be occurring in the "show" world, and the two are layered on top of each other to create a powerful description of what's really happening (in terms of motivations and such).
The interesting thing is that events that occur in the "real" world are all lies and performances, while the metaphorical staging and lighting and lyrics in the "show" world tell the truth of the situation. In order to better explain, let me give an example.
Protagonist Roxie Hart gets convicted for murdering the man she was sleeping around with. She hires a lawyer to help get her sympathy from the people and the jury before her trial, and the lawyer is so good at his job that he makes up a ridiculous false story about her wonderful sweet life, and he completely fools the press with it. This scene shows Roxie and her lawyer making a press release in the "real" world, while a song goes on in the "show" world that portrays the lawyer as a puppet master and all the reporters as his puppets, with Roxie as his ventriloquist dummy. The reality is that Roxie has a really good lawyer; the truth is that he is shamelessly manipulating everyone involved.
So what's really fascinating is that, essentially, everything that happens in the "real" world is a lie, a performance. Everything that happens in the "performance" world is the truth. The real world is a show.
Roxie Hart craves the fame that her trial gives her. By using lies and performances, she manages to fool everyone of her innocence and get acquitted. The final number of the musical is a giant dance number with Roxie and her clone Velma, celebrating their own fame and success. But even though this comes off as pretty cool and a great musical number, we realize that these people are not good, and they are still the same as when they murdered somebody. In fact, they are rewarded with fame, the one thing they want, for their murder.
So, all in all, this is what Chicago is doing: the protagonist is a bad person who lies and murders and emotionally abuses her good-natured husband, and in the end is not punished for it. But this is played up as a show. Because Chicago is a musical, we celebrate its protagonist for being an amazing singer/dancer even though she is a terrible person. This is because the world is a show and there is no justice in it.
This is the most brilliant use of the musical aesthetic that I have ever seen.
No comments:
Post a Comment