Singing and dancing is oh so much fun...

Singing in the Rain

This is another one of those movies I'd always heard about but never seen. I was a little skeptical at first, of course. I'm not real big on musicals. But I was very surprised to find that I liked it almost right away. It was an amazing movie and it really illustrated that change from silent movies to “talkies” and all the pros and cons that went along with it.

I think that the most important part of this movie, the symptomatically and implicit meanings, were that fame is not permanent and that one must adapt to the changing times. Lina was unable (and definitely unwilling) to adapt to the new voice driven movies. She barely tried to work at the change and refused to practice with the new necessities. This really brought down not only herself but everyone else who worked with her. And when a solution came about, she ego-tripped and nearly brought down the entire studio. Don Lockwood, however, was easily able to make the change and worked with the new sound equipment and technical problems. Cosmo adapted by being able to come up with a solution to many of the problems that arose with the change into sound movies.

One thing that I personally liked about the film was that one of the main characters, Kathy, really made a point about the difference between theatrical acting and silent movie acting. It really brings about that line between film and theatre and how there is sometimes a barrier between not only styles but also peoples' opinions on both. Since I am a Theatre and Film major I can appreciate that there are differences between the two and that it can sometimes be difficult for one to reconcile with the other. However, I also feel like most of the musical films really touch base with theatre because there is so much more of a wide open feel and it really pulls you out of the film because, well, people don't run around singing and dancing out of no where.

Which brings me to this point. The film was definitely formative. Since people don't sing and dance everywhere they go where everyone knows the lyrics and dance moves. It really gives a more musical and interesting aspect to life. Which I'm sure we'd all love more.