For anyone who hasn’t seen the original 1980 version of Fame, it’s not exactly what you’d expect. Because you were expecting a grinning mob of leotard whores prancing around, squealing “feel the music!” to one another, whilst occasionally breaking rank to march silently towards a mirror, caressing their bodies, growling like tigers, weren’t you? Weren’t you? Go on, admit it. You were. And, for the most part, you’d be right.
But, the original film was so much more than that. It was bleak. It was brilliant. And the new one, apparently, is a big sack of turds. So says the Boston Herald?and LA Times anyway, and they’ve SEEN it.
In the first outing, a cross section of New York “talent” is thrown together in a strict school for special people, who like singing, dancing and acting. The kids sometimes take time to play a cello in the canteen, or dash into the streets because a man in a taxi left his stereo on, and it’s playing loud music.
But, apart from that, it’s no walk in the park for these students – some of whom have been punched in the face by the ugly fist, yet still see their career in the limelight. By which we may or may not be referring to Bruno and Ralph. One student almost gets raped by a horny photographer, one is battling with gayness, one considers suicide, there’s a ballerina abortion, there are drugs flying around. Leroy destroys things. It’s heavy going.
Of the latest version, which looks a bit like High School Musical, but with slightly more pubes, James Verniere of the Boston Herald says:
“… for the most part, the conflicts are canned, the dance scenes lifted from ?Flashdance? and ?All That Jazz,? the dialogue banal and the chemistry lacking. Believe in yourself, hold on to your dreams, we are told. I get better advice in fortune cookies.”
He even hilariously awards the movie about school a C+.
It’s gets an equally frosty reception from the LA Times:
“Fame, it turns out, is not going to live forever… gone is almost every shred of the gutsy, gritty script that Christopher Gore wrote.”
This time around, there’s a talented songstress who needs to show her dad that she can sing, a rapper of some sort, and a sexy dancer called Kherington Payne, who has previously starred in a TV show about dancing. Plus Frasier teaches everyone music.
Yep, sounds pretty rubbish.
Fame, 1980
Fame, 2009
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kay says
The movie had such a good vibe in the early stages before we actually started to shoot it. In fact, it had such good energy going on, that it was a pity it ended up being cut-up/chop-chopped and as you said, ‘sanitized’. There were a lot of scenes that unfortunately did not make the final cut. These scenes showed stories about true friendship, love, passion, relationships, sexuality, disappointments and successes in detail thru character development. Though the locked version was ‘tamed down’ because of the PG rating, a DVD directors cut would probably show the actual stories of the 10 different characters.
It seemed that Mr. Tancharoen forgot (maybe intentionally?) that he had 10 characters to develop. It appeared that there was concentration on one, Ms. Panabaker (and how could her character pass such a rigid audition?), Mr. Book, Mr. Pennie, Ms. Naughton (who sang very well) and Ms. Payne. Whatever happened to Mr. Iacono, Mr. McGill, Ms. Perez de Tagle, Ms. Flores (what character did she portray?) and Mr. Perez? What are their life stories or experiences?
Being part of the crew, I witnessed a number of scenes where Joy (Anna Maria), Kevin (Paul McG, who plays a gay dancer…did you notice?) and Neil (Paul I) developed and established their friendship. There was a dramatic/touching scene where Joy and Kevin made the whole crew shed tears and I thought that would have been a clincher in the film. But sad to say, it ended up in the editors bin. Ms. Perez de Tagle should have been given more substantial scenes. She really is a “Joy” to watch. If I may add, Mr. McGill as handsome as he is, should have been given the same opportunity. In my opinion, these three characters would have been able to show the true color of FAME.
Needless to say, Mr. Tancharoen should have captured the true essence of the “New York PA youth” by utilizing and developing all of his characters evenly. In my opinion, he could have done that, if he had chosen to do so. However, it seems that Mr. Tancharoen concentrated on just one character’s development……….Jenny (Ms. Panabaker)….whom he had ‘captured’ and “captivated” way before the filming was over. Sad, utterly sad, but true.
Give it a chance, view it in it’s entirety. Maybe a PG-13 rating would have made the FAME re-invention……….’live forever’
KW, Beverly Hills, CA