The MoFo Top 100 Musicals Countdown

Master of None

10-27-24

Inside Llewyn Davis is a tragic yet beautiful look at how talent and fame don't necessarily go in hand, and how random the latter can be. All of this encapsulated through the soul of the titular character, wonderfully portrayed by Oscar Isaac; a man plagued by insecurities, bitterness, anger, frustration, and a boatload of talent. Top Coen, but then again, so are ten other Coen films. I had it at #12 (Here's my review)

Haven't seen South Pacific.

SEEN: 15/48
MY BALLOT: 4/25

My ballot

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Thief

Master of None

10-27-24

Originally Posted by Miss Vicky

The only thing I liked about Inside Llewyn Davis was the cat. I haven�t seen South Pacific.

Which one?

Holden Pike

One Ornery Sumbitch

10-27-24

Inside Llewyn Davis was #22 on the MoFo Top 100 of the 2010s.

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Miss Vicky

MoFo's Resident Bitch

10-27-24

Originally Posted by Thief

Which one?

Both. I forgot there were two.

I'm a sucker for orange cats.

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iluv2viddyfilms

RIP www.moviejustice.com 2002-2010

10-27-24

I had to throw My Fair Lady on for a spin as a chaser to get the bad taste of South Pacific out of my brain.

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Thief

Master of None

10-27-24

Lots of great musical moments on Llewyn Davis, but I'm gonna put up this one. Love Adam Driver in this

"Who wrote this?"...... "I did"

PHOENIX74

I forgot the opening line.

10-28-24

54. South Pacific (1958) - I bought this on DVD last Thursday, but it'll probably take me a year to watch it - so South Pacific, which has always been on the cards, is somewhere in my future but as yet unseen. Pretty famous musical - I've always been curious.

53. Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) - If you check out my profile you'll see that Inside Llewyn Davis is one of my all-time favourite films, and I love it with an almost religious intensity that never wavers. However - if you check out my ballot (which you can't, yet) then you'll see that the number of movies on it where none of the numbers are anything but diegetic in nature number : ZERO. So this movie never came up in my calculations. That includes songs that play in the background while characters aren't singing them (simply on the soundtrack). All of the musicals I picked feature some in-movie numbers where the singing and dancing isn't being done in a way (and/or place) that you'd naturally expect singing and dancing to be done. Some of my movies do have a few numbers that are being performed in a normal way (concerts, performances etc.) but they all feature at least a few moments of narrative and music meshed together. So, for the same reason as This is Spinal Tap, this wasn't on my ballot. If it had of been, it would have been near the top (probably number 2), and Spinal Tap would have been number 5. I have no problem with them being here (of course I don't, I love these movies), but I didn't consider them musicals first and foremost. I didn't consider films where you can say "Yeeah, that can be considered a musical", I considered films where you can say, "That's a musical." It's just the definition I went with.

Seen : 32/48

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PHOENIX74

I forgot the opening line.

10-28-24

To those who are thinking about watching 1981 film Pennies From Heaven - can I implore you to watch the 1978 series before you do? It was a watershed moment in my life and opened my eyes to what the medium was capable of. I was never the same after watching it. People throw the word "masterpiece" around, but Pennies From Heaven is a legitimate masterpiece that has a razer-edged wit, intelligence, artistry, beauty, ugliness, totality and pure human spirit that beckons from the darkest of places while also cradling our most precious of ideals and ideas. Please - it's something from another place altogether. A must see - at least before you watch the film. I saw it before I saw the film.

I was around 16 or 17 years old when I first saw it, and it fundamentally changed me. I don't think I'd be who I am if I hadn't of idly turned the channel on my television one night and caught it, holding my rapt attention from that moment on.

gbgoodies

10-28-24

Top Hat is one of my favorite movies with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, but I just didn't have room for it on my list.

I'm a big fan of Hugh Jackman, and I was thrilled when I heard that he was going to be starring in a musical about P.T. Barnum. I thought it was going to be a movie version of the Broadway show Barnum, but while they're both about P.T. Barnum, they have completely different songs. While I was disappointed to find out that The Greatest Showman wasn't a movie version of the Broadway show Barnum, I still love this movie. It quickly became one of my favorite musicals, and it landed at #12 on my list.

I watched Pennies From Heaven twice for this countdown because the first time I watched it, I was caught off guard by the lip-synching, and I thought that might have been the reason that I didn't like it.

After the second watch, it still didn't work for me. I liked the way it worked the old musicals and the old songs into the movie. I just wish they hadn't shown the characters on screen singing using the original singers' voices. It made it uncomfortable to watch some scenes. Especially at the very beginning when Steve Martin was singing with a woman's voice coming out of his mouth.

I'm generally not a fan of rockumentaries, and This Is Spinal Tap is no exception. I just don't get the humor in this movie, and I didn't care for the music.

I like South Pacific, and it has some great songs, but the annoying color palettes were enough to keep it off my list. But it's a great musical, and I'm glad to see that it made the countdown.

I watched Inside Llewyn Davis for the 2010s Countdown, and I liked the music more than the movie itself. The movie was interesting, but it's another Coen's movie that I've seen where I still don't "get" their humor.

My list so far:
9. 1776 (1972)
12. The Greatest Showman (2017)
17. Anastasia (1997)
25. Frozen (2013)

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Wooley

Victim of The Night

10-28-24

So South Pacific is the one I mentioned many pages ago that I somehow just forgot even though it would have 100% been on list and it may very well have been Top-10.
It was one of my mother's favorite movies but it is not sentimentality that makes it so lofty for me (I actually used to get really irritated when she would put this on), it's just a helluva selection of songs and it's a good story and cute and sad and a whole lot of other stuff. I've seen this performed live a few times and I've seen the movie several times. The songs are so damn hooky and the performances, especially Mitzi Gaynor, are perfect. Gaynor just charms your socks off.
Anyway, this would have been in my top-10 I'm sure so, in your minds, add those points and re-rank it thusly.

Wooley

Victim of The Night

10-28-24

Originally Posted by Citizen Rules

Yes! another from my ballot and a film I truly love. South Pacific was my #3 choice on my ballot...I wrote this:

South Pacific (1958)

I flat out love this movie. I love the songs, I love the story and Mitzi Gaynor is a peach. This is the only Rodgers and Hammerstein play that was made into a movie with all of the songs intact. The usual fare was to cut a number of the Broadway songs for runtime so that the movie wasn't too long. At 2 hours 37 minutes the time flew by as I watched this and I can't always say that when I watch a long musical. The anti-racist anti-hate song, "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught", was a bold move and necessary to show that even in the tropical paradise on a south pacific island good people can still be raised to have bigoted views. The film has it's heart in the right place. I read that when this first came out some areas most likely in the south boycotted the film.

I'm a huge fan of Mitzi Gaynor who was known for her dancing and singing. Here she plays a conflicted woman who's in love with a Frenchman who has two children that are Polynesian. That bothers her as she was raised in the south to 'not mix'. Mitzi really is able to convey these complex emotions by facial expressions alone. Truly a fine dramatic performance from her.

A young France Nuyen is as cute as a button especially during the song 'Happy Talk'. Her mother played by Juanita Hall is colorfully entertaining as was Ray Walston. Besides the conflicted emotions of bigotry there's a serious note as John Kerr a young lieutenant, is sent on a mission along with Rossano Brazzi (the Frenchman) to spy on the Japanese army on a nearby island. Their mission during WWII is very dangerous and they are not expected to return.

Yes the color filters the director used are annoying at times but even he didn't like the effect once he seen it, but by then it was too late to re-shot those scenes as the film was in post production. I've learned to look past the color filters and see the deeper beauty of South Pacific.

Yeah, we are of one mind on this one.
I'll have to re-watch with a mind to the color-filters, I've always thought that weird vibe they gave off was an intended and important part of the movie.

iluv2viddyfilms

RIP www.moviejustice.com 2002-2010

10-28-24

I'm glad Rodgers and Hammerstein didn't get their writing tips from Dixon Steele. I also watched that My Fair Lady thing and not once did Higgins say to Eliza, "I love you, I love you, I love you!" The best she ever got was how he grew accustomed to her face. Now, how are we as an audience supposed to know one character loves another unless they say it a bunch of times throughout. Luckily Rodgers and Hammerstein remind us at least half a dozen times who loves who in their musical.

rauldc14

2022 Mofo Fantasy Football Champ

10-28-24

Where is Sting Ray Sam?

Citizen Rules

Trouble with a capital "T"

10-28-24

Originally Posted by Wooley

Yeah, we are of one mind on this one.
I'll have to re-watch with a mind to the color-filters, I've always thought that weird vibe they gave off was an intended and important part of the movie.

Thank goodness there's one other person besides me who loves South Pacific. I wonder who the other four people were who voted for it?

Miss Vicky

MoFo's Resident Bitch

10-28-24

Originally Posted by rauldc14

Where is Sting Ray Sam?

I've given up on it showing at this point.

I know at least three other people voted for it and given the low threshold for making the list (and how many points it got just from me) I thought for sure it would have made it but I guess I was wrong.

Citizen Rules

Trouble with a capital "T"

10-28-24

Originally Posted by rauldc14

Where is Sting Ray Sam?

Exactly. I thought it was coming yesterday so today seems likely. I hope.

kgaard

Msg

Registered User

10-28-24

I've seen three of the last four--all bar South Pacific (the one clear musical of the bunch!).

Pennies From Heaven, This Is Spinal Tap!, and Inside Lllewyn Davis are all films I like to varying degrees, although even had I considered each of them as definite musicals, probably none would have made my list anyway (Inside Llewyn Davis probably would have been closest). I haven't seen the original TV version of Pennies, but my understanding from a friend and PHOENIX74 here is that it is indeed the superior version, so someday I hope to get to it. Anyway, not sorry to see any of these turn up, even if they aren't the purest forms of musical (I guess Pennies is if you'll allow for the lip-synching, even if it seems a bit strange not to utilize Bernadette Peters).

John W Constantine