The MoFo Top 100 Musicals Countdown

Seen and liked both, but neither made my ballot.

Seen:53/54

Yet another tie!

The Little Mermaid and Hair were both on 10 ballots which is the most so far and the most now until we reach the top 30.

Alice in Wonderland was #27 on the MoFo Top 100 of the 1950s as well as #33 on the MoFo Top 100 Animated Films.

__________________
"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

To be honest, I'd forgotten Alice in Wonderland was even a musical and couldn't name a single song from it. Hair is on my catch-up list.

I haven't seen any of these two. I have a feeling I saw Alice in Wonderland when I was a kid at some point, but I have no recollection of it, let alone any songs.


SEEN: 16/54
MY BALLOT: 5/25

__________________

I watched Hair in The Musical Countdown Group Watch. It was an interesting movie and one I had wanted to see. Not a favorite though...I wrote this:

The music is tops, some of the best songs I've heard in a musical and the less familiar ones also have something deep to say. When I watched the movie and it opened with 'Aquarius' I had goose bumps, it was that good. But I did start to lose some interest in the first part, but then I was hooked into the story and the ending makes the movie! That and the music. So yeah I enjoyed this and think mostly well of it.

Why only 'mostly well' because as I was watching it I had this feeling it wasn't set in the late 1960s but set in 1979. It's not just the people and cars in the background that looked 1979ish...it was the attitude of the film towards the hippies. The hippies were cast as roguish bullies, leaching off society. I thought that was weird as the songs tell a completely different story than the one the director Milos Forman gave us. When I was done watching the movie I read about the original stage play and learned it was not a period piece but had been actually written and performed in 1967 off Broadway. I also learned the movie radical changes the theme of the story. In the play the hippies were more like peace loving flower children...flipping the peace movement of the late 1960s to the viewpoint of the late 1970s seems sacrilegious to me. I wish they would remake this.

A Very Merry Unbirthday to You!



I was never a big fan of this movie as a kid, but it's grown on me a lot in my adulthood. I voted for it at #21.

Here's what I wrote about it when I rewatched it for the countdown:
I didn't like Hair.

My Ballot:
2. Charlotte's Web (#79)
6. Walk the Line (#95)
12. Corpse Bride (#61)
15. The Jungle Book (#63)
20. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (#66)
21. Alice in Wonderland (#48)
25. Joe's Apartment (One Pointer)

__________________

While the Broadway Musical and many of the songs from the show became hits in 1968, it was actually a blessing that it took more than ten years for a feature film adaptation to make it to the screen. Had it been made in 1969 or 1970 it almost surely would be an interesting sociological document but hopelessly pretentious, and though perhaps in that era it may have employed some experimental aspects to the filmmaking, I suspect the odds of it turning into a feature film with lasting appeal would have been long. There was a very loose plot to the original stage version, but by the time writer Michael Weller and director Miloš Forman got their hands on it there was enough time and distance from the actual Hippie movement to make a pretty gosh darn good and very entertaining flick from Hair.

During production at the end of 1977 (released in 1979), the Vietnam War had been over for a a few years and to the next generation it was perhaps easy to reduce the Peace Movement to silly clothes and idealism. I think what makes Hair work so well is it grafts those ideals onto a simple but effective plot about innocence lost, kinship, unrequited love, and sacrifice. Yes, it is quite different than the play, but while on first flush some of the ideas may seem a bit neutered it does actually treat the subject and characters with a great deal of respect and affection. The cast is absolutely perfect, especially Treat Williams. Although he would spend most of his career playing heavies and morally questionable characters (Spielberg's 1941 was released the same year as Hair), here his George Berger is a funny, smart, righteous, and stalwart fella...who can also sing and dance. Because yes, of course there are those terrific songs brought to life by some stunning and iconic choreography by Twyla Tharp, staged largely around Manhattan and Central Park.

While it all could have been done as a dated costume parade with contempt for its archetypes or as a spoof of the era, the movie is compelling and fun and even poignant by the end. I had it on my list at number fourteen.

HOLDEN’S BALLOT
3. Pennies from Heaven (#56)
11. This is Spın̈al Tap (#55)
14. Hair (#47)
17. Amadeus (#97)
21. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (#69)
25. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (#74)

Heck yes! Alice was my number 5!

Ah, I see.

I've always really liked Hair and could easily have swapped it out for any of like the bottom 7 or 8 on my list.

Alice in Wonderland is cute and pretty fun, but not on my list.

I haven't seen Hair, but I have seen this:

Last couple of entries have brought a couple more people into the list of repeating directors...

First of all, John Musker and Ron Clements nabbed their second one with The Little Mermaid (#49). They had previously placed Moana at #68.

Today, we got Milos Forman with Hair (#47). He had previously placed Amadeus at #97.

Haven’t seen Hair, don’t like Alice in Wonderland. At least last time I checked.

Alice in Wonderland is a great Disney animated film; one of the absolute best. I didn't have it on my ballot, but it could have been. It's been years since I've watched it and from what I remember, it doesn't have full blown musical numbers, more just shorter musical moments and interludes, but yeah it's a great film. It ranks up there with Fantasia and Beauty and the Beast in terms of the Disney canon, for me at least.

Also the Lewis Carol story has been timeless, and while most people think of the Disney film as that's their introduction to Alice and Wonderland, there have been many other great adaptations of the story, characters, and world. There's a silent film, a version in the 1930s - in which I believe Cary Grant actually plays the Mock Turtle, and then of course the bizarre and surreal and creepy 1988 version by Jan Svankmajer which has to be seen to be believed. It's full of miniatures, horrifying doll houses, stop motion, and all sorts of off-putting and disorienting imagery. I even did find use from the Tim Burton version as well, and it wasn't as great as anything in the 1988 or Disney films, it's still worth a watch. Also the Brothers Quay with stop motion did a short version of it as well.

I haven't watched all of Hair, but I have heard most of the musical numbers here and there over the years including of course "Age of Aquarius" and the title song. It was something that never really appealed to me, and avoiding politics of it, unless anyone is near 70 years old, they weren't really around for the hippie movement so most of us only know what we've read in texts, have seen in documentaries, and what the school system told us, but it's too bad that the whole anti-Vietnam movement, which just on a policy platform position was very legitimate with real concerns, got conflated with and clouded with the movement of free love, drug use, and counterculture which coincided with many other social changes that were happening at the time, which completely changed the nature and dynamic of our societal and cultural institutions.

In general the trend of rock-opera songs that were all the rage in the 70s, never really appealed to me - just from a musical and stylistic point of view. I appreciate them for what they are and they have their moments, but for the most part the Andrew Lloyd Webber - Jesus Christ Superstar, Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Wiz, Hair, etc, etc type of stuff of that time period doesn't really do it for me.

Oh and I found the film Hair on youtube if anyone hasn't seen it and wants to watch it:

__________________
"A candy colored clown!"
Member since Fall 2002
Top 100 Films, clicky below

http://www.movieforums.com/community...ad.php?t=26201

#47. Hair (1979) got 16 pts from me taking #10 at my ballot.

This movie and the music obtained a cult status in my country during the 80's and the 90's. Miloš Forman was the absolute king of filmmakers in those years considering his triple: Cuckoo's Nest - Hair - Amadeus. In addition, John Savage became another hero of ours being a star in one more 1979 hit - The Deer Hunter.
Naturally, this title was one of the first which landed at my ballot after the countdown theme was announced.


-----

My Ballot
▽
...
5. Everyone Says I Love You (1996) [#73]
6.
7. Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983) [#99]
8.
9. Amadeus (1984) [#97]
10. Hair (1979) [#47]
11.
12. Jesus Christ Superstar (1973) [#59]
...
16. Rocketman (2019) [#91]
...
25. The Gypsy Camp Vanishes Into the Blue (1975) [one pointer]
-----

__________________
"Population don't imitate art, population imitate bad television." W.A.
"You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." M.T.

Hair has one hell of an ending, that greatly improves on the stage plays in my opinion, but as a whole it doesn't quite work for me. It's alright, but not a contender.


The songs in Alice in Wonderland seemed incidental to me, not really adding much to the story. Although I'll admit several are very catchy. Didn't make my list either.