The MoFo Top 100 Musicals Countdown

Haven't seen any of these, even though The Blues Brothers is a favorite of one of my older brothers. Dancer in the Dark has been on my radar for a while, but I've heard it's pretty rough so I want to be in the proper frame of mind for it.


Anyway, here's where I stand...


SEEN: 27/82
MY BALLOT: 11/25

Dancer in the Dark was my #8. I have only watched it once but it left a deep impression. It's very inventive as a musical, with the sounds around the characters in the factory etc. forming the beat of the music as well as singing.

Planning to reveal these before the top 10

Blues Brothers is just ok for me. Top 20 here seems a bit high given all the great stuff that has showed before it.

Not seen Dancer in the Dark but I do really look forward to it!

More later if I get time but Dancer in the Dark is one of the most dark and sobering musicals I have ever seen. There's so much to unpack with it, but just a couple of quick comments, Bjork is amazing, the way her character uses musicals and the fantasy world of their storytelling to escape from the humdrum or her daily life working in the factory and her medical prognosis of going blind and to reconcile her reality vs the hope she has in her child and helping him is genuinely heartbreaking.

It's one of a handful of films that rings absolutely true in terms of the affect poverty has upon people and the decisions they make and also it shows people in a more true light. As a Christian, I'm of the belief that people are inherently evil and sinful, but we can achieve great things through a moral compass, Christian and Biblical guidelines, and to live our lives and do deeds which are in accordance to helping our fellow man. Unfortunately, more often than not, people more often live up to their evil potential more than their potential for good. The betrayal of Selma is one of the more truly heartbreaking scenes in all of cinema. And sure, a lot of this stuff is "contrived" in such a way that it leads checkpoint to checkpoint to checkpoint to the film's conclusion, it's still an ode to Hollywood musicals but also an ode to many of the dark and somber melodramas of the past. Even though the context is different, the ending for me, is very heartbreaking in a similar fashion to how I feel and get churned up and am an emotional wreck when watching another of my all time favorites, George Steven's A Place in the Sun.

Again, Bjork is amazing and while at a Cure concert in Dallas last year a buddy and I were brainstorming our "musical artist Mt. Rushmores" and for the ladies I had: Dolly Parton, St. Vincent, Billie Holiday, and Bjork. Also as great as Bjork is and the fact that she's probably the most revolutionary and groundbreaking female artist of all time, her album with the film, Selmasongs is so wonderful and perfect too. "I've Seen It All" is such a powerful anthem and as a stand alone piece of music it's just great, but as a piece for the film as she reconciles with her impending blindness and knowing she will never see all the things she has loved, it's just heartbreaking. It's also wonderfully produced with Thom Yorke of Radiohead providing an assist and it's a song very influenced by triphop and acts like Massive Attack and Portishead and infused with melodies reminiscent of a warped vision of Disney music.

If musicals like Singin' in the Rain and An American in Paris are the absolutely pinnacle of what we strive to be, what we wished we were, and how we wished life truly was and how the trials and tribulations of this world could be neatly wrapped up and concluded in a picture perfect ending, Dancer in the Dark is the mallet of a cold and cruel reality that is being alive in this world. There will be some good people in our lives, yes, but most of them will betray, abandon, and have complete apathy toward you. Trier creates dark visions of the world and while most of the time life isn't quite as Cruel as a Trier film, what he does is takes a cold hard look at reality and amplifies its cruelties and complete impartiality toward us as individuals. Dancer in the Dark isn't my favorite Trier film... I often am torn between Breaking the Waves, Dogville, and Melancholia for that title, but it might be his most complete and daring and how he subverts and completely turns the musical genre around on its head, is a true accomplishment.

There's no way Dancer in the Dark wouldn't make my list and no way it wouldn't be in the top 10, so I have it at a solid number six on my list. I was hoping it would be in the top 10, but a top 20 placing is respectable. Good call MoFo!

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Haven't seen Dancer in the Dark but The Blues Brothers was my #2 pick.