Here's another from my list, No.24, that I am really, really surprised to see not make the Top 100.
It was the second-highest grossing film of 1951 and The New York Times called it, "so magnificent in so many ways". I'm chalking this up to, like Cabin In The Sky, maybe people somehow just haven't seen it (?) but when I was young every household had a copy of the soundtrack (on vinyl, of course) and it was on TV frequently and everybody alive knew this song:
(The quality of the videos of this on YouTube lend credence to my theory that maybe this film has just fallen into the cracks of History.)
Might be an interesting watch for fans of Classical Musicals (as we seem to be calling them in this thread).
As people have started with those from their lists that won't make it, I have to ask, who also had The Wicker Man (1973) on their list? It was the first time I've ever done the 1 point thing and I did it specifically for that film. But it wasn't in the 1 pointer list, so someone else must've had it. Who are you, you wonderful, likeminded genius?
I love The Wicker Man it just never would have occurred to me in my wildest dreams that it would be thought of as a Musical?
one comment. only one. please don't reply to this comment.
just putting it here because it is about music(als).
please please please check out the clip i posted in the actors and actresses forum today. it's literally 10 seconds, and thinking about it literally sheds a tear from my eye in what I can only describe as wonder.
from someone who could not possibly be astonished again, I am astonished, in fact listening to it again I am literally shocked. do take a moment to listen.
As people have started with those from their lists that won't make it, I have to ask, who also had The Wicker Man (1973) on their list? It was the first time I've ever done the 1 point thing and I did it specifically for that film. But it wasn't in the 1 pointer list, so someone else must've had it. Who are you, you wonderful, likeminded genius?
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs doesn't register as a musical in my mind after the first segment, even though there's at least three or four diegetic singing bits I can think of (Tom Waits singing coming in and leaving in his segment. The Molly song starting off The Mortal Remains, as well as Gleeson's rendition of The Unfortunate Lad). It seems unfair given something I did put on my ballot, but that movie I did put, just doesn't make sense in my mind if I don't view it partially as a musical (maybe it has something to do with the convention of the musical number in westerns vs that not being a common practice in horror movies).
*cough* #11 of 18. on my ballot
I'd say, if you tell someone The Wicker Man is a musical going in, and they're hoping for a musical, they'll probably be disappointed. But going in, not realizing it could be classified for a musical, it really threw me for a loop in terms of the tone that was going on. Just so much singing. If it was only of the very normal, diegetic type, such as, the Landlord's Daughter in the pub, one wouldn't think much of it beyond scene setting. But then you have Britt Eckland singing Willow's Song in a non-diegetic fashion, and things just go off in my brain. Throw in the framing of the performer of Summerisle (the Maypole Song), which centers on the singer for so much of the song. It's somewhat conventional in classic hollywood where they're trying to show off a female lead. Or acting as a guest star musical performer (which maybe this was as well), but it shifts the focus of the film away from the usual narrative to the performer in the way a musical does.
And, like I said, my brain just needs to accept that the movie is part-musical. Some of this might be due to expected conventions of the genre, since, say, Rio Bravo or Three Amigos, you expect usually about a single song where reality breaks for a musical interlude. But here were getting multiple cases of either non-diegetic or non-diegetic feeling musical performances (technically, the Maypole Song would be considered non-diegetic, but feels framed non-diegetically).
Throw in the establishing song scene, Fire Leap
Probably comparable to the intercutting of performances in Cabaret between the nightclub musical pieces and the scene occurring outside the music club.
That's just too many to write off as something other than a musical (the one caveat in Fire Leap and The Maypole Song is the song isn't taken to completion, as they continue on in the background of the following scene).
I could also include the song at the end, but that's just too diegetic, and audibly isn't the focus of the scene.
Oh, and so, with the other songs, it's hard not to then retro-actively include The Landlord's Daughter as musical performances:
I don't think I've even seen any of the films revealed since my last visit and I have no plans to change that in the future.
I did have Repo on my list at #11. I saw it a couple of times a long time ago and enjoyed it a lot both times. More than I thought I would, actually.
As people have started with those from their lists that won't make it, I have to ask, who also had The Wicker Man (1973) on their list? It was the first time I've ever done the 1 point thing and I did it specifically for that film. But it wasn't in the 1 pointer list, so someone else must've had it. Who are you, you wonderful, likeminded genius?
I've always thought of The Wicker Man as a musical (and so did its director, if Wikipedia is to be believed) but of course also horror/mystery/thriller (and a little comic). I think that one of the ways in which the movie is so effectively creepy is the interpolation of these local folk songs into what is essentially a horror/mystery/thriller, because the songs themselves sound typically charming and, well, folksy, but of course if you listen closely the songs tell you more unconventional and even sinister things about the island and its people. So yeah, musical, but subordinated to horror and mystery.
I did strongly consider putting it on my list, but couldn't decide where to put it (as a movie it's top 5, as a musical maybe 20-25?) and ultimately left it off altogether.
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