Ranking Every Sondheim Movie Adaptation
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- čas přidán 24. 07. 2024
- Stephen Sondheim would have been 92 today. To celebrate I decided to rank all of his movie adaptations.
P.S. please ignore the little string that's on my shirt for half the video :(
Music:
Airport Lounge - Disco Ultralounge by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
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0:00 Introduction
1:43 A Little Night Music
5:12 Into the Woods
7:11 Gypsy
8:46 A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
10:35 West Side Story (2021)
18:01 Sweeney Todd
21:23 West Side Story (1961) - Zábava
I LOVED the new West Side Story: loved all the actors (aside for Elgort) and I actually really liked the changes made to the story, as I liked the fact that it's a lot more gritty than the original, mostly cause I think it pushes a lot more the violence inheritant to the original story. Once one thinks about it "Romeo and Juliet" truly is about a hate so terrible it literally kills the only thing that could salvage it: love. And I think this version really gets it: by the end of it, everyone has lost either a loved one or a part of themselves, and we don't even know tbh if the gangs will ever find peace, considering that there are really a few people hearing Maria's speech as opposed to the original movie where all the Jets and Sharks are there.
I also really liked the cinematography, with the cold colors coming in during the fights and gangs scenes and the warmer ones in the scenes concerning the lovers (both Tony and Maria and Bernardo and Anita). The dance scenes are just chef's kiss for me, especially the gym one where I also really loved how they differentiated the costumes' colors. Also really liked how they expanded on the characters' backstories and motivations... I don't know, I felt a lot more sorry for Chino and Riff in this version, the first being slowly dragged into revenge while starting out as a good person, the latter just being desperate enough to think he has nothing else but his gang. Last thing last I liked the new dialogues: I'm happy they didn't just copy pasted the old ones since some of them would be extremely dated, while still keeping the concepts intact and expanding on them (Anybody being a trans person, the police brutality...) and I like that they sprinkled in some more "Romeo and Juliet"'s references. I don't know, I just liked it a lot ^^'
Those are some good points. I think my main difference in opinion is I didn't prefer the dark, gritty tone as much as other people seemed to. It's not that it was bad but in those aspects (the fight scenes, etc.) I prefer the original. I had mixed feelings about the expanded backstories I think some worked better than others. I also saw an interview recently where David Alvarez pointed was comparing Bernardo being a boxer to Tybalt being a sword fighter which I thought was really interesting.
@@SilvanaLTD it's fair. I still think the original is a masterpiece, I just prefered the overall tone of the new one based on MY specific taste. I was also very pleased to see a remake that actually differentiated itself from the original one, this movie actually makes changes that are coherent with the old movie AND the play, so.. I like that as well
@@lunadiggorytennant yes so true! The worst thing would be if they had made the same exact movie with a new cast. I'm glad they made it it's own thing at the very least.
Happy Birthday Stephen Sondheim! Love this ranking!
I was going to watch a little night music actually because it's one of my favorite sondheim shows, thank you for saving me the time lol you should do a proshot ranking :)
I’ve only watched two Sondheim movies (West Side Story are on my list, though)
Into The Woods wasn’t a good adaptation. If my understanding of the stage version is right, the musical consists of songs in the first act, and reprises and callbacks in the second act. It would work on stage where you have an intermission to let the first act sit with you but not on screen when the movie has to keep chugging along with a limited time. The part after the wedding kind of feels tacked-on. I couldn’t blame the director because how exactly are you going to translate that to film?
With that said, there are a couple of things I did like. Cast is really great. Funny that James Corden can be good in a movie musical if he was given decent directions. The woods is really spot on. The decision to change the narrator to the baker is actually a good change, since they can’t get away with the stage’s version of the narrator anymore. Overall, I think this is just a case of the adaptation not knowing what to do and we just got the best case scenario.
I definitely agree with you that I couldn’t watch the gore of Sweeney Todd the first time. I got used to it over time. With that said, add this to the list of S-tier adaptations. Tim Burton and this musical fit each other like a glove. The gore is amazingly exaggerated and bright, especially with everything else being in muted colors. The cast may not have the best voice but they’re still amazing (Fun fact: Stephen Sondheim actually has the last say in casting for this movie. Tim Burton really wants his approval). This is clearly made by a fan of the musical and it shows.
Also, the chorus is very much for the stage version only, clearly just so the actors and the sets can clear the stage. I definitely didn’t mind them being removed from the movie.
Slightly off-tangent but i am curious about your thoughts on Tick, Tick… Boom. Sondheim himself made a cameo on that film and I’m curious about what you think of that movie
Yes totally agree with all of that. I didn't even think about the intermission but I remember sitting there amazed by the show the very first time I saw it and that time to digest definitely makes the shift in the second act hit you harder. It's a problem a lot of movie musical adaptations have since films tend to be written with a 3 act structure rather than the 2 acts of a stage show.
Also I looooooved tick tick...boom. totally made me cry and I've been listening to the music non stop since I saw it. Andrew Garfield was amazing and I love that it felt very much like it was made for musical fans.
oh boy i could talk about movie musical adaptations all day
i havent had the luck to watch any live performances of sondheim shows, but as an avid lover of musicals, especially movie musicals, i feel like your top three are definitely the best movies of the bunch. i do believe that the newest west side story is better than the original, at least in my view, mostly for how it feels like a complete movie rather than a stage show adaptation like the 1961 movie does, which has a lot more fantastic or experimental editing (like that weird but lovely spinning maria does before the cut to the dance at the gym) and feels smaller due to a more static camera (this was before the invention of the steadicam) and the overall smaller sets. what i love so much about the new movie is that i feel like spielberg and kushner really knew that this was some extremely rich material and, indeed, didnt want to stay with the text but also bring the subtext to the foreground. all characters feel a lot more complex and nuanced, and the new dialogue manages to convey a lot of info with very little. the added detail of tony having had some time in juvie, along with the theme of loss of innocence being passed to chino (my beloved) i felt worked wonderfully, mostly because i always felt that tony was an extremely dull character and easily the weakest part of the original movie. having him understanding the gravity of the situation with that scene with maria in the subway, telling her about what he did, his effort at learning spanish, all this made him a lot more likeable and made his death all the more tragic. i think im in the very small camp that thinks that, while elgort is just not that good of an actor, he was appropriate for tony for his general dancing skills and his ability to carry a tune. the original actor for tony felt bland; elgort at least gave me energy. the first time i watched it, i have to say i also felt really conflicted with the change they did with the cool scene: the original choreography was exquisite and, as weird as it was for all these people to just express their anger in a very expressionistic dance number, it made total sense for that movie. it would have made no sense for the new movie, though, which has a more realistic approach (while also keeping a few more subtle stylistic choices like some dramatic lighting, like the flares you mentioned, the color coordination, the very choreographed movement and precise dialogue...). the second time i watched the new cool scene tho, it really grew on me. again, giving tony more development over his conflict and especially more screentime between him and riff, who was the standout to me along with anita.... it was excellent. and the use of sets, across the whole movie, is just masterful. theres an artificiality to the places, but that has so much detail and care that i never felt like this was a recording of a stage musical. with the original movie there was a more expressionistic approach, with much brighter colors and less period details, feeling more like sets on a stage. oh and God, the one hand one heart scene... i think that must be my favorite song in the whole movie. rachel zegler is, for me, the ultimate maria. the best i can compare her to is josefina scaglione (an argentinean actress who played her in the last revival, who has a similar voice to rachel), and her casting was the one i was most excited to see. and the extra weight given to their first date at the cloister, keeping in mind that maria is catholic and, assuming tony has polish ancestry, is catholic too, they have that faith in common.... and the colorful glass shining on them.... and rachel zeglers absolutely angelic voice carrying elgorts softer voice along.... my father was almost sobbing. it was powerful to me, and it felt like it was what the original movie was missing in my opinion, a stronger bond between the two romantic leads. i do have to say that as much as i love the new version (nd i absolutely adore it, easily in my new top three movie musicals), with its perfect use of spanish (im a native spanish speaker from argentina, so i watched it with subtitles for the english scenes, and i felt it was perfectly normal and realistic), with the exploration of the conflict between class race and the police, and the great casting and cinematography and camerawork... the choreography in the original movie was just better. its the one thing i feel it was just better. i understand and enjoy the new cool scene but i do miss the passion and energy of the original scene. tho i think that the choreography and especially the set and blocking of the gee officer krupke scene in the new movie was masterful and better than the original by a long shot.
secondly (im so sorry) i am a big burton fan (even made two video essays on movies by him) but onoy last week finally sat down and watched sweeney todd -and i loved it. of course i did, i love these dark musicals and i love the art design and the cast seemed perfect and it just felt like a very natural choice. only thing that really bothered me, actually bothered me a lot. i hated johnny depps singing voice. people complay about russell crowe as javert, but at least javert wasnt the protagonist. what makes it worse is that depp has a perfect face for the role, being able to shift from furious to languid to catatonic with a little shift of the eyebrow and a glance of the eye, and his normal speaking voice has a gruffness and a quietness and an eventual raspiness that really sells the character.... but god, he cannot sing. i feel like helena bonham carter isnt that good of a singer but she knows how to use her wispy delicate voice and accent to her advantage. it was a pity, that the main actors performance took me out so badly.
oh and lastly, recently ive also watched into the woods. and i dont know, i think its just a great movie musical. maybe its not a good adaptation, but as a movie itself, i feel like its the best i could hope for (again, i havent seen the original show). the music is great, meryl streeps musical voice is better than ever, kendrick and blunt give their singing voices a lot of little quirks and personality and act their scenes masterfully, the costume design (made by colleen atwood, who made the costumes of sweeney todd!) and the art design is gorgeous, the blue tint that, at first, feels asphyxiating turns appropriately dreamy and gloomy as the movie progreses, the jokes all land, its probably the only musical on which james cordens performance feels truly good and well cast, and i felt like the theme slash message of lessons parents tell children came across quite well. only big issue, for me at least, is the script itself. some people i read complained about the tone but i felt it was like a fairytale itself, with its moments of dark comedy and sudden tragedy. my issue was with characters being abandoned or feeling a bit left out, like rapunzel (who, as the daughter of the witch, could have been so much more developed), the cowardy of the prince, the sudden responsability cinderella had to deal with with a baby, jack and red riding hood becoming orphans.... from a writing perspective it ends so open ended, it feels a bit disappointing.
lastly, thank u for reading this far (im sorry once more) and i urge you to watch this musical also made in the sixties which u might enjoy, has some similarities and even a direct reference to west side story: sweet charity. it has some great choreography and a lot of humor and heart. the movie is available on youtube tho without the music of one of the first musical numbers due to copyright or sth 😔
You're so right about the expressionistic approach of the 1961 movie. It does overall just feel more fantastical than the new version which I enjoyed, but I can see why other people prefer the newer approach. Also good point about Gee, Officer Krupke. I think that's the number in the original that most feels like a filmed performance rather than something done specifically for a movie and they definitely changed that in the new version. I think the story overall with the new additions felt heavier and a bit more cynical. I might have to watch it again to be sure on that but the weight given to everything in the new movie makes it feel a bit less hopeful in my opinions which could be a good or a bad thing depending on who you ask.
I guess I don't hate Depp's voice as much as you but I agree it's not the strongest especially for a pretty vocally demanding lead role like Sweeney. Luckily there are plenty of other filmed performances of Sweeney Todd you can find pretty easily online haha.
If you liked the Into the Woods movie, I definitely recommend watching the broadway version. I think it solves at least a few of the script issues you mentioned here.
I've seen the stage version of Sweet Charity (they did it at my college a few years ago) but I've never seen the movie. I'm a big Fosse fan though and know some of the behind the scenes stuff about it from watching Fosse/Verdon so I'll definitely put it on my list!
and never apologize for leaving long comments I'll read them all day :)
I took just enough Spanish in school that with captions on (with the written out Spanish, not a translation into english) I was able to understand the new west side story, and I liked the lack of subtitles. Give the audience the tiniest taste of what its like to follow a conversation in a language you don't know well. I guess i cheated but still...
Interesting thing you say about following a conversation in a language you don't know well. I guess I never thought about how some people aren't used to that because I grew up in a very multilingual family so it's very common to hear my cousins speak French or my mom speak Spanish or even when my family would speak Italian before I studied it and I'm also very aware of the immigrant side of things too since that's how it was when my dad came here and his family only spoke Italian. But yeah a lot of people take it for granted that they're just going to understand or even abroad that there will be someone around who speaks English.
I think the most disappointing part of the 'A Little Night Music' movie is that it's directed by legendary theatrical director and producer Hal Prince and has three of the stars from the OBC (Len Cariou, Hermoine Gingold, and Laurence Guittard) and somehow the transition from stage to screen just negated their great work (granted Gingold and Guittard both got their big songs cut too).
Honestly, with the amount of care and detail Hollywood puts into lush period pieces today, I would love them to remake this movie but I can't really see it happening considering the lack of interest in the show.
Yeah the dissonance between the stage and screen just makes it tragic.
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Video's only a day old and this is a small channel lol
I hated the Sweeney Todd movie and I can't understand why people love it so much. Great show, but I hated the movie personally