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I probably liked this more than most here. Maybe it's because it was constantly on tv, but I didn't have a problem with the number of characters. Sort of like high school IRL, you know of lots of kids in your class peripherally, but you don't really know their story beginning to end. My favorite part was the graduation scene. Loved the song, the choreo, the familiar faces in the audience, and the warm gold light in the auditorium. It was such a hopeful and joyous moment, but also heartbreaking because we know most of them will become struggling artists.

I've rented the remake (on Vudu) and will watch it tonight or tomorrow night.

I loved the Auditions. Everything felt so claustrophobic and desperate. In regard to Leroy, though, he’s only 14, right? I’m not sure how I feel about the dance teachers lusting after him like that.

I actually liked this just fine. I think there's a lot of energy in the performances and the direction. I think a major motion picture in 1980 having a prominent gay character or a white woman pursue an interracial relationship were a big deal at the time. But I can't deny that a lot of the major plot points come out of nowhere (except a lot of it is very stereotypical so it's not a total surprise). I get that major life changes can be unexpected but they seemed to all be out of nowhere. So, my primary complaint is that I want this to be longer. I'm kind of thinking of just watching the series now.

OK, my original theory fell through but I'll post this anyway. I was curious where "I Sing the Body Electric" came from. I knew this song and the Twilight Zone episode. I thought maybe they were related but they aren't. The original line is from a Walt Whitman poem. The original poem was untitled and didn't contain the line until a later edition. The Twilight Zone episode is about a widower hiring an electronic grandmother (a robot) to watch his kids. That's the IMDB synopsis. I haven't seen the episode so I don't know what happens. The song came from an idea the songwriter had. He remembered the line then wrote the rest of the first part on the way to a party.

I share your affection for it.

Baby we looked at you and we will tell you what we saw, We watched:

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Yes the auditions were my favourite bit, then the graduation. Ended and started high. It didn't occur to me until you mentioned it that they are suppose to be 14 at the start of the movie. That does change things.

To me it's in that classic situation of "Didn't hate it, but won't rewatch it, but will listen to the soundtrack." I was far from hating it. It was a solid "like." I just wished I could have been more connected to the characters which I felt would have come from cutting back on characters as well. I could also see this movie working more for me if the style was more like a documentary like the audition section at the beginning.

I have to say—after marinating on this for a couple of days—that this film had SO MANY “holy shit, that was out of left field” moments that I can’t easily think of any film to compare it to. one of my favorite WTF scenes was when Ralph appears to be giving a dramatic monologue and breaking down. The drama teacher wraps up the scene with something like “Careful Ralph, you want them laughing with you, not at you.” Then the scene ends with no sense of context on how to read any of this. Though it did make me laugh out of bewilderment.

I think this is important to show though. Of course it's terrible, but it happens all the time in real life to decent and likable people. The movie is showing that we can put so much emphasis on success and fame that even the best of us can be exploited by unscrupulous people. I'm not sure if it would have been as effective had it been another character.

So when the movie was done I was left with the question, "Did I enjoy that?" It's been a day and I'm still not sure I know the answer to it. I know it wasn't bad but I'm not sure if I enjoyed it or not. I think that's largely due to the movie jumping between all the characters. They wanted to show you all these different students and their stories and their lives but at a certain point this movie becomes the Ralph, Doris, and Montgomery story. Their story takes up most of the running time. The only problem with that is because you spend so much time with them we just kinda drop in on the other kids at their most dramatic. The other students don't really seem to have any clear end or middle or beginning to their stories. The closest to a full story outside of the main three is Doris. She shows up and states her intention to sleep with Leroy. she sleeps with him, she gets an abortion. Yet you have Bruno and Coco and their thing that goes nowhere, and it end of Coco being sexually assaulted. I get it because "these things" happen but next thing you know she's happy at graduation. It's just weird. Also there is electronic music at graduation so I guess Bruno won in his struggle with the teacher again this storyline just kinda left unresolved. Part of me wishes we saw more of everybody else or at least show us less and focus more on the core three. This sort of imbalance left me just a bit confused and frustrated.

I feel like I may be in the minority here, but I really enjoyed this movie. I liked how it followed these characters all the way through from audition to graduation, but left their future in limbo. The fact that we know that most of these characters are not going to succeed beyond their four years at this school, but they can still "Sing the Body Electric"-- turns a future of uncertainty into a moment of triumph.

Anyway, this was a VERY close vote for me, but ultimately I went with no. I think it's a quality film, well-made and engaging. Stylistically it does seem to have been an influence on later work, but at the same time I find it hard to disentangle this from the influence coming from a bunch of other movies from the same year: Bonnie and Clyde, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and Midnight Cowboy. Seems like collectively all of these films had a big influence on the subsequent decades, and if we have those on the list already, do we need this one too? I guess the big stylistic difference here is the use of slow-motion violence, but honestly . . . that goes all the way back to Kurosawa and Seven Samurai. One argument in its favor would be that it's the only Peckinpah. True, though I'm not sure Sam Peckinpah quite rises to the level of a filmmaker that absolutely HAS to be represented. It's nice if he is, but not a requirement. Is it the best "revisionist" Western that actively forces audiences to confront the violence inherent to the genre? I think you can make an argument that it is, but for me this film's take on the idea has since been eclipsed by Unforgiven, which IMO feels like a much more laser-focused critique than the relatively scattershot thematic approach in The Wild Bunch. So I think we keep that and let this one go. This is something I could change my mind on in the future!

the website, updated yesterday, is already out-of-date 1/30 - The Apartment 2/6 - Oscars preview! 2/10 - BONUS post-Oscars breakdown 2/13 - The Sound Of Music

I was curious so I made a list of the remaining 21 movies: 3. Casablanca 36. The Bridge on the River Kwai 40. The Sound of Music 45. Shane 46. It Happened One Night 47. A Streetcar Named Desire 48. Rear Window 49. Intolerance 54. MASH 56. Jaws 61. Sullivan's Travels 63. Cabaret 73. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid 78. Modern Times 80. The Apartment 82. Sunrise 84. Easy Rider 87. 12 Angry Men 92. Goodfellas 97. Blade Runner 98. Yankee Doodle Dandy

I feel like this belongs here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cUNU8GkMso