The Music and the Dancing is What Matters

Rating: 6/10 (10 April 2019)

I was a teenager when I saw this movie and since I didn't go to a movie house very often in those days (even less now), of course the movie had an impact on me. But what I remember mostly from my perception back then was how great the music was and how the dancing was out of this world.
This said, I hadn't seen it since then and I wanted to watch it again with an adult perspective to review things properly. It might be unfair to judge Flashdance with our modern eyes since as an audience we are so much more sophisticated being deluged with special effects and amazing technical achievements in movies then we all were in the 1980's.
But even as a 15 year old and not knowing much of anything about editing or technical aspects of movie making, I remember that I instantly noticed that the dancing was not done by the same person. This is no big secret now and is even mentioned in the trivia here but Marine Jahan was the one who danced in most of the sequences that were supposed to be done by Jennifer Beals. I recall being startled at just how carelessly they had filmed Marine in medium shot with her face clearly visible in many segments inter cut with a few shots of Beals in close ups to maintain the illusion.
I also remember an award show in those days where they finally exposed the truth that Marine Jahan was the dancing double and she even performed a dance routine that blew me away. I can just imagine how frustrating it must have been for her not even being credited here or anywhere else for her work. Her dancing is amazing and I don't know why they couldn't use someone who could act the scenes as well as dance but I guess we're talking about a different era.
Today of course, they would find an actress who can dance or a dancer who can act and they do exist. This brings me back to the ultimate frustration I felt with this movie. Cynthia Rhodes has a small part as Tina Tech one of the dancers and I will never figure out why they didn't give her the lead part of Alex Owens. Not only was Rhodes gorgeous and an amazing dancer (her one big dancing scene is the highlight of the movie to me...) but she could also act. She deserved that part but I guess Beals had something that the producers preferred.
I have to say that I was disappointed in Jennifer's performance. For some reason, I didn't connect with her portrayal and even though she is the lead, the fact that I keep seeing someone else's face every time Alex dances pulls me out of the story which by the way, isn't much at all. Nothing really happens and except for the dance scenes which are spectacular, nothing else attracted my attention.
Which brings me to my final point. This is I think one of the very first movies that was truly made successful by the soundtrack. The music is of course the main star of this movie and on that front, they struck gold. Even today, those songs are so powerful that they uplift the so-so movie into the stratosphere.
So a 6 star rating felt fair because even though this is by means a great movie and should mostly be viewed as a collection of music videos, the dancing and the music makes it an enjoyable depiction of an era gone by and I for one can respect the fact that this became such a monster hit that it defined a whole generation.