Movie Musical at its Finest

Rating: 9/10 (5 March 2015)

​Singin' in the Rain, directed by Stanley Lockwood and Gene Kelly may be a tad bit out of date now, but it is still a must see classic musical. It defines a period in film history when musicals were very positive as it was done purposely for audiences to be entertained and get away from the harsh realities of the outside world. The music is timeless with many people being able to know the songs without even seeing the actual movie. The choreography was excellently done and the acting should be commended. My only complaint with the film is that many of the songs did not have anything to do with furthering the plot, and that a lot of the scenes are outdated, but either way this movie is still arguably one of the best film musicals of all time. It is for that reason that this film is well- worth watching. ​Singin' in the Rain is a musical comedy about film productions switching from silent films to ones with sound. Some actors in the movie have an easy time transitioning to sound like movie star Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly), while others have a pretty tough time like Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen). Afraid that Lina might ruin the film production company's latest film with her incredibly displeasing-sounding voice, the company decides to use Kathy Selden's (Debbie Reynolds) voice instead for Lina. The performance by all the actors and actresses were outstanding in my opinion, but Jean Hagen stood out the most to me. Her voice did not sound that bad in real life. The fact that she made her voice sound like that to make the audience laugh at her and like her character even if she was an awful person in the film shows how well she played her character. Another performance I found very entertaining was Donald O'Connor's portrayal of Don's friend Cosmo. His performance was very comical and his dance numbers in the film were exceptional. "Make 'em Laugh" was one of my favorite songs in the whole movie because of how well O'Connor danced in it. These two performances in my opinion out-shined all the others in this film. ​A key element to this film is its soundtrack. Like most musicals, the soundtrack obviously plays a pivotal part in it. What's so great about this film's soundtrack is that is able to stand the test of time even after sixty years of its release in theaters. Songs like "Good Morning", "Make 'em Laugh", and of course "Singin' in the Rain" are all classics. Most people who have never seen this movie can recognize at least one of these songs because they are still used in pop-culture today. The only issue I have with the soundtrack is that many other songs have nothing to do with the film's plot and they are there for more entertainment purposes. Songs like "Moses Supposes" have very little with the actually plot of the movie. Musicals now in recent history usually use their songs for plot purposes and it goes along with the film. This just shows how times in the film industry have changed. Back when this film was released the two main genres that people went to go watch were film-noirs and musicals. Film-noirs showed the corruption of society and were very much negative. Musicals were the polar opposites at the time as people went to go see them to be entertained and get away from all of the negative aspects. Singin' in the Rain does just that. It's very entertaining with not many serious topics at all discussed. I think that this might be my only issue because I myself am from a different generation of films where many films, even musicals, have more serious tones. Nonetheless, the soundtrack of this film is timeless and really represents the time period in which the film was released. ​In conclusion, I highly recommend watching Singin' in the Rain. Even if one is not a fan of musicals, they should watch it anyway for its nostalgia. A lot of the scenes are outdated as the effects are not the greatest and the lines are cheesy at points, but it is still a great movie to see. The performances by the cast were great and so was the soundtrack. It is hard not to finish watching this film without having the tune of at least one song from the film stuck in your head. ​