Product: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat [VHS] (2000)
Rating: 2.0
The dream is fading and I am alone!
I wanted SOOOO much to like this film. I think this is one of Webber's most memorable work with powerful, emotional melodies that grab at you and won't let go. As some other reviewers stated, it's the kind of music that burns into your brain and no matter how many times you hear it, it still impacts your emotions. And yes, the collaboration between Webber and Rice is perfect -- great melodies....some lilting, some deeply poinent, some jovial --- combined that with lyrics that are intellegent, witty and simply as clever as any Cole Porter ever penned. And yes, we can find many many musical aficanados who will swear that JOSEPH is the best of all of ALW's prolific compositions.That being said, how is it that we get THIS as the movie extrapolation? How is it that THIS winds up as the lackluster record that future generations will have of this beloved work? JOSEPH deserves MUCH better than this. We have PHANTOM OF THE OPERA; we have JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR; we have EVITA (flawed as it is). But what do we have for JOSEPH? Some thrown-together, almost amateurish, direct-to-video instead of a real movie designed specifically for the screen. Now I am not knocking the performances, but JOSEPH needed the SUPERSTAR treatment, not a filmed (er, VIDEO-ed) taping of the stage show. Now mind you, taking a stage production and converting it to the screen is by no means an easy task, especially with a musical, but it has been done very successfully before and specifically with Webber's other works (look, SUPERSTAR and OPERA). In the hands of a Norman Jewison or a Schumacher, one could only DREAM of what a magnificent film this could have been.Alas, what we got is this high-schoolish looking production which, as far as I know, has never even had a theatrical release in the USA. So I guess if you are content with watching this kind of thing on your tv set, all well and good, but after personally hoping for years that JOSEPH would eventually morph into a major, worthy motion picture production the quality of Jewison's SUPERSTAR, to be handed this instead....well, let's just say it's a big disappointment....the light is dimming and this dream is too.Then one can still say, this IS JOSEPH, and even Donny Osmond can't completely ruin it. And if it's all we got, then I guess it is what it is and I certainly wouldn't advise anyone NOT to see it, just don't expect to be wowed....except, of course, by the music and lyrics which will ALWAYS knock one's socks off.