4 Jaw Chick said:
Didn't they already make a "Phantom of the Opera" film several years ago? I was sure there already was one.
Chickie.
Chick; this story has been done many times based on a turn of the century novel. Lon Chaney did a silent film version, Claude Raines(?) did a B horror version in the 50s. Until Andrew Lloyd Webber did his version it had been a horror film in the vein of Dracula, Frankenstein, The Blob, etc.
ALW wrote a magnificent score and reinterpreted it as a denied-love tragedy and it has been one of the most successful stage plays in the history of theater. Surely you know the music;
Phantom of the Opera, Music of the Night, Think of Me, All I ask of You, Primadonna, Masquerade, Angel of Music, Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again, Point of No Return,etc. He had threatened to make the movie version for a couple of decades but frustrated us Phans by doing nothing. Warner Bros. had the rights and evidently were screwing the thing up royally so ALW bought back the rights and produced it himself.
The movie is magical. People who saw the stage play with Sarah Brightman and Michael Crawford in the lead roles are grumbling that the new, relatively unknown cast don't do it as well as they did. I submit they do as good a job in the movie a the former stars did in the play. A stage musical depends almost solely on the singing voices of the actors to carry the load 'cause you can't see them act! Sarah and Michael were super in that medium. However in a movie, the actors need to act first and carry the music in the context of the emotion. I think if you see Michale Crawford's acting abilities in such block busters as Disney's "Condor Man", then you would appreciate Gerard Butler's masterful rendition of Phantom in this movie. The cast that ALW wound up with was powerful, all should be up for academy award in their category. Could they have pulled off a stage production; absolutely not. Could the stage cast done the job these guys did on the silver screen; not a chance.
When you get the chance, by all means see the stage production. Likewise, go see the movie. It is a powerful experience and you will be moved, I promise.
However if you go with a preconceived notion that this should have the look and feel of the stage play, stay home. It's a movie!!
If your idea of a great movie involves a constant stream of 4-letter words and explicit illicit sex, again stay home.
More than once...
