Movie Freak.com Review

Fame (1980) (Blu-ray)

Warner Home Video || R || Jan 26, 2010

SYNOPSIS

Four years in the life of the New York School for the Performing Arts, students driving to achieve their dreams in disciplines a minute few ever find success in.

CRITIQUE

I’ve never quite understood the fascination with director Alan Parker’s 1980 musical motion picture Fame. While there is certainly drama to be found in the ups and downs of High School students going through four years of trials and tribulations trying to make stars (in music, dance and acting) of themselves, the majority of the melodrama is layered on so thick I find it difficult to care about any of them all that much. More than that, the structure of the film (broken into the four years, Freshman, Sophomore, Junior and Senior) is so broad and its cast of characters so large I never got the opportunity to know any of the students as well as I’d have liked to, and by the time it was over I didn’t know that much more about any of them than I did during their initial audition.

Not that there aren’t moments of sublime inspiration making watching it border on worthwhile. The film’s semi-signature moment in the school cafeteria where the students break out into musical euphoria is admittedly inspiring, while a scene where a student breaks it to one of her students that she just doesn’t have the talent to find success as a dancer ripples in tragic poignancy.

In the end, though, I don’t know enough about these kids to care if one gets pregnant. I don’t know enough that one of them coming out gay doesn’t mean as much as it probably should. I don’t know enough to care when one of them takes her turn on a seedy filmmaker’s casting couch. All these elements frustratingly feel more like plot devices even if all of them have documented basis in reality, and as much as I respect Parker and writer Christopher Gore from not shying away from them (unlike the glossy 2009 remake) none carry as much weight as they arguably should.

It doesn’t help that some portions (like the absurd dancing-in-the-streets montage set to the Oscar-winning title track) haven’t aged very well, or that the 133-minute movie is paced so slowly I wanted to take nap during the middle of it. But the big problem, again, is that the whole thing felt like individual snapshots and not like individual stories to me, and even watching it again this second time I had trouble appreciating the film’s better moments mainly because I felt no connection to the kids or to their stories.

On the plus side, it is better then that aforementioned remake, and it’s nice to see young stars like Robocop and “E.R.” standout Paul McCrane in their first roles. I also like that Parker doesn’t gloss here, that he and his writer choose to look at the underbelly, ultimately making a tragic drama that doesn’t celebrate the world of the arts as much as it pities the youngsters who feel driven to find success within it.

None of which is enough for me to recommend the film, however, and it’s two Academy Award wins aside this has never been a movie I’ve been able to understand the fascination behind. It just doesn’t work as far as I’m concerned, Fame an intriguing R-rated curiosity piece and nothing really any more than that.

THE VIDEO

Fame is presented in 1.85:1/1080p widescreen. I have to give Warner Bros. credit here because there transfer of the MGM favorite looks far better than I’d expected it to. Michael Seresin’s cinematography has a hard, documentary-like edge and the studio has done a fine job preserving that, and while things here aren’t entirely perfect they come just close enough I simply must salute those who processed this title for high definition for doing an excellent job.

THE AUDIO

Available audio includes English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD, English Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish 2.0, French 2.0, German 2.0 and Italian 1.0 tracks with optional English SDH, Spanish, French, Bahasa, German, Chinese, Italian and Korean subtitles.

THE EXTRAS

Special features are all ported over from the previous standard definition release and include a rather excellent Audi Commentary featuring director Parker and co-stars Lee Curreri, Laura Dean, Gene Anthony Ray and Maureen Teelfy and comes with a new branching option allowing from video behind-the-scenes highlights that are actually kind of cool.

Other extras include the Vintage Featurette “On Location with Fame,” the “Fame Field Trip” feature following Parker as he returns to the actual school that inspired the movie and the film’s Original Theatrical Trailer.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Fame is a movie I’ll never understand the popularity of. While riskier and more challenging than the failed 2009 remake, the film still doesn’t connect enough to its characters to make caring for any of them possible. Probably deserving of a rental, as nice as this Blu-ray presentation if I was to be totally truthful I’d probably be telling people to give this one a pass.

VERDICT: RENT IT