Fan Rant: Generation 'Fame'...

Fan Rant: Generation 'Fame'

Category: Film/Movie
Posted 5 months ago by wdweditorial
Credit: http://www.cinematical.com/2009/07/26/fan-rant-gener
Just before I get started I want to make one thing perfectly clear: this fan rant has nothing to do with me hating remakes in principle. Instead, this rant is about fame (as a movie and a concept) and a disturbing trend I noticed in the marketing for the shiny new Fame hitting theaters this fall. So let's start at the beginning, shall we? I was surfing channels whey I first happened across the latest trailer for the musical update that does a little cross-promotion with the boy-wizard, Harry Potter. So as I sat there watching this bizarre combination of Hogwarts and The School of Performing Arts, it occurred to me that this trailer seemed to almost being equating 'fame' with magic. This new version of Fame seemed to have none of the pain, suffering, and sacrifice (except of the mildest teen-angst ways imaginable) of the original -- and that's when I started to get a little ticked. Alan Parker's Fame was a part of a larger trend in the late 70s and 80s to make 'grittier' musicals (along with films like A Chorus Line or Fosse's All That Jazz) that took the "let's put on a show" tradition of musicals and revealed all of it's flaws and the screwed-up people who inhabited the business of making fantasy. What made Fame (1980) such a stand-out for me as a young girl was that suddenly the idea of stardom didn't seem so great. Instead, it became a deal with the devil, and Parker's film seemed to keep that idea under the surface of the uplifting finale and songs about lunch programs. After the jump: why a Fame remake has me so worked up, and a glimpse of the film that started it all... Filed under: Music & Musicals, MGM, Fandom, Movie Marketing, Remakes and Sequels, Fan Rant, Trailers and Clips Continue reading Fan Rant: Generation 'Fame' Permalink | Email this | Comments
Related Links: Kay Panabaker, Debbie Allen, Irene Cara, Naturi Naughton, Walter Perez, cinematical.com
Fan Rant: Generation 'Fame'
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See Also: Kay Panabaker News :: Debbie Allen News :: Irene Cara News :: Naturi Naughton News :: Walter Perez News ::
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posted by Johnny Lagoon
Obamazied, Twitterized, and Homogenized into it`s safe PG-13 millenial MySpace demographic, there will be no lines of dialogue accusing God of being an idiot or Santa Claus of being a thief, no tears of rage about the horrors perpetrated on a gifted child because of the consuming evils of poverty and violent parental jealousy, no crucifix flung in the face of a priest, no angry monologue about trying to come to terms with the violent suicide of a Hollywood star, no snuffing out of potential through the grinding wheels of the business and the self-destruction that lurks at the center of the American Dream. So have a ball...because that`s about as close to ballsy as your ever gonna get.
posted 4 months ago


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