SEE THIS MOVIE!

Moview Review.

In 1974 Brian De Palma had not yet made "Carrie", "Scarface" or "The Untouchables". In 1974 glam rock, death metal, goth rock and Webber's "Phantom" were years away.

But in this year Brian De Palma's musical "Phantom of the Paradise" was unleashed on a world that turned a cold shoulder to its biting, social commentary and deadly serious theme disguised behind glitter and great music. This sort of film would have been lauded if had been made after say, 1983, but it was absolute cutting edge for '74. It prophetically features a whirl of music sub genres that would explode in the following years, the intensity and nearly religous/satanic devotion of music fans and properly skewers the media, in this instance focusing in on the sweating, swine-like grotesqueness of a pop music industry machine.

The story is a brilliant fusion of the book "Phantom of the Opera" by Gaston Leroux and Christopher Marlowe's "Dr. Faustus". It is updated to be set in the 70's, but is timelessly true for our ever so corrupt world.

I don't want to spoil anything for someone who has not seen it. I went into this expecting something like the "Rocky Horror Picture Show" (which came out a year later) but where "Picture Show" is so bad it's good, this movie is just plain good.

An idealistic and talented songwriter auditions for the opening of the new rock theatre "The Paradise". He is told he is the one they are looking for, but in reality his thick sheaf of sheet music is all they're after. What follows is the bitter fall of this songwriter and the subsequent out of control machinations of a betrayed and broken soul. There is no hero, only anti-heroes. Each character is tainted by evil at a different level and thus makes for a fascinating, if grim, study of human nature. Perhaps the most shocking thing is seeing a main character, an anti-hero who has many of the same physical features as Darth Vader down to the breathing, costume, etc, but years before Star Wars went into production and was released! George Lucas you have an uncredited source!! And I know Vader's features were not nailed down until very shortly before shooting that film!

All of this is framed between amazing musical numbers that span nearly every genre of music, some that barely or just did not plain exist at the time.

Really this film is a must for any fan of music or a fan of classic literature!!

**by the way all of this site is copyrighted Emily McQuillan.