My problem with this movie, as well as the subsequent TV series, was its premise. As the title implies, it was a story about kids aspiring to become performing artists to achieve fame. But if you want to become an actor, musician or dancer in order to attain fame and fortune, aren't you in it for the all the wrong reasons?
It's usually the ones who are in it for fame and fortune are the ones who don't get anywhere.
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I've always had a problem with this setup and this was my era.
Thirty-plus years on, it seems like a lot of the teaching methods to me; it's a lot of stuff you won't ever need.
What do you have to know dance and method acting and singing for? You might as well have a class on juggling, sword-swallowing and tightrope-walking as well.
I just watched it after well over 20 years and it was all a lot of ballyhoo to me and I now think rather misleading if you were young and felt ambitious.
Wrong---that's the thing about show business---it's always better to know and have more than one talent---that way you're able to make a living at several different types of entertainment,and have a much longer career---even in this day and age. Also if you read posts by people who were actually students at the school when the film was made, they say the film is pretty close to what it was like in real life----except for the dancing in the street scene.
shareIf you read the trivia for the movie you will see the original title for the movie was Hot Lunch, until they realized there was a porn movie out at the time with the same name. The director says, according to the imdb trivia:
Alan Parker has said the title, is essentially, ironic as the film is really about failure, both personal and professional, chasing dreams and the cruel realities of show business.
You never get the feeling any of them are going to be the superstars they want to be, if they are lucky one or two at most will have some decent success.
As for your statement about it being for the wrong reasons, I don't get that, as people have a million reasons to do it, why is one better than the other? Guys join bands to get laid, girls want to model to be wanted, people want to act to get attention. Who cares, as long as they entertain us?
Guys join bands to get laid, girls want to model to be wanted, people want to act to get attention.
And those are the ones who never get any place. I remember when my older brother took up music (drums) as a way to get females, but was unable to attract because he played lousy.
"If you ever find that you're forcing yourself to practice, then you're being a musician for all the wrong reasons. They're so many people today who want to be rock and roll stars without being musicians."
-Keith Richard
Tell that to KISS, and thousands of other famous rock musicians who happily admitted they got into it for the girls. At least they were being honest!
shareThe "musicians' who played in KISS were never realy my idea of talented artists. And to say that there are "thousands of famous rock musicians" in the world is a gross exaggeration.
shareThough KISS is not my favorite group by any measure, they can play well, they perform like no one's business, and they are one of the most popular, successful, and well loved bands in the world. I don't know how you measure fame, but there are thousands and thousands all over the world. Every country has their own, plus each decade has had a ton of them as well. You only have to be moderately successful to be considered famous, and there have been tons of moderately successful groups. Here is just one list of 1000 rock groups:
http://rateyourmusic.com/list/noname219/top_1000_rock_artists/
I don't know where you come from, but here your band doesn't even have to be good for you to get girls, and from what I know that's always been the case.
To comment on the original post: I'm not a fan of the movie, either. To me, nothing in the movie rings true or honest. The only scene I genuinely like is when Irene Cara sings "Out Here on My Own."
ROTFL!! What do you know about what makes performers successful? You get your industry-wide "insight" from the amateur experience of your brother? Please.
I was in school with Glenn Close. She is ambition personified - absolutely driven by fame and success. She also had the talent to back it up. Two roommates of mine also did very well. They're both ambitious and talented - and much more decent humans than La Close. Then again, maybe you have to be as ruthless as she to get where she got.
If you think artists achieve recognition by just living for their art, you're laughably ignorant.
"I was in school with Glenn Close."
And I was in the boy scouts with Robert DeNiro. Lol
And you plainly haven't grown up since then.
shareJust like you're plainly detached from reality.
shareLOL! You take potshots b/c I mention being at William & Mary with Glenn Close? She graduated in '74. I entered in '73. She directed me in Ralph Roister Doister as part of her directing class that Fall semester. One of her closest friends on campus was a roommate of mine. What else do you need to know?
shareI graduated from Performing Arts the summer that they started to film the movie. This was a few years before Performing Arts merged with Music and Arts and moved to Lincoln Center. There were three majors. Music, dance, and drama. If you were a dancer, you practiced dance and had dance recitals. If you were a music major, you had band and orchestra concerts. If you were a drama student, you had an annual play. A person in one discipline was not required to learn the other disciplines. Piano students did have to learn a stringed instrument and visa versa.
Honestly, the one thing about the movie that bothered me was that it really was not about our desire to seek fame. We were all there because we loved our craft. Many of us wanted to pursue it for our career, but would be content to be in an orchestra or teach or be part of a dance
company.
I am sorry that so many of you hate the movie. You have to understand, though, that it took place 35 years ago which was a very different world from the world we have now. I can tell you that real life at PA was very close to Utopia for me and for many others. We were a very small school and a family. We were very close to our teachers. There was no graffiti, no drug abuse, no racial tension or violence. We were a much sweeter group of students then was portrayed in the movie. That said, I love the movie.