Chicago

Director: Rob Marshall
Screenplay: Bill Condon (based on the musical Chicago by Bob Fosse, and Fred Ebb, based on the play by Maurine Dallas Watkins)
Stars: Renée Zellweger (Roxie Hart), Catherine Zeta-Jones (Velma Kelly), Richard Gere (Billy Flynn), Queen Latifah (Matron “Mama” Morton), John C. Reilly (Amos Hart), Taye Diggs (Bandleader), Lucy Liu (Kitty Baxter), Christine Baranski (Mary Sunshine), Colm Feore (Assistant District Attorney Martin Harrison), Deirdre Goodwin (June), Dominic West (Fred Casely)
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Year of Release: 2002
Country: U.S.
Chicago Blu-ray
Chicago

Originally staged in 1975 and successfully revived in 1996, Chicago is probably the most cynical musical to ever hit Broadway. Its wicked combination of sex, media satire, and moral pessimism didn’t play well during the era of Vietnam and Watergate, maybe because it hit a little too close to home. Now, in the era of reality television, 24/7 news coverage of political scandals, and the media oversaturation of circus trials, it seems positively tame, although its sharp jabs at American “justice” and the fickle nature of fame still maintain a relevant bite. Nevertheless, it now plays as almost pure parody, more outright comedy than bitter satire.

Set during the blustery heyday of the late ’20s jazz era, which is suggested largely through dark, smoky interiors, rather than lavish exterior shots, Chicago tells the story of Roxie Hart (Renée Zellweger), an apple-cheeked blonde ingénue with dreams of making it big on the stage. Married to a naïve, sad-sack mechanic named Amos (John C. Reilly), Roxie wants nothing more than to be famous. When she finds out the furniture salesman with whom she’s been having an affair lied when he told her knew people who could get her an audition, she responds by shooting him dead. And, guess what? Her dream comes true: She becomes famous, but not in the way she expected.

She hires attorney Billy Flynn (Richard Gere), an expensive smooth operator who has never lost a case for a female client and has the ego to prove it. His strategy: Let the trial play out in the media first, so that by the time it gets to the courtroom, it’s already a done deal. Flynn gets Roxie’s picture splashed across the front page of every major newspaper, turning her into a media sensation to the point that housewives are emulating her peroxide flapper haircut.

This is the same strategy Flynn is using for Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones), a dark and brooding stage queen who is in the slammer for shooting dead her unfaithful boyfriend and her sister, with whom he was cheating. Velma is everything Roxie wants to be: famous—or infamous, as the case may be. But, as these things go, Roxie soon finds herself in the limelight as the next big thing, while Velma is pushed aside as yesterday’s news, which highlights one of Chicago’s most incisive insights: the fleeting nature of fame—how the audience isn’t interested in long-lasting celebrity, but rather in discovering someone new, no matter how superficial. Not surprisingly, Roxie, once a docile little thing, gets a big head, which is always a sure sign that she’s on her way to a downfall.

The performers, none of whom had sung or danced on screen before, are all up to the task. Catherine Zeta-Jones, who got her start in chorus lines, clearly relished her vampish role as Velma. Her opening number, “All That Jazz,” is a breathy, ultra-sexy number that establishes her character and the film’s overall tone in one fell swoop. Renée Zellweger demonstrates a nice range in playing Roxie, as she takes the character from a desperate nobody to a hotheaded somebody and back again, without ever completely losing audience sympathy despite her generally loathsome behavior. Richard Gere, who got his start singing and dancing on stage in the ’70s, captures the essence of Billy Flynn, whose signature song “Razzle Dazzle” sums up his approach to his job and life. However, it is Queen Latifah, who plays the tough and corrupt warden in the all-female prison in which Roxie and Velma spend their days, who steals virtually every scene she’s in. Her rousing rendition of “When You’re Good to Mama” in the best number in the film.

A movie version of Chicago has floated around Hollywood for a number of years, with no one ever quite being able to nail exactly how to make the transition from stage to screen. Unorthodox in tone and subject matter, a direct translation wouldn’t have suited it, particularly in an era when straight musicals are generally unpopular with audiences. It took choreographer Rob Marshall, who directed the 1999 television version of the musical Annie, to figure it out: Rather than making the musical numbers cinematic, he decided to emphasize their staginess by keeping them on-stage as fantasy sequences in Roxie’s mind. For half the time, Chicago plays like a conventional movie; but, when the music kicks in, it returns to its theatrical roots, with the Bob Fosse-inspired musical numbers taking place on a dark, nearly bare stage bathed in inky hues of red and blue.

Visually separating the musical numbers from the rest of the narrative was a slick idea, as it allows Chicago to be two things at once. Not bound by the conventions of the screen, Marshall can indulge his Broadway roots by making the musical numbers as stagy as he wants, which ultimately works to the film’s advantage. As Baz Luhrman knew when he made Moulin Rouge (2001), modern musicals need a hook, something that differentiates them from the big-budget movie musicals like The Sound of Music (1965) that dominated the 1960s. Selling song and dance to an audience raised on MTV was no small feat, even when the story you are telling has all the requisite sex and violence and cynical humor that fuels so much of the modern entertainment machine.

Chicago is thus both direly old-fashioned and almost radically postmodern, reinventing the movie musical as a flashy parade of skin and sin interjected into a taut little story about the corrupting power of the media and the willingness of some people do anything—anything—to save their own skin and get famous in the process.

Chicago 20th Anniversary Limited Edition Steelbook Blu-ray

Aspect Ratio1.85:1
Audio
  • English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 surround
  • Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 surround
  • English: Dolby Digital 5.1 surround
  • SubtitlesEnglish
    Supplements
  • Audio Commentary by director Rob Marshall and screenwriter Bill Condon
  • “Bringing Chicago to Life: Adapting the Broadway Musical to Film” featurette
  • “Developing the Screenplay: Collaborating with Bill Condon” featurette
  • “Casting the Movie: Finding Actors Who Can Sing and Dance” featurette
  • “The Extended Cast: The Great Dancers of Chicago” featurette
  • “Rehearsals: The Best of Times” featurette
  • “Rob Marshall: Born to Direct” featurette
  • “Marty Richards: In Remembrance” featurette
  • “Neil Meron and Craig Zadan: Renowned Musical Producers” featurette
  • “The Magicians Behind the Camera: Colleen Atwood - Dion Beebe - John Myhre” featurette
  • “The Best of Broadway: The Choreographers” featurette
  • “The Director’s Cut: Musical History is Made” featurette
  • “The 75th Academy Awards: And the Oscar goes to …” featurette
  • “The 85th Academy Awards: A Walk Down Memory Lane” featurette
  • “The Relevance and Impact: The Aftermath of the Modern Day Musical” featurette
  • Extended Musical Performances: “And All That Jazz,” “When You’re Good to Mama,” “Cell Block Tango,” “We Both Reached For The Gun,” “Mister Cellophane,” “All I Care About,” “All I Care About” with Richard Gere, “Nowadays” with Renée Zellweger, “And All That Jazz” with Catherine Zeta-Jones, “I Can’t Do It Alone” rehearsal, “Nowadays/Hot Honey Rag” rehearsal, “We Both Reached For The Gun” rehearsal, “Cell Block Tango” rehearsal
  • DistributorParamount Home Entertainment
    Release DateFebruary 7, 2023

    COMMENTS
    This 20th Anniversary Steelbook version of Chicago is a repackaging of the 2014 Diamond Edition Blu-ray. And, while it would have been nice to have the film in 4K UHD (maybe they are waiting for the 25th Anniversary?), the transfer on this disc still holds up quite well. This Blu-ray was one of the early transfers to utilize Dolby Vision, which at the time couldn’t really be enjoyed because viewers didn’t have compatible equipment. Nearly a decade down the road we can now enjoy the full spectrum of vibrant hues in the transfer, ranging from blood reds to inky blues, and it all looks wonderful. The image is nicely detailed with strong contrast and a good sheen of grain to give it texture, which looks very good in-motion. As good as the image is, where the disc really shines is the Dolby TrueHD 7.1-channel soundtrack, which makes the standout musical numbers shine to their fullest. The soundtrack is immersive and highly detailed in its depth and directionality, bringing you into scenes both mundane and fantastical. All the supplements are, of course, the same, including the audio commentary by director Rob Marshall and screenwriter Bill Condon and Chicago in the Spotlight: A Retrospective With Cast and Crew, which is a two-and-a-half-hour retrospective documentary composed of 13 featurettes: “Bringing Chicago to Life: Adapting the Broadway Musical to Film,” “Developing the Screenplay: Collaborating with Bill Condon,” “Casting the Movie: Finding Actors Who Can Sing and Dance,” “The Extended Cast: The Great Dancers of Chicago,” “Rehearsals: The Best of Times,” “Rob Marshall: Born to Direct,” “Neil Meron and Craig Zadan: Renowned Musical Producers,” “The Magicians Behind the Camera: Colleen Atwood - Dion Beebe - John Myhre,” “The Best of Broadway: The Choreographers,” “The Director’s Cut: Musical History is Made,” “The 75th Academy Awards: And the Oscar goes to …,” “The 85th Academy Awards: A Walk Down Memory Lane,” and “The Relevance and Impact: The Aftermath of the Modern Day Musical.” Then there are a bunch of extended musical performances: “And All That Jazz,” “When You’re Good to Mama,” “Cell Block Tango,” “We Both Reached For The Gun,” “Mister Cellophane,” “All I Care About,” “All I Care About” with Richard Gere, “Nowadays” with Renée Zellweger, “And All That Jazz” with Catherine Zeta-Jones, “I Can’t Do It Alone” rehearsal, “Nowadays/Hot Honey Rag” rehearsal, “We Both Reached For The Gun” rehearsal, and “Cell Block Tango” rehearsal. All together it is a nearly exhaustive look at the film’s production and reception.

    Copyright © 2023 James Kendrick

    Thoughts? E-mail James Kendrick

    All images copyright © Paramount Home Entertainment

    Overall Rating: (3.5)




    James Kendrick

    James Kendrick offers, exclusively on Qnetwork, over 2,500 reviews on a wide range of films. All films have a star rating and you can search in a variety of ways for the type of movie you want. If you're just looking for a good movie, then feel free to browse our library of Movie Reviews.


    © 1998 - 2024 Qnetwork.com - All logos and trademarks in this site are the property of their respective owner.