The Music Man

Rating:
Summary: Awesome
Review: I hate all musicals. Except this one. It's great. Best ever. Awesome songs,great acting. 5 stars.

Rating:
Summary: THE FILM THAT DESTROYED ROBERT PRESTON!
Review: I hate a musical - with 3 or 4 exceptions. This being one of them. Con man Harold Hill (seamlessly played by Robert Preston), invades SmallTown, and makes them come alive with his promise of a "Boys Band". Of course the boys' parents must come apart from thier money and give it to Professor Harold Hill. Madame Librarian - who teaches piano - spots him right off, and a romantic game of cat and mouse ensues. Once exposed, the townspeople threaten him with tar and feathers. Guess who comes to the rescue. Then theres a little magic in the air. Musical highlights include TROUBLE, and 76 TROMBONES. A library dance scene reminds me of THE GREASE (starring John Travota). Oh yes.About the headline: Preston's convincing performance type-casted him for over twenty years. Destitute and alcoholc, he finally rose from the grave starring in STARSHIP TROOPERS - in which he plays a cosmic recruiter!

Rating:
Summary: The Music Man In All It's Technicolor Glory
Review: I must admit to being dumbfounded by Andrew's remarks concerning the quality of the DVDimage. For a film made in 1962 it's spectacular. Filmed in the Technirama wide-screen process, the negative ran sideways in the camera (similar to VistaVision) and provided an incredibly sharp image. I did not see any of the video problems Andrew described. The Soundstage was fine with the orchestrations very nicely done. Preston, Jones, Ford et al were having the time of their lives and it shows. Although the direction by Morton DaCosta is somewhat "stagey" the film is still a joy.

Rating:
Summary: A few things Amazon hasn't noted in their listings
Review: This DVD is a treasure - and if you are considering purchasing it, here are a few things the Amazon write up has left out.

First of all, it IS 16x9 enhanced [widescreen anamorphic] - which makes a big difference when viewing on the correct widescreen type of TV.

There is a new introduction by Shirley Jones to the movie, which for some obscure reason cannot be skipped while playing the disc, you must go into the menu and then select the chapter with the beginning of the movie if you want to avoid it. [Nothing major, just an annoyance.] As nice as the intro is, it adds nothing to the release that the documentary [mentioned below] already covers.

The "making of" documentary itself is quite good - with all sorts of terrific information on the film and how it was made. Finally you get to understand the reason why Shirley looked a little different throughout the film. ;)

Two trailers are included, one is the reissue one for the film, plus a trailer for Meredith Wilson's other filmed musical - MGM's "The Unsinkable Molly Brown."

Summing it up, this is a wonderful classic that got a terrific and very caring transfer to DVD. Kudos to the staff at Warner's for putting in so much effort to give us a definitive presentation of this delightful movie.

Rating:
Summary: A WONDERFULLY PRODUCED MUSICAL CLASSIC ON DVD!
Review: I have always loved this musical. The storyline for the film, as well as the musical score is virtually unchanged from the orignal Broadway production. Hollywood even carried over most of the original Broadway stars for the film - quite rare for the time it was made. The picture is flawless and the re-mastered soundtrack sounds beautiful in 5.1. There is also the added bonus of the making of "The Music Man" hosted by one of the film's stars-Shirley Jones. It also includes commentary from other actors and creative talent involved with the picture. This film is one of the few Hollywood musicals to capture the essence of the original Broadway production - you actually feel like like you're watching a stage production.

Rating:
Summary: Gots Trouble: 5-Star Movie, 3-Star DVD
Review: I have looked forward to this DVD release more than any other so far, and it's a major letdown. The images are mostly clean and crisp, but there's more streaking in movement than with most other DVD's... sound is unremarkable, no improvement made (litmus test: Pert Kelton in "If You Don't Mind My Saying So". Cracks on every version, this one too.).

(The packaging claims that this version was digitally remastered, which in this case can't mean anything more than that it had to be transferred to DVD.)

The unforgiveable sin is the color. This is supposed to be a vibrant movie- think Americana, red white & blue -and this transfer makes it look like it was shot through a brown filter. Has none of the bright, candy-coated charm evidenced on the late '80's laserdisc version, which is still by far the best- I have a VHS dub of that one that is brighter than this DVD.

This disc is salvaged, however, by some enjoyable menu features, including a recent "documentary" with some particularly patronizing narration delivered by Shirley Jones, plus a frighteningly off-base Buddy Hackett.

**sigh** It'll be a good ten, twenty years before Warners re-releases this one again... bring on HDTV-DVD!

All this said, Robert Preston & Co. do make this a valued addition to my ever-expanding DVD library- for my money, this is the very best of the 1960's stage-musical adaptations.

Rating:
Summary: SHIPOOPI
Review: The Music Man is no doubt the greatest musical of all time. Every sonG in it is great. Especially songs like "Rock Island," "Ya Got Trouble," and "Shipoopi." Robert Preston and Buddy Hackett, not to mention Shirley Jones are all excepptional in this Broadway hit. I'm 13 and I asked my aunt to buy the sound track for me for Christnas of '98, and I've been playing it over and over again since then. Every thing about this movie is good. The mayor is hilarious. Little Ronnie Howard has that nice little lispe going on there, and Buddy Hackett is awesome too. This is definately a movie you would want to buy.

Rating:
Summary: No stage version will ever top this great production.
Review: A great musical perfectly cast. You'll like this even if you don't like musicals. The "Marian the Librarian" scene is one of the most perfect musical numbers ever filmed. Don't bother with the pan/scan version--too much is cut off on the sides. The widescreen lazerdisc has excellent sound, picture, and print. The DVD version should be the same. Enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: My all-time favorite musical
Review: If I were stranded on a desert island with a VCR and could only have one musical, this would be it. It's without a doubt one of the most perfect examples of the genre ever made. Every song is a winner, and this movie (unlike so many movie versions of musicals) is faithful to the original stage production, no doubt because it was produced by the producer of the Broadway play and starred many of the original cast (notably Robert Preston as Harold Hill, one of the great characters in musicals). What I love about this is the charm of the story, the appeal of the characters, and above all the catchiness and extreme cleverness of the songs; many of the songs are more spoken than sung and thus represent a kind of early rap music :-) Make sure you get the widescreen version - you won't want to miss anything.

Rating:
Summary: I own the video and cannot wait for the DVD version!
Review: Suffice it to say that this is truly one of the best musicals of the era to ever grace the screen. With the enhanced video and audio qualities found with DVD, it should be even more enjoyable! Share it with your kids.