Rating: 
Summary: Great musical - horrible storyline for a "family movie".
Review: Don't watch this one with your kids. It is hard to explain to young children why women were treated with such disrespect in the timeframe the movie represents. As a musical, its all Rogers and Hammerstein.
Rating: 
Summary: Great movie!!!
Review: For the record, this is one of my favorite musicals of all time. Five years ago I saw the fabulous Nicholas Hytner revival on stage, which only confirmed my feelings. It's a lovely story, with gorgeous music, and if handled correctly, the "darker" elements of the plot(sexism, Billy hitting his wife) are not trivialized or excused, but actually lend a layer of complexity to the characters and the story. I'm not so keen on the movie, though. As much as I adore Shirley Jones in "The Music Man", she's rather shrill here and seems to talk in a falsetto voice, which is just plain weird. She sings beautifully, though. Gordon MacRae looks like he's not enjoying making the movie at all. I love the ballet scene with their daughter, but the switch between real beach shots and soundstage shots is almost funny -- yeah, we KNOW those rocks are made of foam. And Shirley Jones seems to wear different versions of the same dress throughout the whole movie. I mean, I know it's small town Maine, but come on -- there must have been more than one dress pattern in the general store. There is a certain cheesy charm in the movie, and the ending scene does make me tear up every time, but that's more due to the glorious music than to the actual movie. It's a jewel of a musical play, and, as much as I hate movie remakes, I'd love to see a contemporary director take a crack at it. We need to have a "Carousel" that does justice to the score.
Rating: 
Summary: Love the musical, lukewarm about the movie
Review: For the record, this is one of my favorite musicals of all time. Five years ago I saw the fabulous Nicholas Hytner revival on stage, which only confirmed my feelings. It's a lovely story, with gorgeous music, and if handled correctly, the "darker" elements of the plot(sexism, Billy hitting his wife) are not trivialized or excused, but actually lend a layer of complexity to the characters and the story. I'm not so keen on the movie, though. As much as I adore Shirley Jones in "The Music Man", she's rather shrill here and seems to talk in a falsetto voice, which is just plain weird. She sings beautifully, though. Gordon MacRae looks like he's not enjoying making the movie at all. I love the ballet scene with their daughter, but the switch between real beach shots and soundstage shots is almost funny -- yeah, we KNOW those rocks are made of foam. And Shirley Jones seems to wear different versions of the same dress throughout the whole movie. I mean, I know it's small town Maine, but come on -- there must have been more than one dress pattern in the general store. There is a certain cheesy charm in the movie, and the ending scene does make me tear up every time, but that's more due to the glorious music than to the actual movie. It's a jewel of a musical play, and, as much as I hate movie remakes, I'd love to see a contemporary director take a crack at it. We need to have a "Carousel" that does justice to the score.
Rating:
Summary: A Romantic Date In A Disk
Review: Gordon McRae and Shirley Jones take old-time romance and make it heart-melting passion. Their love for eachother in the movie is anything but puppy. My favorite part is when he's at his daughter's graduation and goes over to Julie and tells her that he loves her and has always loved her. Then, she gets up,tears streaming down her face,and starts to sing. I cry everytime I see it.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent restoration of a flawed classic.
Review: However one can quibble with the film itself - Jones too young as an actress and MacRae too old and charmless for the complex leads, some very static camera work, some stilted acting,the score makes this a must-see adaptation and the THX restoration in both pan and scan and widescreen versions is the definitive one. The compositions are memorable and far more accessible than those in THE KING AND I on video (as most shots are half shots as opposed to long shots) making facial expression more easy to read. The beautiful widescreen backgrounds of location work in Boothbay Harbor, Maine and Carmel, California give the eyes something to feast on when the dramatic content of a scene is not up to par. The DeLuxe color is restored to richness and brightness and the print is crisp and clean - altogether the finest print we have seen of the work. This may be the original premiere print as the CinemaScope extention logo reads "Introducing CinemaScope 55" - not seen on any other print I've been exposed to. Note: The original 55 millimeter process was abandoned early in the filming, settling for conventional 35 millimeter with Scope lens conversions, but the ads and campaigns were all set with the 55 process announced, so it was released with some not quite truthful hype. Comparing the wide screen version to the pan and scan, it is amazing to see so much of the richness of composition lost in the former - especially the first shot of Louise running along the beach in twilight. Fully half of the screen (the right half) is forfeited and a breathtaking moment in lighting is lost. This restoration is the definitive version - not since the premiere has there been a brighter, truer, more colorful print available. Run out and buy BOTH the pan and scan and the widescreen version of this memorable restoration.
Rating: 
Summary: "I'd prefer a root canal over Carousel."--my wife
Review: I didn't care at all for this film, even with the great expectations I had for it. "You'll Never Walk Alone" is a great song. That's the only redeeming quality I found in the film. Subtexts of sexism and celebration of spousal abuse only made a bad movie worse.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the very best movie musicals
Review: I don't think I have ever seen Carousel on stage but my folks had a record of it when I was young, and I really liked it. Unfortunately, that leads to my only real complaint about the movie... The music is splendid ("Carousel Waltz" in particular), the story compelling. There's even a bit of philosophy (the blossoms fell because it was their time). And Carousel isn't padded out with interminable dance scenes -- just one, six minutes of dancing on rooftops. The other big dance scene, Louise's Ballet, is the only dance I can think of that kept keep me not just away from the fast-forward, but glued to the screen! Susan Luckey, as Louise, is the star of the show (for her fifteen minutes). One real problem with movie musicals is the opening up of the stage. We don't want to lose the stage, since this is, after all, a fantasy; but neither do we want just a filmed play. Some go too far into location (e.g., South Pacific) and others go nowhere at all (Oklahoma). Even Music Man is a bit too stagey. But Carousel has found just the right mix between the stage and location. The transitions from one to another are particularly well-done. BUT... Somewhere between the play and the movie, we lost at least two songs, and whole verses of other songs! If I hadn't listened to that cast recording in my youth, I would never have known. But I did, and the missing music sorta spoils an otherwise superb movie.
Rating:
Summary: Very good, however Macrae lacks charisma.
Review: I enjoyed the film very much, however I thought that MacRae lacked the charisma needed for his role. One other minor distraction....this story took place in Maine, which, as we all know is on the Eastern seaboard of the USA...why then did the sun go down into the ocean at sunset? Doesn't that mean that in this film the sun set in the east??!!
Rating:
Summary: The Ultimate
Review: I remember seeing "West Side Story" on the stage in an early run. The finale ..so downbeat was stunning.It left the audience in awe. The assumption was that ALL great musicals had the great wrapup and exhuberent finale..however , as in West Side Story and this film..the finale of hope and accomplishment are meloncholy..and if so leave a tremendous impression on the viewer. You can vicariously live through Billy Bigelows ordeal of lost love and its effects..and to see ones child grow up in the spirit is something.to remember. A farely simple plot is turned into one terrific musical a must be seen on dvd!
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful musical, but incomplete
Review: In an age where a science fiction thriller can approach 3 hours, it's interesting that back in 1956 20th Century Fox decided that a movie running two and one half hours was long enough for a musical. So what did they do? Oh, just merely edit out two movie sequences containing the songs "You're a Queer One, Julie Jordan" and "Blow High, Blow Low". Hello? And how long was the classic 1939 "Gone With the Wind"? Over three hours? What a pity, because R & H wonderful "Carousel" (their personal favorite musical) deserved to be seen complete, no matter how long it may have been!! The deleted scenes added to the story and the songs were great. Luckily the two deleted songs can be heard on the VERY COMPLETE movie CD soundtrack (see my review of it). Since so many DVDs these days are coming out with Director's Cut versions of more recent movies, perhaps "Carousel" may one day be re-released in it's glorious entirety, that is unless the Hollywood morons of 1956 threw away the deleted film!! For the time being, let's be thankful for the "Carousel" of which I'm writing. Highly Recommended.
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