Rating: 
Summary: Amateurish, campy, early Brian De Palma
Review: Here is De Palma at his most amateurish - zooming in to transition from one scene to another, bad lighting and cinematography (Where is Vilmos Zsigmond when you need him?), a campy script, the look and feel of a tv movie of the week, the diminutive Paul WIlliams horribly miscast as a rock tycoon, etc. If it was not for De Palma's name on this, I doubt that this would have been released on DVD. This is defintiely not to bought if youa re expecting the higher production values of later De Palma.
Rating: 
Summary: The movie that made me a DePalma fanatic
Review: The first Brian DePalma movie I ever saw was "Body Double" with Melanie Griffith. I was not impressed and didn't think much of DePalma as a director. But that was before I saw "Phantom of the Paradise," DePalma's lunatic hybrid of "Faust," "Phantom of the Opera," "Frankenstein," and "The Picture of Dorian Gray."I first read about "Phantom of the Paradise" in Danny Peary's book "Cult Movies 2." It sounded too good to be true, and I was thrilled to find a used copy at a video store's clearance sale. The movie turned out to be even better than I'd imagined. The movie seemed to have a bit of everything: horror, comedy, music, and melodrama. It gave me a newfound respect for Paul Williams, and it made me an instant Brian DePalma fanatic. Soon, I was seeking out all of his early classics -- "Greetings," "Carrie," "Blow Out," and the mind-boggling "Sisters." The DVD of "Phantom" contains almost no extras (except for a trailer and an alternate French soundtrack), but the picture and sound are satisfactory... at least compared to my worn-out VHS copy. It's just too bad DePalma didn't do a commentary track. Then again, he hasn't recorded commentaries for ANY of his movies yet as far as I know.
Rating: 
Summary: Guilty pleasure; 70's time capsule
Review: Although often compared to Rocky Horror Picture Show, Brian DePalma's very strange Phantom of the Paradise is not in the same genre, if only because it works so hard to define its own quirky niche. It is, perhaps, DePalma's most original film, inasmuch as his usual penchant for homage (of everything from Rupert Julian's 1925 Phantom of the Opera, to 50's nostalgia group Sha Na Na, and even Welles' Touch of Evil) is tempered with heavy doses of righteous Liberal indignation. Composer Winslow Leach (played by DePalma regular William Finley) is a dedicated but naive artist who is ruined by his entanglement with a record producer known only as Swan (the impish Paul Williams). Swan steals his music, his would-be girlfriend (Jessica Harper), and eventually, his soul, in the Faustian developments that follow. As dated and ham-handed as some of the material is (the 70's era slang, the costumes, the anti-establishment rhetoric), Phantom is curiously redeemed by its earnestness. In spite of what you may have heard, this film is NOT camp; it is SATIRE - the major difference (in my estimation) being that camp is self-kidding; it knows of its outrageousness and wallows in it. Satire is nearly the opposite: it adopts an external perspective, dissecting human behavior from on-high - as aliens from another planet might regard us in all our wondrous absurdity. I approached this DVD with some trepidation. Having only seen Phantom of the Paradise once as an eight year-old in its theatrical release, I was left with an indelible impression. I missed the satire and remembered only the horrific surface elements (the disfigured anti-hero with his creepy electronic voice, the Dorian Gray-like climax, etc). But how would I see it through adult eyes? Would it hold up? The answer, in a word, is yes. The horror elements are intact, but deepened by some smartly crafted comic-dreadful moments, scathing commentary on the music industry (such as Garrit Graham's hilariously over-the-top portrayal of an effeminate glam-rocker named Beef), and a genuine sense of almost Teutonic angst. Don't let it escape your notice that, far from being "pure", Jessica Harper's pop-singer wannabe Phoenix (the Phantom's love interest) is tainted by her hunger for stardom. She sells her soul, too, for all the wrong reasons, and does nothing to redeem herself. It's that sort of underlying dark realism that keeps this film afloat on repeat viewings. I categorized it as a guilty pleasure because I don't fall in the typical audience demographic that enjoys so-called "camp classics" (I wouldn't be caught dead watching Surf Nazis Must Die). But since Phantom of the Paradise rises above its only half-deserved reputation, maybe I don't feel so guilty, after all. And if your teen-aged kids ask you what the 70's was like, it's a stylish and entertaining way to introduce them to the social dynamic of one very strange decade!
Rating:
Summary: Cult 70's
Review: I may now be a professoinal nerd, but so be it..
My all time favorite is Phantom of the Paradise......Allows me to exist beyond my normal means...
Rating:
Summary: Trip down Memory Lane
Review: In 1974, when this movie came out, I was a Junior in High School, in Anaheim, Ca. I and my friends went to see it at every theatre for as long as it ran at that theatre. I loved Paul Williams, (still do). I love the story of Faust, The Portrait of Dorian Gray and the Phantom of the Opera. All three of these elements are in this movie. And Paul Williams always writes fabulous music. Yes, it's corny. Yes, they use overacting as they did in the silent era. But, to me, that is what gives this movie it's charm. Hope you love it as much as I.
Rating:
Summary: Personal Favourite
Review: I saw this film for the first time as a teenager in the early 70's at the cinema. It was showing as a double bill with "The Rocky Horror Picture Show", which was the film I actually went to see, but found "Phantom" much more enjoyable and memorable. I immediately rushed out and bought the sound track, (which I would love to own on CD but have yet to find it).
I love the music by Paul Williams, apparently big in the States but mostly unknown in the UK, though best known for writing the music for the film "Bugsy Malone", and playing Little Enis in the "Smokey and ths Bandit" movies, (only other appearances I know of are, "Beneath the Planet of the Apes", as an ape, though you can still recognise him, and, if I remember correctly, an episode of "Star Trek Voyager").
Gerrit Graham is just brilliant as the camp, (I don't know if that's a word used in the US in this context), character "Beef", (you can see him in the film "Used Cars" starring Kurt Russell, and he was in a recent US Sci-Fi series, though the name escapes me now, I don't know what else).
This is a mostly unknown and underated cult classic, but maybe you had to be there at the time.
Glad to know there are other fans of this film. If you like cult films, check out "Crimewave" (Sam Raimi), and "Brazil" (Terry Gilliam). Both have unusual and visually stunning camera angles and sets, and great (black) humuor.
Rating:
Summary: loved it!
Review: "We'll remember you forever, Eddie, through the sacrifice you made, I can't believe the price you paid...for Love"......
Every review I've read talks about the music and how it sticks in your head and boy, is that true. I saw this movie for the first time in the early '70's when I was enamored with Paul Williams. I had no idea when I went to see it what it was really about. I loved it! Paul Williams is great as Swan, Jessica Harper sweet as Phoenix, William Finley tragic as Winslow and the guy who plays Beef (sorry, can't remember his name)is hilarious. But my favorites are the Juicy Fruits. From greasy-rockers, to beach bums to heavy metal band, their transformations are hysterical. This is one of the funniest dark movies I have ever seen and I highly recommend it to anyone with a semi-sick sense of humor.
Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic......
Review: This Brian De Palma 1974 film is an interesting film. The basic premise, a songwriter who is done out of his music by a corrupt record producer, has been done many times over, but never like this. Paul Williams is perfect as the ego-maniacal Swan. William Finley does well in the role of composer Winslow Leach who becomes the horribly scarred Phantom in a really bizarre twist of the Phantom legend. But the ultimate star of the show would have to be Jessica Harper, as the love interest Phoenyx. Several years before bombing in Shock Treatment as the 2nd Janet Weiss-Majors, Jessica is the glue that holds the loose plot line together.
Unfortunately, DePalma and Williams never learned how to play out "the end game". The climax of the film is EXTREMELy chaotic and disorienting. ...[This] film proves to be a true future cult classic.
Rating:
Summary: POE-SESSED! an then sum!
Review: A RIOTOUS 'smash and grab' Glam Rock, quasi-trans-gender, nostalgic XPOSAY expertly crafted by Brian De Palma. GERRIT GRAHAM sparkles wit and charm as our hero Beef, not forgetting Paul Williams [also responsible for the music] as the sinister 'undeadish' impresario and William Finley as our fateful Phantom [gorgeous performance]. Love-interest? Songbird Jessica Harper as Phoenix. This is such a fun ride and deserves to be visited again and again. Great 'in cheek' huimor present in this one - also 'split -screens' [and screams]. Would love to have a version with an 'enhanced' [surround?] sound-track.
Rating:
Summary: BRIAN DE PALMA'S BEST HUMOR NOIR. A LOVE STORY
Review: This superb movie had it all, but was underrated when it came out. Only the afterwards perspective and the appreciation of its impact on rock, rock operas and attire can do it justice. An excellent music score and camera managment frame the story of the struggle between good and evil, greed and ultimate personal sacrifice, in a modern Faust. Dark and humorous, for those who were 20 at the time, it was a sensorial experience as well as a crazy trip into the exploitation of the human condition. It is therefore not surprising how strongly this picture has aroused fidelity and how many people can remember when and where they fist saw it for the first time, after 25 years. Not to speack about how many have been singing its songs, in times of trouble and joy, by memory. I was 19 when I listened and taped a friend's record with the music score for the first time in 1974. For three years I tried to see the movie, until in 1977 I finally succeded in a midnigth theatre in Montmartre, Paris. I still remember the amazement of the people I took with me and how fast they stopped the jokes about a night lost in Paris.....After that I searched for the record for two years, until one day I found it in the student's cooperative in Harvard in 1977 !! And it was not until 1982 that I saw the picture again in Santo Domingo in a hotel's television...SO THEN THANK GOD FOR NEW TECHNOLOGY, VHS AND DVD. I don't have to wander around the world anymore....IT IS A MUST FOR A COLLECTOR.
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