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Reviews
The Bachelor Party (1957)
oddly unrealistic depiction of the 50's
What's strange about most of the reviews on this site is their acceptance of the social culture in The Bachelor Party as realistic. However, though its dialog contains some soul searching, and its characters have a certain earnest sincerity, the overall depiction of social conditions in this mid-'50's film is completely off.
As a woman who lived through this period, I would say it was not characterized by the kind of casual misogyny embraced by these buddies, but more by an emerging awareness on the part of women, that children and marriage were not just a blessing but a burden. Thus, I doubt that the writer, Paddy Chayefsky, was terribly satisfied by the final draft of The Bachelor Party. Indeed, Chayefsky wrote in the Afterword of that play - 'obviously the line of the story is six inches off from beginning to end, and the third act resolution is hardly an inevitable outcome of the proceeding two acts.'
More typical of themes of the mid-50's was Chayefsky's play, 'Marty,' in which Earnest Borgnine plays a butcher whose patient tenderness toward the shy schoolteacher he woos creates the foundation for their relationship. Also typical in the post WW2 mid-'50's was Chayefsky's film, 'The Americanization of Emily', in which James Garner plays a flagrant wartime coward forced to contend with conflicted Emily, who makes no apologies for her disgust at his cowardice.
In Marty, and The Americanization of Emily, men revealed their humanness, their fears, and need for love - qualities they were afraid women might forget as their own lives expanded. In The Bachelor Party, on the other hand, the theme is male existential boredom with marriage, and no reason is given other than the consensus between the bachelor and married men, that after children arrive socializing becomes more restricted, one ages, responsibilities increase, blah blah. The idea that arises out of this plot vacuum, a false one that flips the truth on its head and buries it, is that men, not women were wrestling with the issue of independence in the 50's.
Joyful Noise (2012)
Joyful Noise is great musical theatre
As a small town, racially diverse gospel choir negotiates the demands of a national competition, it transmutes out of sheer panic into an ad hoc musical theatrical ensemble. Many eras and styles of music emerge throughout. When Keke Palmer, as Queen Latifa's daughter, performs 'Higher Medley,' she reminded me of Harold Nicholas' (of the Nicholas brothers) be-bop crooning style in the 'Big Broadcast of 1936,' There is also the atmospheric blaze of everything from the 'Show Boat' era to synthesized pop music from the 80's to the present. This mix is laced with covers from among others, the Beatles, Michael Jackson, Usher, Billy Preston, and of course the inimitable Dolly Parton herself. Several members of the cast derive from the world of Broadway, and the sum of the above yields musical theatre so stunning that if there were no plot at all the film would still stand as sensational.
Yet the plot itself has its subtle importance. It flows by with an almost Bergman quality, presenting a montage of innocent moments, each containing small, significant messages. Like 'Show Boat', this film puts its emphasis on the triumph of musical theatre over the mundane, yet it indefatigably unfurls its intention to correct the wrongs of post modern life: Queen Latifa struggles to actually dominate the ethical processes of the children around her; Dolly, using her legendary, angelic soul force, struggles with Latifa's weariness; young people, as they blossom and find themselves, engage in the timeless struggle to listen to their parents. All the while there's so little needless tension one might call this film both deeply feminist and serenely African, in the best sense of each.