Singin' in the Rain

Singin' in the Rain is a movie about a variety of things. It's a movie about the history of cinema. It's a movie made in the 50's, about the 20's, but still enjoyable even in the 00's. It's a movie about the movies. It's a movie that showcases the spectacle of movies. It's a movie that shows that movies can be beautiful from both an artistic and a technological perspective. And to top it off, it's arguably the first modern movie, setting a standard for all the movies that would come after it. Put all these aspects together and you have a memorable movie, perfect to start off Introduction to Cinema.

But despite all of these components of Singin' in the Rain, nothing about it is very revolutionary. What you see in Singin' in the Rain are Hollywood tropes you've seen before, but presented ever so differently to fit the movie's narrative. The guy falls for the girl. The envious antagonist who wants the protagonist's fame and fortune. The comic relief sidekick. Heck, even the songs are lifted from old movies, such as “Make 'Em Laugh”, which is actually a plagiarized version of “Be a Clown” from 1948's The Pirate. Yet even though we have seen all these features of Singin' in the Rain before, we still enjoy it because it puts all of these tropes together into an extravagant homage to classic Hollywood that reminds us that cinema can show us a good time. The choreography mesmerizes us as the filmmakers make full use of the sets and the actors' dancing abilities, and the songs, despite being under a case of severe case of déja vu, are still pleasant to the ear and makes good use of the audience's time and attention. “Make 'Em Laugh”, for example, is relevant to the plot, and uses the set much better than "Be a Clown" did, making it a showcase for cinema rather than a shoehorned song put in for the sake of making it a musical. "Make 'Em Laugh" seems natural in the sense that the scene is a show put on by Cosmo Brown (Donald O' Connor) to cheer up Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) and remind him why it is that they even act in the first place: to make 'em (the audience) laugh. O' Connor runs around the set, messing around with the various movie props, reminding us that they are in a movie studio. "Be a Clown", on the other hand, features Gene Kelly and two other actors dancing around in a theater. The context is that Gene Kelly's character, Serafin, is a circus leader about to be hanged and "Be a Clown" is his last show before he leaves this Earth. Yet despite this, "Be a Clown" does not use the film medium as well as "Make 'Em Laugh", as it seems like a theatrical performance rather than a spectacle of film. It seems like you are watching a musical through a camera, rather than experiencing a musical with the actors. To give "Be a Clown" some credit, it does put the audience in a better mood like its Singin' in the Rain counterpart does. However, we believe that "Make 'Em Laugh", despite being a rip-off, was fine in that it was entertaining, captured our attention and added to the main film. This view can be accounted for all the songs that Singin' in the Rain reused from other movies. The film uses the songs in a respectable way, creating nostalgic sequences that remind us that Classic Hollywood was great, and still is great.

Our only critique is that the “Broadway Melody” and “Moses Supposes” scenes seemed a little out of place, but even then one can argue that those scenes are there as a parody of Hollywood musicals, and, of course, just there for entertainment's sake. Maybe "Broadway Melody" could have been shortened a bit so as not distract us from the main plot, however.

Overall, an unforgettable experience that reminds us the joy that movies bring to the general public and the people that help create them.

"I'm singin'... in the rain... just singin'... in the rain. What a glorious feeling... to be singin' in the rain."

-Theodore Park, Connor Kerrigan, Christine Barron, Sam Fancher