Carousel | | Cast : | Gordon MacRae, Shirley Jones | | Director : | Henry King | | Studio : | Twentieth Century Fox | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, THX, Widescreen | | Released Date : | February 16, 1956 | | DVD Released Date : | August 13, 2002 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | Unrated | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 15, 2005 | | Summary | This DVD has LOTS of problems | Content
 | The first and most glaring problem with the "Carousel" DVD is the fact that, while widescreen, the image has not been enhanced for 16 x 9 playback. However, that is not where the issues end. The layer change is one of the most abrupt I have ever encountered, pausing long enough to make one think the disc is locking up. The image itself also is full of defects. In Chapter 13 (the soliloquy) Gordon McCray's trousers, as well as some of the background, begin to shimmer, and blend in together. In at least two places, the image jumps. Most noticeable is the scene on the dock where Julie hugs Nettie. If you step through the images using slow motion, it is easy to see the jump was a transfer "hiccup".
This is a great movie....rather dark for a musical. And the music ranks as some of Rodgers and Hammerstein's best. But let's hope Fox does the right thing and puts out a special edition. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 09, 2005 | | Summary | A Show Stopping Good Time | Content
| The basic premise of CAROUSEL involves not knowing what you have until its gone. Although the film has already been analyzed and reanalyzed, it appears to resonate an "Our Town" and "It's a Wonderful Life" plotline accompanied with music and dance. Shirley Jones (Julie Jordon) and Gordon MacRae (Billy Bigelow) are the star-crossed lovers who encounter social conflict as they pursue one another. They come from different backgrounds, she, a cotton factory worker, and he, a Carousel barker. However, their love for one another does not separate them despite the fact that Bigelow experiences hard times, losing his job as a Carousel barker, and the most tragic, dying from a knife wound. Julie presses on, and 15 years pass when Bigelow has the opportunity come back to earth to meet his teenage daughter, and for a brief moment during her graduation, express his love for Julie and his daughter.
Rodgers and Hammertein's CAROUSEL is a wonderful musical that the entire family will enjoy. How can one not love the dramatic acting by Shirley Jones and Gordon MacRae, and their glorious singing with songs, such as "Never Walk Alone" and "If I loved You?" The film contains a non-stop presentation of unforgettable and long drawn choreography scenes (check out the Riverdance like number) and period costumes that offer the viewer a glimpse of a Maine fishing village possibly during the nineteenth or turn of the century; the costumes and dance numbers are amazing enough to take a first or second look at one legendary production of a film.
CAROUSEL and its THX sound and re-mastered Cinemascope Technicolor will be a delight for the avid movie lover. And for the music and dance lover, it is a classic that will keep you on your feet and your lungs singing for more.
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| Rating | | | Date | July 28, 2005 | | Summary | simple but sweet | Content
| In Oscar and Hammerstein's Carousel, Julie (Shirley Jones) and Billy (Gordon MacRae) get to know each other at the town's carousel. Julie's an ingenue local and Billy's a carnival barker rogue. Of course, after a great deal of romance, singing and dancing, tragedy strikes and their lives are altered irrevocably.
I grew up on O & H musicals and know them well. Although simplisic, they capture the essence of innocent love which is irresistable to a romantic. This is Jones' first major role and she would be paired up again a year later with MacRae in Oklahoma. These films are classics because we can't help but sing the songs and suspend our disbelief for a couple of hours in a world where "Grover's Corner" still exists.
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| Rating | | | Date | July 01, 2005 | | Summary | Carousel | Content
| My son is in the play "Carousel" and I loved it so much I went out and bought the movie!!1 |
| Rating | | | Date | April 12, 2005 | | Summary | Whitewashed version of R&H's best musical | Content
| Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel is IMO their best musical. Today it's still hard to find a musical that mixed realism with fantasy as perfectly as "Carousel." Billy and Julie are not simply a "musical" couple. Their relationship has a depth and seriousness that goes beyond one-dimensional adoration. Topics such as alcoholism, domestic violence, teenage promiscuity, they're all in Carousel.
Maybe the musical subject was too much for Hollywood to handle, because this movie adaptation is very whitewashed. The storyline remains the same: Billy is an underemployed Carousel worker. He marries Julie, a factory girl, but their marriage soon falls apart due to his violence and underemployment. Billy dies, but in heaven he sees his daughter (who was born after his death) become misguided and promiscuous. Billy's spirit descends to the earth one more time to save his daughter. But the emphasis of this movie adaptation has changed. Much of the dialogue has been cut, as well as the more adult musical scenes. The awkward, lovely dialogue during "If I Loved You" is massacred, probably because it was too much in a Hollywood musical for characters to flirt so openly. The characters wear very expensive-looking clothing, again all wrong for a blue collar New England town.
Gordon MacRae is Billy, and he's another major problem of the film. Originally Carousel was to have starred Frank Sinatra, but MacRae was the ultimate Billy. MacRae was good in the film "Oklahoma" as the sunny Curley, but here his good-ol'-boy chipperness is a detriment. One wonders why a Billy as pleasant as MacRae would become an unemployed wifebeater. He has a handsome baritone voice, but the overall effect is vapidity. Shirley Jones (the Laurey in the "Oklahoma") is lovely to see and hear. She has more depth and range as MacRae, but she's working alone here. Julie is not simply a good girl. In the original musical, her "bad girl" side is explored with the song "You're a Queer One, Julie Jordan." In this film,this song is cut. With many of her character-building moments gone, her Julie ultimately becomes another bland musical heroine.
It's a tribute to the strength of Carousel that the movie remains enjoyable and touching despite the whitewashing. Because this is R&H's loveliest score. I don't need to rename all the beautiful songs of the film, like "You'll Never Walk Alone" or "If I Loved You." But Carousel deserved a film that recognized that this was not just another sunny, smiley all-American musical. If ever there was a musical that deserves a cinema remake, Carousel is it. |
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