Post by Atrahasis on Dec 10, 2004 9:11:45 GMT -5
I won't mince words ~ It was PERFECT from first to last! 
And anyone who has a bad opinion of it just DOES NOT have the Spirit of Phantom in them. That's my official opinion on it.
The rest of what I write here is about my personal relationship with Phantom through the years, and some comments and observations about the film, if anyone cares to know more.
I consider myself a connoisseur of Phantom in that I've seen it live four times in different cities, researched the alternate variations of the music and words that they had in mind during pre-production, and I've memorized and have been able to compare the script in two different languages. I also sing a tune from it almost every day of my life, and have been doing so probably since the late 80's when I first bought the recorded version before I even saw the live show. In fact, I would say that I have my Phantom singing voice just about where I want it now....singing Phantom has allowed me to soar with the angels in voice. Not that I'm a professional, but if you sing something everyday for almost 20 years as loud as you want (because the neighbors fortunately do not complain), you'll eventually develop character in your voice. It's also emotionally-charged music, and so you learn to exercise your emotional senses as well as you go through it. The main emotion that I think Phantom is all about is compassion, and if people delve into and really feel Phantom in all its glory, I think they can't come away not learning about compassion by experiencing it directly.
The reason why the Phantom acts the way he does is because he is a character that is out of balance. He is lopsided (just like his face which has only one side disfigured) in that the world has shown no compassion to him. But, in the end, when Christine says "Pitiful creature of darkness, what kind of life have you known? God give me courage to show you that you are not alone" and kisses him out of compassion, he in turn is unexpectedly compelled to show compassion by letting Raoul out of the ropes where a moment ago he was ready to kill him. Then he shows them both compassion and shows them the way out of the lair and allowing them to live a normal life together.
In the meantime, you have the police and the Paris Opera House people assembled in a mob coming down to the lair to finally rid themselves of this man/phantom. This is the world that had never shown compasion to the Phantom, the world that marked him as "The Devil's Child" and put him in a cage as a boy and carted him around as a side show freak, abusing and torturing him (elements not in the original musical, but done wonderfully in the movie--I had tears in my eyes!) The only one not in the mob was Giry, who as a girl helped the Phantom to escape the travelling circus and hid him in the Opera House...the only one besides Christine to have shown him compassion.
The development of that story element that tells of Giry's hand in all of this was a super idea. Bravo! She always seemed to know a bit more than anybody else in the play, and now we know why. She felt compassion for the little boy freak and thought it was just horrible and cruel the way that people treated him, or worse who just looked at him and laughed and jeered and walked on. She came to see him with a crowd, but she was the last to leave because she was struck by the incredible sadness of his situation. So moved with compassion was she that she helped him escape, and set the reel of events in motion for years later.
To express it succintly: Compassion changes people, and changes events, and thereby changes the entire world. It changes the Phantom's heart in the last scene so that love and happiness can continue elsewhere if not with the Phantom directly. Basically, compassion that one gives may not always be returned, but it is payed forward to another. This is a basic spiritual truth that just about every worthy religion has expressed in one way or another, and I feel is what makes Phantom remarkable and more than just a typical night's entertainment. If you really listen and feel what they are saying, the message can become a way of life because it expresses it all so very well in music and story.
One last thing I'll say about the theme of compassion is that the story tells how to cure evil. If evil is an imbalance in someone as it was in the Phantom, then the way to abolish the evil is to set the balance aright again by filling the void left in someone's heart by the absence of compassion.
This new movie version is able to go where the musical didn't, by having great new story elements in it like the Giry addition, and expresses this basic theme like it has not been expressed before.
Did I mention the singing was great too? Like I said, I've heard Phantom done a lot of different ways, and so I don't realy have a set way that I think a given scene should be done or a given song should be sung. But I will say that the way the movie did it was just superb. I had never seen a more innocent and pure Christine, both in visage and in voice. The Phantom was stellar in every way, because he really made me empathize with him. The actor who plays him is a very handsome and dashing man as well, which was quite different from the older gentlemen that we usually get in the musical versions. Raoul is a crowd pleaser with the women because not only is he alright to look at but he has a softness and gentleness in his singing voice that sounds like a chorus of doves cooing.
There were some details that were changed, as in the chandelier falls not in Act I but near the finale of the movie. There were some scenes that were omitted, like the rehearsal for Don Juan Triumphant. There were some scenes that were incorporated into other scenes to make new scenes. All of this combined to make a new show but with the original story intact. In fact I would say it made an even better show than the original. This was a major triumph for Phantom fans. Probably only two or three times in a generation you get a great movie version of a broadway hit, that goes where the original did not or could not go, and for Phantom it was masterfully done. It realy is PERFECT from the first frame to the last.
Comments welcome! And be sure to see the film!
And anyone who has a bad opinion of it just DOES NOT have the Spirit of Phantom in them. That's my official opinion on it.
The rest of what I write here is about my personal relationship with Phantom through the years, and some comments and observations about the film, if anyone cares to know more.
I consider myself a connoisseur of Phantom in that I've seen it live four times in different cities, researched the alternate variations of the music and words that they had in mind during pre-production, and I've memorized and have been able to compare the script in two different languages. I also sing a tune from it almost every day of my life, and have been doing so probably since the late 80's when I first bought the recorded version before I even saw the live show. In fact, I would say that I have my Phantom singing voice just about where I want it now....singing Phantom has allowed me to soar with the angels in voice. Not that I'm a professional, but if you sing something everyday for almost 20 years as loud as you want (because the neighbors fortunately do not complain), you'll eventually develop character in your voice. It's also emotionally-charged music, and so you learn to exercise your emotional senses as well as you go through it. The main emotion that I think Phantom is all about is compassion, and if people delve into and really feel Phantom in all its glory, I think they can't come away not learning about compassion by experiencing it directly.
The reason why the Phantom acts the way he does is because he is a character that is out of balance. He is lopsided (just like his face which has only one side disfigured) in that the world has shown no compassion to him. But, in the end, when Christine says "Pitiful creature of darkness, what kind of life have you known? God give me courage to show you that you are not alone" and kisses him out of compassion, he in turn is unexpectedly compelled to show compassion by letting Raoul out of the ropes where a moment ago he was ready to kill him. Then he shows them both compassion and shows them the way out of the lair and allowing them to live a normal life together.
In the meantime, you have the police and the Paris Opera House people assembled in a mob coming down to the lair to finally rid themselves of this man/phantom. This is the world that had never shown compasion to the Phantom, the world that marked him as "The Devil's Child" and put him in a cage as a boy and carted him around as a side show freak, abusing and torturing him (elements not in the original musical, but done wonderfully in the movie--I had tears in my eyes!) The only one not in the mob was Giry, who as a girl helped the Phantom to escape the travelling circus and hid him in the Opera House...the only one besides Christine to have shown him compassion.
The development of that story element that tells of Giry's hand in all of this was a super idea. Bravo! She always seemed to know a bit more than anybody else in the play, and now we know why. She felt compassion for the little boy freak and thought it was just horrible and cruel the way that people treated him, or worse who just looked at him and laughed and jeered and walked on. She came to see him with a crowd, but she was the last to leave because she was struck by the incredible sadness of his situation. So moved with compassion was she that she helped him escape, and set the reel of events in motion for years later.
To express it succintly: Compassion changes people, and changes events, and thereby changes the entire world. It changes the Phantom's heart in the last scene so that love and happiness can continue elsewhere if not with the Phantom directly. Basically, compassion that one gives may not always be returned, but it is payed forward to another. This is a basic spiritual truth that just about every worthy religion has expressed in one way or another, and I feel is what makes Phantom remarkable and more than just a typical night's entertainment. If you really listen and feel what they are saying, the message can become a way of life because it expresses it all so very well in music and story.
One last thing I'll say about the theme of compassion is that the story tells how to cure evil. If evil is an imbalance in someone as it was in the Phantom, then the way to abolish the evil is to set the balance aright again by filling the void left in someone's heart by the absence of compassion.
This new movie version is able to go where the musical didn't, by having great new story elements in it like the Giry addition, and expresses this basic theme like it has not been expressed before.
Did I mention the singing was great too? Like I said, I've heard Phantom done a lot of different ways, and so I don't realy have a set way that I think a given scene should be done or a given song should be sung. But I will say that the way the movie did it was just superb. I had never seen a more innocent and pure Christine, both in visage and in voice. The Phantom was stellar in every way, because he really made me empathize with him. The actor who plays him is a very handsome and dashing man as well, which was quite different from the older gentlemen that we usually get in the musical versions. Raoul is a crowd pleaser with the women because not only is he alright to look at but he has a softness and gentleness in his singing voice that sounds like a chorus of doves cooing.
There were some details that were changed, as in the chandelier falls not in Act I but near the finale of the movie. There were some scenes that were omitted, like the rehearsal for Don Juan Triumphant. There were some scenes that were incorporated into other scenes to make new scenes. All of this combined to make a new show but with the original story intact. In fact I would say it made an even better show than the original. This was a major triumph for Phantom fans. Probably only two or three times in a generation you get a great movie version of a broadway hit, that goes where the original did not or could not go, and for Phantom it was masterfully done. It realy is PERFECT from the first frame to the last.
Comments welcome! And be sure to see the film!
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