I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Winner of the New York Drama Critics' Award for Best Play of the Year, the original 1947 Broadway production had the journalists cheering. The public loved the show too. It ran a sensational 581 performances. Directed by Robert Lewis, with dances staged by the legendary Agnes De Mille, this original "Brigadoon" starred David Brooks, Marion Bell and George Keane. In a featured role was Virginia Bosler, the only member of the original cast to be hired for the movie. (Miss Bosler made only one other film — Oklahoma!). On the other hand, the film "Brigadoon" pleased almost no-one except me. Even Gene Kelly had serious reservations. He thought it a mistake to stage all the village scenes as if they were being presented in a theater. A very large, extremely well-equipped theater, but a theater nonetheless. Personally, I think this decision not only adds to the picture's charm, but contrasts well with the super-realistically filmed New York sequences.But just about everyone disagrees with me. Even the score is not highly regarded, especially by comparison with "My Fair Lady". But I think it's marvelous. The singers are absolutely out of this world too, particularly John Gustafson and Carol Richards. And as for the zest and sheer exuberance dancers — seventh heaven! The big surprise is Van Johnson. We all forget that he got his start in the chorus line of "Too Many Girls". Good to see him singing and dancing once more—and acting with such caustic vigor in what I feel is his best role ever!Gene Kelly certainly shines at his vibrant best and even the normally bland Cyd Charisse strikes more sparks than usual. A pity the lovely Elaine Stewart is confined to a small, unsympathetic role as Kelly's New York fiancée, and maybe Barry Jones comes over as a bit too preachy a schoolmaster, but otherwise the casting seems perfect.One notable inclusion I must commend is Hugh Laing, a principal dancer of the New York City Ballet, here making his only film appearance. Oddly, Laing is actually required to do very little dancing, but turns in a fascinating and engrossing performance in a pivotal role. I'd also salute Albert Sharpe as the father, Dody Heath as the village siren, and Archer MacDonald as a noisome flannel-suit.In their first CinemaScope venture, Minnelli and Ruttenberg have taken great pains to fill the wide, anamorphic screen to overflowing with action, movement and drama. Congratulations, men!

I adore Brigadoon.Won't quibble about the authenticity of the story, the sets, or the choreography. However inauthentic the movie may be, it WORKS. For me, it works better than any of MGM's other classics.The production is beautiful. The sets (however artificial) are beautiful. Kelly's choreography is beautiful. Cyd Charisse is BEAUTIFUL (honestly, my favorite woman in any musical, ever--masterful dance if I've ever seen it)."Heather on the Hill" is a highlight of musical cinema, period. Lovely song, spectacular dancing and choreography.The ending, however preposterous, still ranks among my favorites.

"Brigadoon" may be old hat to the cynical folks who don't believe in leprechauns, men wearing skirts and jumping over swords or the luck of the Irish or Scottish or anything about the Highlands. Down on MacConnachy Square, however, they do believe, and they've converted me. For every 100 years that this town sleeps, I'd long to find it, my own Shangri-La, wherever and whatever country it may be in.Lerner and Lowe had a couple of Broadway flops when they struck gold with this musical fantasy, and when MGM filmed it in Cinemascope in 1954, they couldn't have done it better. Yes, the scenery is obviously backdrops and plastic shrubbery planted everywhere to make it appear as the Scottish countryside. Yes, the story is slightly corny, but when the charm is so overwhelming, I'll take corn any day.Americans Gene Kelly and Van Johnson discover the mystical town of Brigadoon when they are lost in the highlands on a hunting trip, but like the visitors to Shangri-La in "Lost Horizon", they have mixed reactions to it. Kelly falls in love with it, most particularly the young Cyd Charisse, the dancing beauty he finds it difficult to be willing to be apart from. Through Charisse and the town elders, he learns the truth about the story as a wedding approaches for two of the townsfolk, but one of the brooding residents is determined to curse the village because of his love for the bride who chose another. Then, the Americans return to noisy Manhattan where voices from Brigadoon echo in Kelly's ears. He longs to find something that has disappeared into the mist and won't reappear for another 199 years, 11 months, 22 days, etc.We all long for a place in this world where we can settle into serenity and Brigadoon is for Gene Kelly that place. He dances to the "Heather on the Hill" and croons "Almost Like Being in Love" as if he has just discovered that he really is alive. Then, he joins in the festive dance with the groom to be (the energetic "I'll Go Home With Bonnie Jean") that even briefly has the cynical Johnson transfixed. But we each reach for our own destiny, and Johnson isn't interested in the far away world of Brigadoon.Colorfully made for the eyes, and a treat for the ears as well, "Brigadoon" is a sweet legend that shows if you love someone so very much, you can never really loose them. It's a sweet sentiment that you can't help but believing as this fantasy unfolds. Faithful to the Broadway vehicle, it only cut out a few musical numbers (most notably the comical "My Mother's Wedding Day") yet retained its focus on athletic choreography as part of the narrative of telling the story. Forget that there's a huge obvious line down the middle of the Scottish sky (where the backdrop was glued together) and just enjoy it for everything it is.

Originally, conceived as a closer adaptation of the Broadway hit. With the change in starring personnel from those best known for their singing to those (Kelly and Cyd) best known for their stage dancing, several songs in the stage version were cut, and more dancing added. Cyd's singing was always dubbed, and Kelly's singing voice, never his strongest talent, was often weaker than usual in this film. In fact, he ordered one of his songs canned for this reason. Even the supporting actors who sang were mostly dubbed. Cyd's dancing talent complemented Kelly's dancing style well, and I thought they had good chemistry, especially in their 2 dance sequences to "The Heather in the Hill".Versatile Van Johnson was great as the often humorously cynical alcoholic Jeff, representing a man so jaded by the artificiality and rat race mentality of modern big cities, that he cannot appreciate the rustic charm of this traditional European herding village that has essentially been frozen in time since the mid-18th century.His categorical rebuff of the persistent amorous advances of a comely lassie is particularly funny. Actually, this behavior was dictated by the plot, as he would have been a bad influence that the villagers were trying to exclude in their periodic disappearing act.Kelly, as Tommy, represents a man who, although from the same culture as Jeff,feels that this village offers a more desirable lifestyle than the one he has known, and seemingly with an abundance of lassies itching to land a husband.He's even willing to accept the fantastic story that this village only appears for a day every hundred years and is still ultimately willing to give up his present life to live in such a place for eternity. Let's see. If we assume the people in this village age only one day every century, he would have a good chance of being around on earth for the next million years or so, but with an important caveat! Not a bad prospect. Can heaven offer more? This periodic disappearing act was granted by God to a former minister who was concerned about the prevalence of sorcerers in the region who were leading the villagers astray into devil worship. He was also concerned about other bad influences seeping in from the big bad outside world. But this ability of the village to appear and disappear depends on no one leaving the village district. If someone does, the village will disappear and sleep forever(disappear into a Black Hole?). The spell maker must have had Buddhist sympathies! Harry, the jilted beau of Fiona's(Cyd's) sister, Jean, tries to leave the village to go to a university to make himself more attractive to a future beau.The efforts of the villagers and Tommy to stop him are ineffective. Ironically, it is unconcerned Jeff, who has been out hunting grouse, who accidentally shoots Harry instead, thus saving the village from oblivion. However, it is clear that everyone will perpetually be kept on edge with the certainty that others will want to leave in the future.From this perspective, this spell, as formulated, has more the look of a curse than an opportunity for a perpetual utopia, unless you are a Buddhist.Upon further thinking, I realized that this story bears a strong resemblance to the traditional European fairy tale "Sleeping Beauty", who was put under a spell by a mischievous fairy to sleep 100 years(along with everyone else in the castle), before being awakened by the kiss of a prince, who had to cut his way through a thick tangle of thorny vegetation which had protected the sleeping castle inhabitants from evil outside forces all those years. The present story, with a village that disappears and reappears periodically, is a more extreme version of this story, but also with the difference that the long suspended animation feature is considered desirable, not a handicap. In place of the prince's kiss, Tommy's love for Fiona and the whole village is sufficient to cause the village to reappear well before its next scheduled reawakening.Kelly's extended solo dance in the bush around Brigadoon while intermittently singing "Almost Like being in Love" much reminds me of his previous famous 'umbrella' dance in "Singing in the Rain", and his subsequent 'roller skating' routine in "It's Always Fair Weather". In each case, the dance functions to express his exuberance in having established a new romantic relationship, in the absence of the beloved.I cannot appreciate all the fuss over the film being done on a sound stage instead of in bonnie ole Scotland or some more practical outdoor facsimile of such."The Wizard of Oz" wasn't shot in The Land of Oz" either, but the film was nonetheless a charming classic. Obviously, the stage version also required artificial scenery and props.I thought the backdrops generally were done with great care, and the rugged terrain at close range was effectively simulated. Real sheep and Highland shaggy cattle were included. Kelly was afraid of the latter and demanded that they be blindfolded, with artificial eyes, as a precaution! Some complain that the dancing should have been restricted to traditional Highland dancing, that the stylistic dancing of Kelly and Cyd was out of place. I agree with the producer that some of each was better. Most of the stylistic dancing was done in the bush, without other villagers as observers. Traditional Scottish dancing was featured at the festival and, again, at Jean's wedding.