Too much of everything

Fantastic!

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

I saw this as a teen many years after it came out. The songs were beautiful, performances great. The pain and loss he felt was very moving. And I absolutely fell in love with Shirley Jones. Just a great movie. Not the typical every thing will work out perfect movie.

Of Rogers and Hammerstein's scores,Carousel blurs at time between Opera and Musical. The Soliloquy sequences in their virtuosity rivals many Operas. It is indeed said by the friends of Richard Rogers that he often thought of composing libretto settings to someday make it into their only full fledged Opera. Even without,it remains one of the Duo's time tested favorites-though not right away. In 1956 it was not the smash Oklahoma was. But with TV exposure to later generations,Carousel remains to many the most poignantly haunting of all Rogers and Hammerstein Musicals done by Hollywood.Frank Sinatra would have been a horrible miscast in this part, he would have had trouble sustaining the music the way it was already written. Gordon MacRae was perfect as Billy Bigelow, and Shirley Jones was the obvious choice for the role of Julie. The Dance sequences toward the end of the movie show the unmistakable stamp of Agnes De Mille. In a childhood full of Musicals,this is still one of my favorites.

This is probably the best musical I have seen to this day. I must elaborate on this since there are so many of the genre around. The case with musicals is that they are often so much loaded - not only with music - that one may feel bored after two hours; yet this one is so simple and so light - you want more of it! Again Henry King will not fail us whatever he decides to make.

It was 1944-5: late in WWII. R&H's two recent plays or films had emphasized the idyllic rural Americana that many servicemen would be returning to, at least initially. The general euphoria of "Oklahoma" was marred only by the brutish malcontent Jed. Meanwhile, R&H contemplated the challenging possibility of adapting thorny Hungarian Ferenc Molnar's 1909 tragic play "Liliom" into a semi-tragic musical: giving it a sometimes carnival atmosphere, rather like their concurrent "State Fair" film, as well as an oceanside location, providing further opportunities to lighten the overall screenplay. Also, they provide a somewhat hopeful ending in place of Molnar's pessimistic ending. Molnar initially refused to allow a musical adaptation, but was blown away upon seeing "Oklahoma", thus changed his mind. However, he still had a hand in molding the final screenplay.Playing the main character, Gordon MacRae personifies a very different character than the 'boy next door' Curley he had just recently played in "Oklahoma". In fact, Billy Bigalow is much like menacing Jed: the villain in "Oklahoma". In fact, Liliom was Hungarian slang for 'tough guy'. He anchors his self esteem on his bluster as a carnival barker and roustabout, his facility with fists, and proclaimed popularity with the opposite sex. Only in the last characteristic does he differ markedly from Jed. He even dies similarly to Jed, by an accidental knife stabbing, following a criminal act.As a seaside New England carnival barker and roustabout, Billy has a public platform for expressing his animal magnetism and to meet many impressionable young women. But, he has a complex relationship with his widowed employer, who much values his charisma for attracting customers, some of whom he romances transiently. But she also clearly has an implied sexual relationship with him, and doesn't want to lose him to another woman. She detects too strong a scheming girl in millworker Julie, and orders him to keep away from her, or he will lose his job. He makes an ultimately poor decision. Likewise Julie loses her job, because she stays out too late with Billy to return to the company rooming house(apparently all are single young women) before the door is locked. Both are given a chance to redeem their 'mistake', but decline, despite both claiming they don't really love the other: thus "If I Loved You", with an emphasis on the 'if'. Very strange and ultimately tragic behavior! Soon, Billy finds that he really misses his old job, and probably would have left Julie at the beckoning of his former employer, who also really misses him, except that Julie reveals that she is pregnant, which causes him to change his mind. Unfortunately, neither he nor Julie can find adequate alternative employment. Despite financial help from a relative, Billy is talked into a robbery attempt by his shady friend Jigger. It goes very wrong, and he ends up falling on his knife(very clumsily done), in an attempt to escape police.The remainder of the screen play focuses on the troubles of his then teen daughter, who is ostracized by her schoolmates and their parents for being a poor, fatherless, girl, whose father was a thief and wife beater, and also upon the question of whether Billy's soul can be redeemed, in the eyes of God, if he is given one day back on earth to try to help his daughter from going down a wrong path. The final scene vaguely hints that he passed this test. Unfortunately, his minimal participation is hardly convincing in solving her basic problem. Also, we don't have any clue what she does after the graduation ceremony. Thus, I find the ending quite unsatisfactory, despite Lockhart's speech about not allowing one's parents' failings or bad luck to stand in the way of pursuing your dreams.The film begins with a surreal scene, with Billy in some celestial waiting room, polishing plastic stars on strings, and arguing with the starmaster(apparently one of God's bureaucrats, played by Gene Lockhart), about whether he can or wants to return to earth for one day to try to help his daughter and perhaps see Julie. Later, when he does go, he tries to give his daughter a star he stole, but she doesn't want it. The intended significance of the star(s) is left to our imagination. Thus, this whole fake star business comes across as quite ridiculous, leading nowhere! It's holdover baggage from "Lilion"Of course, R&H composed some of their most memorable songs, including the rousing "The Carousel Waltz", the questioning "If I Loved You", the euphoric dance-inspiring "June is Bursting Out All Over", the resigned "What's the Use of Wondering", the inspiring "You'll Never Walk Alone", the determined "Soliloquy", the joyous "This Was a Real Nice Clam Bake" and the romantic "When the Children Are Asleep".As in "Oklahoma", there are two impressive dance productions, one ballet-styled. While Agnes de Mille wasn't on hand to direct the ballet, as she had been for the one in "Oklahoma", the ballet is based upon her creation for the stage version. Notice that, like several of Gene Kelley's ballets, hers depict the inner turmoil, as well as happiness, of the main subject(Billy's daughter, Louise, in this case). Her sense of a joyous free spirit, as well as her ostracism by mainstream society, is acted out, as is her attraction to carnival people, presumably in mimicry of Billy's youth."Carousel" may have been Roger's favorite of his R&H productions, and Shirley's favorite role, but it was not the favorite of audiences, with the flawed main character, and bizarreness and limitations of portions of the screenplay.