it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

There will never be another Barbra. This is the role she was born to play - all you character actresses dreaming of a remake can stand aside. Your voice and comedy have never been better. Omar Sharif makes an unlikable part downright dreamy. The music is classic without being old. Sadly, little has changed since the era of this story in how we value women and their looks...women of all ages will see themselves in Funny Girl!

"Funny Girl" is the screen adaptation of the stage musical, based on the life and career of Fanny Brice. And it is a vehicle for the talents--acting and singing--of Barbra Streisand. She embodies the role, defines it, and carries it to heights of perfection.The other actors in the film are, I'm afraid, part of the scenery. It's not their fault. Streisand acting dominates the screen. Streisand singing brands the song. Her facility with comedy is both unique and classic. Her ability to portray tragedy--sometimes through comedy--is heartbreaking.In "Funny Girl", we love her spirit, rejoice in her triumphs, and suffer with her when she realizes she has no control over the one thing she truly wants. She wants an impossibly attractive man, finds love with him, then fails to hold him. It's a theme she later explored in "The Way We Were"."Funny Girl" showed that Streisand had the screen presence that could draw an audience. In fact, it even realigned common definitions of beauty as the camera lingered on her profile. She also wears some wonderful fashions.This is the film that launched a career that had only existed on vinyl (or on stage if you were luck enough to see Streisand on Broadway). It is film history in the making. I only wish she had made more films, but I can settle for "The Way We Were", "A Star is Born", "Hello Dolly", and "Yentl".

I don't think I can watch the whole thing on TCM this minute. or ever. Tune in and listen a bit an turn away is enough. Better to listen to my CD, and get the Cast album if I can, as they dropped many songs; I've read. I am just young enough to know the name Fanny Brice, but not Nicky Arnstein; and wondered do they mean Sophie Tucker! Sounds silly but was confusing. Brice was not movie star(?) let alone to ever be possible as a TV star, out of sight out of mind.The lives of Fanny and Nicky and her family in this movie are too sanitized and fictionalized. The movie and earlier play was produced by Fanny Brice's son-in-law and was 'rigged' so to avoid what I read could have been possible lawsuits especially from Arnstein! So I do hove something against it. And there won't be a musical remake of this caliber that can be closer to the real background story.I thought they stopped making up all kinds of fictionalized characters and scenarios to sell the A- musicals of the 50s with THEN old-fashioned music standards and the THEN more "mature" stars. (Tea for Two", "Band Wagon" etc.)I have no idea what Fanny Brice sounded like. Aren't there any recordings? None of the characters ring true in my imagination - songs forced style NY Jewish-ish, and sometimes the lines and sometimes not that way, too. You need to be a Streisand or a movie musical lover to take this in and be able to swoon.

Funny Girl for me did drag in the second half and fairly badly and some of the script is contrived with some lines in the second half that may make one cringe. However, Funny Girl is a beautifully done film and without a doubt one of Barbra Streisand's best films. And Fanny Brice gets my vote as her best performance, it's a fantastic performance that was fully worthy of the joint Oscar and it is from personal view one of the greatest film debut performances ever. Her singing cannot be faulted, a big, well-supported and beautiful voice that was capable of much emotion as can be heard in My Man, and acting-wise she does do funny and poignant brilliantly, just love her facial expressions as well. Omar Shariff is handsome and ultra-smooth in his role, and the two do show some passionate chemistry together, while Mae Questel is hilarious, Kay Medford has sincere fun in her small role and Walter Pidgeon is endearingly curmudgeon. Anne Francis doesn't have a whole lot to do but is very charming. Other than Streisand the other high points are the score and songs. The score is lushly orchestrated with lots of bombastic energy and pathos without ever being syrupy. The songs are equally marvellous, the rousing Don't Rain On My Parade and the truly emotional My Man being the highlights. The way the numbers are staged are not static nor are they overblown, an achievement seeing as there are a few lengthy ones in there, People is particularly well-done in this regard. The story has pacing issues but still manages to be fun(with some very cute jokes from Streisand), charming and touching, and there are some very good production values particularly in the opulent costumes though the colourful sets and fluid cinematography are notable too. This may be the first and only musical William Wyler made but as far as directors-who-only-directed-one-musical Funny Girl does stand out as one of the better ones by quite some way, never pedestrian or heavy and there is at least a sense that he knew what he was doing. All in all, not perfect with the pacing and scripting issues but it is well worth seeing for Streisand, whose performance alone is worth two stars already. Adding the music, supporting cast, production values and how to me emotionally investing the story was Funny Girl for all its comparatively small imperfections is a great film. 9/10 Bethany Cox