Reviews

On a historical level, a personal-story level, and as pure entertainment "Cabaret" works perfectly. The scene is Berlin, Germany, only two years before Hitler would come to total power. It is the Berlin that Christopher Isherwood lived in and wrote about: poverty, drug and alcohol escapism, criminals, sleazebags, fighting in the streets, venereal disease, the prostitution of both sexes, the desperation to escape through the film industry, the temporary escape from the harshness of life in "naughty" nightclubs like The Kit Kat Club, which encapsulates it all. It's a bad scene, and a good example of, perhaps, why so many Germans felt in need of a Hitler. There's not a single verbal reference to Hitler, and yet the presence of the growing Nazi movement all around these decadent misfits is ever present in this film. But you can't blame any of these apolitical people for that. Liza Minelli and Michael York's characters are so needy, so desperate just to find some personal happiness in life. They can't be bothered with what's going on in the bigger picture. Except for the Master Of Ceremonies at the Club: Joel Grey's character is a semi-supernatural all-seeing character, mocking, seeming to somehow know EXACTLY the further destruction Germany's headed for. His scary all-knowing grinning face pops in regularly to remind us. The musical number "Tomorrow Belongs To Me" is so effective an illustration of the appeal this new Nazi hope held for impoverished suffering Germans, and yet we have The Master Of Ceremonies' evil nodding grin to remind us, in retrospect, what it really led to.Just as every musical number (aside from being so beautifully choreographed and presented) reminds us of the desperation in Sally Bowles' life and in most of Germany. "Money Makes The World Go Around" is a perfect musical number, and so illustrative of the horrendous financial state of Germany at the time. Joel Grey's raunchy "Two Ladies" on the Kit Kat stage to the hysterical delight of the decadent crowd reminds us that all sexual propriety has broken down (including in the lives of the main characters, now involved in a threeway with one of the few Germans who still has some wealth intact). Everyone who wants an example of the artistic heights that film can reach should see "Cabaret".

World War II has just ended. Nuremberg, like the rest of Germany, is to a great extent still rubble but people are already starting to try to forget the whole thing and frequent bars and restaurants again, along with members of the American occupying forces. Most seem to be relieved the war is over and to get on with life. The last of the war crime trials against lower-ranking Nazis are taking place. In this setting we meet several characters: Madame Bertholt (Marlene Dietrich), the aristocratic German lady who disliked Hitler but is now nevertheless suffering the consequences of the war, having lost all including her military husband; the American Col. Lawson (Richard Widmark), the prosecutor at the war crime trials who, in a moment of drunkeness, admits his discomfort in occupying a country with an older and grander history than his own; Hans Rolfe, defense attorney for the defendants, who just might feel an underlying guilt over the ruthlessness he'll have to show in the courtroom but which nevertheless is required by him to best serve his legal calling; and the great Spencer Tracy as the presiding American Judge Haywood. The judge has been given Madame Bertholt's grand house to live in for the trial, and a perfect example of how this film shows the wide range of emotions in most human beings is his obvious guilt of invading this fine lady's house (even though she was the enemy) and the instant attraction between them. The wide range of emotions are so well portrayed in this film, which probably accurately represent the spectrum of people in Germany at this time. Nothing is black and white, no one is a total villain, everyone is a complicated human being. The dialogue is always electrifying, and this isn't even taking into account the courtroom drama (which is about half the film's time); which is genuinely disturbing..though this is primarily through the acting: Judy Garland as a woman reliving her past nightmare of inprisonment for having associated with a Jew; and Montgomery Clift as a man who underwent forced medical sterilization for being a Communist (Clift's portrayal of this wreck of a man is one of the best most heartbreaking pieces of acting you'll ever see). There's also an incredible speech by defendant Ernst Janning (Burt Lancaster) at the end which just might be the greatest insight, perhaps, into why the Third Reich was so successful at sweeping Germany. This film absolutely rates a ten.

This is a truly insulting movie. They must assume the average American audience is a bunch of half-wits, and they can put on the screen every stereotypical idea about where racism comes from ("oooh, you see that? You learn it from your parents!") You can make up any story you want for the screen. ("Oooh, look at that! The white guys betrayed and raped him in prison and the black guy told the other black guys to leave him alone! Now he'll see why he was wrong to be racist!") Hopefully the American public isn't stupid enough to let such movie-makers talk down to us. Skip this piece of junk and see "A Raison In the Sun" or "Gentleman's Agreement" if you want a film that at least engages the logic (or non-logic) of racism in an intelligent fashion.

Simply as fun adventure and bizarre atmosphere (such a grotesque version of present day L.A.) this is a great movie. But the message is quite serious at the end. The image of Snake holding the pack of American Spirit cigarettes is a moving one. It might be a comic book setting, but the purity of the "this is what America is all about" comes right through.

Although one could point out what many see as flaws in the film (and I really can't disagree with them) the basic elements still hold up as to why I love this movie: the horror of a tidal wave capsizing a cruise ship and leaving it's surviving passengers in their "hell, upside down" is still there. Rev. Scott (Gene Hackman) announcing that "The sea is going to keep pouring in..." to that awesome score still carries the threat of what they're up against.