The new made hair spray has almost the same story line as the old one but is presented differently. It is a musical and most part of the film is constituted with singings. I personally love musicals; however, I do not enjoy this one at all. Too many songs make this film very tedious and boring. Almost every main character in the film sings and that distracts people’s attention from the point the movie is trying to make. Moreover, there is no song in the movie that really impressed me.
Something that is very strange about this film is that it is neither camp nor normal. Some part of the movie is very unnatural but other parts seem to be serious. Most parts of the story are exaggerated but when it comes to the racial problem, the funny style suddenly changed and become serious and normal. For example, when Tracy’s mom and dad have a fight, the singings are really ridiculous but when Tracy and those African Americans are having a protest, it seems to be too serious to be a part of this kind of film. Unlike the old Hair Spray, which addresses the racial problem in a funny way, the inconsistency of the style in the new Hair Spray makes it confusing.
The new Hair Spray does change a little bit about the story, for example, Tracy does not get into the show through audition and Link does not want to go to the parade for black people at first. All those changes make this film more realistic but at the same time, make it more confusing—is it normal or unnatural? However, I don’t think those changes change a lot the way the film interact with ideology. It just makes the ideology the film tries to change clearer. Those actors say directly in the film that things need to be change--black, Chinese and fat people should have their voice out, which I think is really overdone. Brently said in his film review that “In truth, ''Hairspray'' doesn't have the same breathtaking confidence in its powers of invention. There are moments (rare ones) when it seems to lose its comic moorings to drift into repetition, and it definitely overdoes the self-help-style anthems of uplift. “
In addition, I think the new Hair Spray failed to make the characteristics of those main characters clear comparing with the old one. Penny and her mother are two very typical and special characters in the old Hair Spray. But they are not presented in the new film as well as in the old one.
I agree that the musical aspect of the film was slightly over the top and did not help convey the message of the film and more effectively distracted the audience away from the message. I am sure that the music and singing created a great effect along with the storyline in the Broadway musical. Some things, however, should not try to be recreated in film. The experiences between Broadway and film are quite different so why should their content and musical components be the same. I believe that some effects (such as musicals) should remain in the theater and film effects should stay in the film and not dance between the two as they have different audiences and messages they are conveying.
回复删除The main characters in the original were fantastic! They allowed the audience to relate to them and they were very vivid. You either loved them or hated them. This made the message easy to be reflected upon by the audience since the characters were so relatable. I feel the characters in the remake were too “soft.” The message wasn’t as easy to see, nor were the characters as relatable or vivid. It seemed that you never really got to know the characters in the remake especially in regards to how well you knew and understood the characters from the original.
I agree that the music in this film was over the top and boring. I too, enjoy musicals but this one was just a little too much for me to handle.
回复删除I agree that this version of Hairspray was too "safe". It didn't take as much risk as the old one did when it came to making fun of racial themes and being campy (which was the most enjoyable part of the movie). They took many scenes out that made the movie as great as it was, for example, Penny Pingleton's mom freaking out when the black guy asked her for a quarter.