Fame (1980)
Fame (2009)
Neither Fame movie is great. I watched Fame 1980 and found it edgy but lacking. The film starts out in a wild, almost cinema-verite style with young, hopeful students auditioning for the opportunity to attend an exclusive New York performing arts high school. We’re introduced to a plethora of characters and an exciting editing rhythm. But eventually its major drama takes place outside of the school and it’s a challenge to keep your interest in the many dragging story lines. The stitches sort of ravel and the end feels incomplete. Interestingly, Fame 2009 suffers from much the same structural problems without the Ed Koch era urban grit. Shinier faces make for an even duller movie, although I find the sequel to have better music and choreography. I’m not sure what about Fame 1980 made it such a watermark. I’m sure the new one will fall with the weight of a grand drape.
To better explain both films I put together an illustrative comparison:
inexplicably bad, yet passing, auditions | ||||
Fame 1980 | Fame 2009 | |||
√ | √ | |||
mousey Jewish girl blossoming into kind of a whore | ||||
Fame 1980 | Fame 2009 | |||
√ | √ | |||
minority seeking artistic medium for back story rage | ||||
Fame 1980 | Fame 2009 | |||
√ | √ | |||
gay characters in art school who don’t get any | ||||
Fame 1980 | Fame 2009 | |||
1 * | 1 | |||
* Welcome Back Kotter had more gays | ||||
Debbie Allen as Lydia Grant | ||||
Fame 1980 | Fame 2009 | |||
√ | x | |||
Debbie Allen as Angela Simms | ||||
Fame 1980 | Fame 2009 | |||
x | √ | |||
Richard Belzer cameo | ||||
Fame 1980 | Fame 2009 | |||
√ | x | |||
popular television actors reviving stalled careers | ||||
Fame 1980 | Fame 2009 | |||
1 | 4 | |||
Irene Cara’s golf ball sized breasts | ||||
Fame 1980 | Fame 2009 | |||
2 | 0 | |||
spontaneous lunchroom jam session | ||||
Fame 1980 | Fame 2009 | |||
√ | √ | |||
spontaneous dancing on top of taxicabs | ||||
Fame 1980 | Fame 2009 | |||
√ | x | |||
extraneous characters and plotlines | ||||
Fame 1980 | Fame 2009 | |||
baker’s dozen | 1/2 dozen | |||
overbearing white parents supporting child’s dream | ||||
Fame 1980 | Fame 2009 | |||
2 | 0 | |||
overbearing black parents not supporting child’s dream | ||||
Fame 1980 | Fame 2009 | |||
0 | 2 | |||
leg warmers and Danskin unitards | ||||
Fame 1980 | Fame 2009 | |||
√ | x | |||
Capezios and Under Armour dance bras | ||||
Fame 1980 | Fame 2009 | |||
x | √ | |||
the F word | ||||
Fame 1980 | Fame 2009 | |||
Rated R | Rated PG-13 | |||
pot smoking | ||||
Fame 1980 | Fame 2009 | |||
√ | x | |||
chaptered structure gradually losing dramatic impact | ||||
Fame 1980 | Fame 2009 | |||
√ | √ | |||
big musical finish | ||||
Fame 1980 | Fame 2009 | |||
“Climb Every Mountain” | “We’re All In This Together” |
Comments on: "Fame, What You Need You Have to Borrow" (1)
I have to say, your blog promises “all my other neurotic obsessions” and, knowing you as I do, I believe there to be a WIDE discrepancy between the volume of said obsessions in real life and the manifestations or acknowledgement of same in this blog. Can we get some corrective posting? Where is the minutae?