Brigadoon (1954)

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

So much average

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Originally, conceived as a closer adaptation of the Broadway hit. With the change in starring personnel from those best known for their singing to those (Kelly and Cyd) best known for their stage dancing, several songs in the stage version were cut, and more dancing added. Cyd's singing was always dubbed, and Kelly's singing voice, never his strongest talent, was often weaker than usual in this film. In fact, he ordered one of his songs canned for this reason. Even the supporting actors who sang were mostly dubbed. Cyd's dancing talent complemented Kelly's dancing style well, and I thought they had good chemistry, especially in their 2 dance sequences to "The Heather in the Hill".Versatile Van Johnson was great as the often humorously cynical alcoholic Jeff, representing a man so jaded by the artificiality and rat race mentality of modern big cities, that he cannot appreciate the rustic charm of this traditional European herding village that has essentially been frozen in time since the mid-18th century.His categorical rebuff of the persistent amorous advances of a comely lassie is particularly funny. Actually, this behavior was dictated by the plot, as he would have been a bad influence that the villagers were trying to exclude in their periodic disappearing act.Kelly, as Tommy, represents a man who, although from the same culture as Jeff,feels that this village offers a more desirable lifestyle than the one he has known, and seemingly with an abundance of lassies itching to land a husband.He's even willing to accept the fantastic story that this village only appears for a day every hundred years and is still ultimately willing to give up his present life to live in such a place for eternity. Let's see. If we assume the people in this village age only one day every century, he would have a good chance of being around on earth for the next million years or so, but with an important caveat! Not a bad prospect. Can heaven offer more? This periodic disappearing act was granted by God to a former minister who was concerned about the prevalence of sorcerers in the region who were leading the villagers astray into devil worship. He was also concerned about other bad influences seeping in from the big bad outside world. But this ability of the village to appear and disappear depends on no one leaving the village district. If someone does, the village will disappear and sleep forever(disappear into a Black Hole?). The spell maker must have had Buddhist sympathies! Harry, the jilted beau of Fiona's(Cyd's) sister, Jean, tries to leave the village to go to a university to make himself more attractive to a future beau.The efforts of the villagers and Tommy to stop him are ineffective. Ironically, it is unconcerned Jeff, who has been out hunting grouse, who accidentally shoots Harry instead, thus saving the village from oblivion. However, it is clear that everyone will perpetually be kept on edge with the certainty that others will want to leave in the future.From this perspective, this spell, as formulated, has more the look of a curse than an opportunity for a perpetual utopia, unless you are a Buddhist.Upon further thinking, I realized that this story bears a strong resemblance to the traditional European fairy tale "Sleeping Beauty", who was put under a spell by a mischievous fairy to sleep 100 years(along with everyone else in the castle), before being awakened by the kiss of a prince, who had to cut his way through a thick tangle of thorny vegetation which had protected the sleeping castle inhabitants from evil outside forces all those years. The present story, with a village that disappears and reappears periodically, is a more extreme version of this story, but also with the difference that the long suspended animation feature is considered desirable, not a handicap. In place of the prince's kiss, Tommy's love for Fiona and the whole village is sufficient to cause the village to reappear well before its next scheduled reawakening.Kelly's extended solo dance in the bush around Brigadoon while intermittently singing "Almost Like being in Love" much reminds me of his previous famous 'umbrella' dance in "Singing in the Rain", and his subsequent 'roller skating' routine in "It's Always Fair Weather". In each case, the dance functions to express his exuberance in having established a new romantic relationship, in the absence of the beloved.I cannot appreciate all the fuss over the film being done on a sound stage instead of in bonnie ole Scotland or some more practical outdoor facsimile of such."The Wizard of Oz" wasn't shot in The Land of Oz" either, but the film was nonetheless a charming classic. Obviously, the stage version also required artificial scenery and props.I thought the backdrops generally were done with great care, and the rugged terrain at close range was effectively simulated. Real sheep and Highland shaggy cattle were included. Kelly was afraid of the latter and demanded that they be blindfolded, with artificial eyes, as a precaution! Some complain that the dancing should have been restricted to traditional Highland dancing, that the stylistic dancing of Kelly and Cyd was out of place. I agree with the producer that some of each was better. Most of the stylistic dancing was done in the bush, without other villagers as observers. Traditional Scottish dancing was featured at the festival and, again, at Jean's wedding.

Brigadoon is not the best movie musical I've seen, nor is it the worst. In fact, while the closing scene is a little abrupt, Brigadoon is a charming and underrated musical, and I confess I have not seen the stage musical. The score is wonderful and the songs are magnificent especially the enchanting The Heather on the Hill. The choreography is very attractive, especially when performed by such pros meaning Gene Kelly and Cyd Charise, the costumes and sets are imaginative and the CinemaScope is very effective and enhances the choreography even further, while the story adeptly blends charm, tragedy and humour. The cast gives the film even more heart than it has, Gene Kelly(Xanadu is his worst film, not this as I have seen cited by some people not on this site), Van Johnson and Cyd Charise are all wonderful. In conclusion, I liked Brigadoon a lot. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Well, the show is over because I reached the last DVD on this box set. I saved "Brigadoon" for the end because I was appalled by this folk theme: a romance in Scotland.Now, that I have seen it, I am a bit disappointed: the sets are too make-believe and it's look like a show on stage. This time, at least at the beginning, the songs stop the story and are quite boring. It took time for the fairy tale to take you but it happens with the help of the Celtics enchantment (patchwork colors everywhere, a "shire" atmosphere) and the talent of Minelli and Kelly. The first is very close to Lynch, being able to shoot fantasy in real / dreamy way and the latter is always convincing in spite of the void of any decent partner here...As I left for the moment Kelly's cinematography, I tell one more time how great and talented he was: actor, dancer, singer, director, choreographer and above all, a decent man! I think he has bring the best to his passion, the dance and stories like "Billy Elliot" are silly to deconstruct his legacy. Dance isn't for girls only, and boys who dance aren't effeminate. Look at him! Dance is a way of expressing yourself as writing, painting or sporting. That's why I was stunned when I see that Kelly would link sports and dance together because I have always considered my basketball practicing as "my" dance.Thanks Gene, I will remember for a long time this summer 2010 and I miss you very much!

Superficically, "Brigadoon" is a very promising entertainment package. Gene Kelly and Vincente Minnelli, the team behind "An American in Paris", are reunited with a lot of the great craftsmen and women behind their previous collaborations. Gene's leading lady is Cyd Charisse, one of the best dancers of 40s/50s cinema, and unlike the generally superior "It's Always Fair Weather" this film gave them the chance for not only one but two dances. Lerner and Loewe were the rising team behind such future hits as "My Fair Lady" and Minnelli's musical masterpiece "Gigi"; Lerner and Minnelli had already demonstrated their sanguine collaborative juices on the excellent "American in Paris."What happened along the way? Why is the movie itself such a stupid bore? Minnelli himself didn't want to do the movie, despite his previous warm artistic and personal relationship with Lerner. Maybe it was because the movie's innate conservatism was just a bit too much of two steps forward for MGM and one step backward for Vincente Minnelli. But once trapped in this assignment like the denizens of Brigadoon are trapped within its city limits, Minnelli strove to turn it into something that would be entertaining in a specifically distracting, if not liberating way. The ultimate result is truly horrific to behold.While aiming for the naive charm of previous Minnelli hits like "Cabin in the Sky" and "Meet Me in St. Louis", the plaid-tights wearing inhabitants of Brigadoon can conjure up none of the illusive nostalgia of those never-have-been locales. Its whimsy doesn't even match up to the glossy luster of "Yolanda and the Thief" or "The Pirate" because the highlands settings seem at the same time too specific for such an exotic fantasy and too generic for real human emotions. The only people in Brigadoon who I at least can relate to are the malcontented man who tries to escape and the unfortunate fellow-traveler played by Van Johnson who accidentally shoots him. The general proceedings in the township of Brigadoon itself are too arcane and provincial even to be attributed to a backwards form of Christianity: they seem positively pagan in their aspect. For example, in exchange for Brigadoon's immortality, the honorable and most generally "good" pastor of the town has sacrificed his own place in the supposedly blessed refuge.At one point we're assured that "everybody's looking for their own Brigadoon." Suffice it to say the box office for this picture confirms my own suspicion that most of us aren't looking for this kind of quasi-queasy paradise. The premise itself is ridiculous and almost insultingly patronizing, but could work if the players were perfect. But Kelly himself is the most patronizing thing about the movie, and Charisse is horribly miscast as a virginal optimist in much the same way as Lucille Bremer was miscast in "Yolanda and the Thief." Van Johnson does his best version of the classic Oscar Levant sidekick to Kelly (even lighting 3 cigarettes at one point like Levant in "AIP"), and he provides a lot of amusing moments. But it says something in itself if the best part of a big budget extravaganza with all the best talents of MGM is a tossed-off Van Johnson performance.