Picture 75: Chicago (2002)

2002 and time to head to 1920s Chicago for the first musical to win Best Picture since Oliver! in 1968. The 2000s rebirth of the musical is in full swing. Chicago succeeded where Moulin Rouge! could not so surely we are in for something spectacular?

Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is a vaudeville musical theatre star who finds herself on death row for the murder of her adulterous husband and her sister with whom he was having an affair. Meanwhile, Roxie Hart (Renée Zellweger) joins her behind bars for similarly dramatic offences.

You’d expect morale to be low and clouds of guilt to gravely descend on these women. Not so! This was the 1920s and apparently you can sing and dance your way to freedom – especially if you have Billy Flynn (Richard Gere) as your lawyer.

The 53-year-old Richard Gere looks great for his age and Chicago brings a good bit of old fashioned fun to the Oscar winners. The talented cast deliver some impressive singing and dancing with outfits to match.

But let’s face facts, this Best Picture can’t muster the substance needed to be taken seriously in this company. It’s hard to root for the characters and the writing sacrifices coherence for spectacle. For all of its attempted jazz, Chicago is simply a bit boring and the 113 minutes feel mercifully short. It turns out that attempting to fuse The Great Gatsby with The Shawskank Redemption just doesn’t work particularly well.  

This Broadway show struggles to manifest its power through a cathode ray tube. Ranked in 67^th, it’s the lowest scoring film since 1981 and it single-handedly drags the 2000s average from 9.5/10 to 8/10. Bravo, but I’ll be heading to the bar before the encore. Many thanks.

Rating 5/10

Oscar Best Picture Rankings:

1. The Godfather (1972)

2. Schindler’s List (1993)

3. Gladiator (2000)

4. Casablanca (1943)

5. The Apartment (1960)

6. Rebecca (1940)

7. The Godfather: Part II (1974)

8. The Sound of Music (1965)

9. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

10. Ordinary People (1980)

11. A Man for All Seasons (1966)

12. Gandhi (1982)

13. The Deer Hunter (1978)

14. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

15. The English Patient (1996)

16. American Beauty (1999)

17. Titanic (1997)

18. Ben-Hur (1959)

19. The Last Emperor (1987)

20. Unforgiven (1992)

21. Lost Weekend (1945)

22. Platoon (1986)

23. Gone With the Wind (1939)

24. A Beautfiul Mind (2001)

25. Rocky (1976)

26. Annie Hall (1977)

27. Amadeus (1984)

28. All About Eve (1950)

29. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)

30. Hamlet (1948)

31. How Green Was My Valley (1941)

32. Braveheart (1995)

33. Out of Africa (1985)

34. West Side Story (1961)

35. Mrs. Miniver (1942)

36. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

37. Wings (1928)

38. Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)

39. You can’t take it with you (1938)

40. Patton (1970)

41. Terms of Endearment (1983)

42. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

43. On the Waterfront (1954)

44. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

45. Midnight Cowboy (1969)

46. Driving Miss Daisy (1989)

47. Rain Man (1988)

48. Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)

49. Forrest Gump (1994)

50. Dances with Wolves (1990)

51. Marty (1955)

52. Oliver! (1968)

53. Cimarron (1931)

54. Grand Hotel (1932)

55. The French Connection (1971)

56. An American in Paris (1951)

57. Shakespeare in Love (1998)

58. From Here to Eternity (1953)

59. It Happened One Night (1934)

60. My Fair Lady (1964)

61. Gentleman’s Agreement (1947)

62. Cavalcade (1933)

63. The Sting (1973)

64. The Life of Emile Zola (1937)

65. Going My Way (1944)

66. The Great Ziegfeld (1936)

67. Chicago (2002)

68. Chariots of Fire (1981)

69. All the King’s Men (1949)

70. In the Heat of the Night (1967)

71. Gigi (1958)

72. Around the World in 80 Days (1956)

73. The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)

74. The Broadway Melody (1929)

75. Tom Jones (1963)

Previous or current ranking leaders are in bold.

With credit and thanks to the patrons of the Best Picture Film Club:

Dr Sophie Bloomfield – Fashion Correspondent

Dr Caspar Briault – Head of Cynicism

Dr Conrad Charlton

Dr Sophie Clarke

Dr Kate Diomede

Dr Fionnuala Durrant

Dr Josh Fisher

Dr Joseph Gallaher – CEO and Founder

Dr Joseph Hamilton

Dr Adam Holland – Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

Dr Sid Mohan - Divisional Lead for the 1980s

Dr Hannah Morrison

Dr Meera Radia