Essay Hairspray

917 Words2 Pages

Course Work 1: Write an analytical film review in the style of Empire Magazine.

Hairspray

Plot:
The opening scene presents Nikki Blonsky, as tubby teen Tracy Turnblad. After troubles and knock backs, Tracy makes her way to the Corny Collins Show Council. Tracy decides it’s not fair that the black kids can only dance on the show once a month, known as Negro Day, with the help of Seaweed, Link, Penny and Motormouth Maybelle she aims to integrate the Corny Collins show!

Review:
Hairspray is a mix of humor and spectacular show tunes, featuring many big name stars for instance Michelle Pfeiffer, John Travolta and Zac Efron. Tracy is obsessed with the Corny Collins a local day time dance show. When a vacancy on the show is announced Tracy will …show more content…

This features one of the best songs in the movie, ‘Welcome to the 60’s’. Accompanying this song is a perfected dance sequence as Tracy and Edna, John Travolta, skip and gallop down Baltimore’s streets. This is a pinnacle moment showing the cheerful tone of the film as well as Tracy’s ignorance to the world around her. The music is astonishing from start to finish. It is the strength and power from all of the show tunes, which carry the film, making it the spectacular it is. Another remarkable occasion is the March scene. Motormouth Maybelle, played by the magnificent Queen Latifah, organizes a passive march to protest against black and white segregation on television. This scene is what I think to be the most emotional part of the film. Lead by Queen Latifah the protesters sing ‘I Know Where I’ve Been’, due to the destructive actions of Velma Von Tussle their peaceful protest causes Tracy a lot of trouble.

It is those outstanding performances from Nikki Blonsky, Queen Latifah, Zac Efron and the rest of the cast that generated the $202,548,575 at the Box Office. Hairspray has been a financial success. In the US in the opening weekend over $27 million was made and was shown in 3,121 screens. Over £2 million was made in the UK in it’s opening weekend only being shown on 348 screens. These figures broke the record for biggest sales at opening weekend for a movie musical. Hairspray went on to being the sixth highest grossing musical film in US cinema

Open Document