Fame (1980)

Plot of Fame: A group of teenagers audition for entry into the New York Academy for the Performing Arts and we follow the progress of the successful ones as they move on through the years, finally graduating. It is not all smooth going. Leroy a black dancer has problems with reading,  Doris lacks confidence, Bruno does not want to share his music, Montgomery is a closet gay and so on. Coco a talented dancer and singer hides her poor background from her fellow students. But through it all they gradually progress mostly overcoming their problems. There are breaks for music, sometimes there are performances individually and sometimes collectively, famously the dancing in the street to “Fame”.

Content: There are implications that sex takes place but very limited nudity where young men spy on the girl’s changing room. Some social drinking and a bit of hash smoking.  There is quite a bit of dancing, the dancers showing their extraordinary suppleness, and once Hilary does ballet impressively. Also some solo songs, some orchestral features and once Bruno’s dad broadcasting “Fame” from speakers on top of his taxi, and the cast dancing in the street. Later we see Doris becoming confident and joining the cast of a version of the Rocky Horror Show, Coco being scammed by an amateur porno film maker and Ralph bombing as a comic on a nightclub stage. Leroy continues to have problems with reading, Hilary has to have an abortion.

A View: This film was quite well liked by the critics and made money. The song, Fame won the Oscar for best original song. It was a film with problems I thought, particularly since maybe the high point of all were the auditions, but they had to come at the beginning and the dance in the streets to Fame, which came in the middle and completely eclipsed the finale. Most of the singing was passable and the dancing was terrific, of course they used professionals, however close to the beginning the aspiring actors were told that there are 50,000 actors out there but only 500 have jobs, curiously reflecting the real lives of the cast whose success after Fame was variable. So today, not quite as good as its cracked up to be but you could have it on while doing something else.

Fun Fact: The kids dance to Fame out there in the street, but actually they moved to Donna Summer’s Hot Stuff, and the song was added post production.