Fame Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

Fame Blu-ray Movie Review

“I’m gonna live forever, I’m gonna learn how to fly.”

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater January 18, 2010

If you think of Fame as a cheery, bubblegum tale of teenage talent and aspiration, you’re probably thinking of the Fame TV series spin-off—a pop trifle if there ever was one—which dropped the grim predicaments and dashed hopes of the original 1980 film, leaving only fun dance numbers and a “You can do it!” attitude. The franchise’s legacy has been further sullied by a sanitary 2009 remake, a glossy 107-minute music video that seems more like a commercial for itself than an honest look at the lives of gifted, troubled, and easily exploited youth. The original certainly has moments of optimism and gleeful, almost orgiastic energy, but it also hones much closer to the flipside: the pain of broken dreams, the pressures of being young and talented, and the elusiveness of show business success. At the same time, the film’s hard edge is slightly dulled by some goofy-in-retrospect conventions of the early 1980s, including guys wearing t-shirts that barely cover their nipples and a preponderancy for pastel tank tops and denim cut-off shorts.

Practice, practice, practice...

“All anyone ever promised you was seven classes a day and a hot lunch,” is the unspoken mantra at Performing Arts, a Manhattan high school for New York City’s best and brightest future stars. “The rest,” goes the slogan’s caveat, “is up to you.” In Fame we follow the lives of seven gifted students, from their awkward auditions to the pomp and circumstance of graduation day. In between, of course, there’s a lot of growing up to be done, talents to nurture, and painful realities to face. Despite teasing from Ralph Garci (Barry Miller), a wannabe stand-up comedian obsessed with Freddy Prinze, sensitive redheaded drama student Montgomery (Paul McCrane) comes bravely out of the closet and stops underplaying his obvious homosexuality as an “issue with women.” Mousy actress Doris (Maureen Teefy) goes from buttoned-up and inhibited to letting loose at a midnight showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Illiterate street dancer LeRoy (Gene Anthony Ray) enters as a knife-carrying thug and ends up being hired by a well-known choreographer. And Bruno (Lee Curreri), a synthesizer whiz, learns to unplug his headphones and let the world hear his electronic compositions.

There are some modest successes here, but director Alan Parker isn’t afraid to explore the underbelly of fame and the darker aspects of ambition. In fact, that’s kind of the point. Multi- talented performer Coco Hernandez (Irene Cara) is naively seduced by the siren of a screen test, only to end up topless and sobbing on some imposter director’s casting couch. One dancer ponders suicide after being told she’ll never be good enough to go pro, while another gets an abortion so she can take a gig with the San Francisco Ballet. If all you remember from Fame is the catchy title tune and the “Hot Lunch” sequence—where a cafeteria jam session escalates into a wild, table-dancing disco number—then you might be surprised by the bleak turns that the film takes as the students proceed through their senior year. This is real life though—or a relatively close approximation thereof—where even the top graduating student in the school is more likely to be waiting tables at a downtown diner than landing gigs as an extra on a daytime soap, let alone singing his heart out in a Broadway musical or becoming a bona fide movie star. Every one of these kids wants to be famous, but even those that have it—the talent, the drive, the inherent good looks—are dependant on Lady Luck to smile upon them and make the magic happen.

Fame isn’t director Alan Parker’s best film—he had previously made Bugsy Malone, and would go on to make The Commitments, Evita, and Mississippi Burning—but it’s definitely better than all the spin-offs and remakes that came after it, which are closer in tone and content to High School Musical than Parker’s original, more realistic vision. The main problem with the film—and this goes for the remake as well—is that it seems simultaneously overlong and much too short to give convincing trajectories to all of the characters that it follows. Still, the characters are much better realized than they are in the impossibly bland remake, and several of the beats—like LeRoy smashing a row of glass windows after a teacher presses him on his reading ability—are powerful and unlike anything you’d see in a typical “teen” movie. The dance numbers are fun, the songs still worm their way into your brain, and if nothing else, Fame is interesting as a product of its era, when Times Square still seemed a little seedy and New York as a whole was as yet untamed. There’s a sense—and I’m paraphrasing here from an interview with Alan Parker—that the kids in Fame walk a fine line between the promise of success and the potential for failure, that they could get scholarships to Juilliard or just as easily end up dancing topless a few blocks away, which certainly isn’t a possibility in the kid-friendly remake.

Fame Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The original Fame pirouettes onto Blu-ray with a decent but never outright impressive 1080p/VC-1 encoded transfer that looks about average for a film from the early 1980s. The film's color palette is nicely reproduced here, characterized by bright, often pastel clothing set against the neutral backdrops of the school's classrooms and practice spaces. Red and pink tones seem especially vibrant, like Ralph's bandana, a dance instructor's borderline neon sweater, and an actual neon sign that flashes outside of Montgomery's Times Square apartment. There's certainly no wishy-washyness to the image, as both colors and black levels are deep and weighty, while shadow details are relatively well-preserved. If there's one thing holding the film back on Blu-ray, it's that a slight softness frequently pervades the image and keeps fine detail from being as apparent as it could be. Director Alan Parker acknowledges in his commentary track that the cinematographer often used fine smoke to diffuse the lighting, so this might have something to do with it, but the softness could easily be attributed to any number of things, from the lenses used to the way the film was transferred. Regardless, I don't want it to sound like a viewing experience-ruining fault, because it really isn't, but the transfer isn't as sharp as some I've seen from other films from the era. Grain is quite heavy at times—there are a few shots where it spikes unexpectedly—but I noticed no DNR smearing, overemphatic edge enhancement, or any other unnecessary tweaking. The print is also nearly immaculate, and aside from some blotchiness in bright highlights, I didn't see any color, transfer, or compression anomalies.

Fame Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

In my review of the 2009 Fame remake, I noted how the film's powerful and immersive audio experience was the highlight of its Blu-ray release. While the original doesn't nearly come close to matching the remake's intricate sound design and stunning clarity, Fame's Dolby TrueHD 5.1 surround track sounds pretty good considering the film's more dated audio elements. As you would hope, the music is clean, bold, and detailed. Bruno's synthesizers squeal and bleep in an electronic orchestra of sound, the title song is as engaging as it is catchy, and the "Hot Lunch Jam" is a raucous good time, even if it does seem strange when the sound of a guy tapping on a lunch table with drumsticks morphs into the sound of a full-on drum set, high-hat, bass pedal, snares, and all. The rear channels are sparingly used, but to good effect. You'll hear New York City street sounds, school bells ringing, hallway chatter, an orchestra warming up, and other environmental noises, but it's all kept fairly low in the mix. Though some of the ADR recording is a bit noticeable, the voices are appropriately balanced, whether we're hearing quiet conversations or full-bodied vocal solos.

Fame Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Commentary by Director Alan Parker
Alan Parker delivers a dry but insightful commentary track that will be appreciated by fans of the director and fans of Fame alike. He does go quite in depth about the process of prepping, auditioning, and shooting the film, and his memory for small details and anecdotes is impressive. Well worth a listen.

Interviews with Cast and Crew (SD, approx. 23 min.)
If you turn this feature on while watching the film, and icon will appear periodically. Press enter to bring up video interviews with director Alan Parker, and actors Maureen Teefy, Gene Anthony Ray, Lee Curreri, and Laura Dean. You can also play the interviews individually from the disc's menu.

On Location with Fame (SD, 11:56)
This vintage featurette includes interviews with director Alan Parker, choreographer Louis Falco, and all the key members of the cast, as well as lots of behind-the-scenes footage.

Fame Field Trip (SD, 10:59)
In this brief documentary from 2003, we're taken into the Fiorello H. La Guardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts—I know, quite a mouthful—to see how the school portrayed in Fame operates in real life.

Soundtrack Sampler CD
Inside the Blu-ray case you'll find a sampler CD with four tracks: two versions of "Fame," the film's famous "Hot Lunch Jam," and Linda Clifford performing "Red Light."

Theatrical Trailer (SD, 2:55)

Fame Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you bought the remake of Fame for your ten year old last week, it's probably not a smart move to pick up director Alan Parker's original version, which is fully loaded with cursing, nudity, sexual situations and the possibility of failure. That is, very real things that often don't sit well with parents of the Hannah Montana audience. If you remember watching the film in the '80s, though, and you're in the mood for a time machine experience that seems realer than today's bubblegum pop nonsense, Fame is definitely worth at least a rental.