Blogger Q&A: What Movie In Your Top 20 Would Make a Good Musical?

In the Blogger Q&A series, we ask our bloggers here at Flickchart to share their opinions on a movie-related question. Got something you want to ask the bloggers? Submit a question on our official Flickchart Facebook page and it could be featured in a future post!

More and more movies are being adapted into musicals for the stage and screen, from critically-acclaimed epics like Doctor Zhivago to light-hearted family comedies like Elf. With a musical adaptation for your favorite movie almost inevitable in the near future, which movie in your top 20 might actually fare well as a musical? Our bloggers present their choices here, but share your own picks in the comments!

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David: Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

I have one actual musical in my top 20 (The Sound of Music), and I don’t want to see it remade, so I’ll disqualify that one. Monty Python and the Holy Grail has already been given the musical treatment with the Broadway show Spamalot. Several others, especially my slate of high-ranked Ghibli movies, would probably work fine, but I can’t help but think that a good Lawrence of Arabia musical could dominate the Tonys and the Oscars. The segments featuring the British Army in Egypt could have a Gilbert and Sullivan flavor (Lawrence is not the very model of a modern major-general, but like a British tar he is a soaring soul). Lawrence’s unstable mental state could translate well to a set of soliloquy songs, at the risk of spelling out motives that the existing movie leaves unstated. A chorus singing in an Arabian style is fun to imagine. Most of all, I’d like to hear Sherif Ali sing something like “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” from Jesus Christ Superstar, to underscore his line about Lawrence: “If I fear him, who love him, how must he fear himself who hates himself?” – David Conrad

• Globally ranked #144
• 19450 users have ranked it
• 196 have it as their #1
• 2438 have it in their top 20

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Chad: Love and Death (1975)

I’m a rewatcher. The more agreeable a movie is to my tastes, the more often I will return for repeat viewings. When I really know that a movie is special, though, is when I’ve seen it so many times that I start imagining it as a musical. Woody Allen‘s Love and Death is such a film. The only other Allen picture that comes close is Crimes and Misdemeanors, but I figure that one’s too much of a downer for song and dance numbers. Love and Death is mirthful. Also, I’ve always wondered what Boris and Sonja’s philosophical debates would sound like in song form. Like when they are discussing the existence of God. It would take some talent to pull off –

Judgment of any system, or a priori relationship or phenomenon exists in an irrational, or metaphysical, or at least epistemological contradiction to an abstract empirical concept such as being, or to be, or to occur in the thing itself, or of the thing itself.

But I think the real showstopper would be toward the beginning when Napoleon first invades Russia. Everyone but Boris is excited by the prospect of armed conflict with the French. At one point, Boris’s hyper-masculine brother Ivan grabs a hold of him and says “We’ll get medals!”. That’s when I imagine everyone bursting into a boisterous number about the glories of battle while Boris meekly sings about pacifism. It’d be right up there with “Gaston” from Beauty and the Beast.  – Chad Hoolihan

• Globally ranked #413
• 1369 users have ranked it
• 4 have it as their #1
• 44 have it in their top 20

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Jandy: Modern Times (1936)

Modern Times is mostly a silent movie, but it was made well into the sound era and contains synchronized sound, notably for a nonsense musical number that Chaplin performs towards the end of the film. It’s almost too easy to think about Modern Times as a musical, and the music Chaplin wrote for the film could form the basis of at least a couple of the tunes. The title song “Modern Times” has a very strictly metered verse in the factory built on the rhythmic twists of Charlie’s wrenches. The chorus, however, extends into flights of fancy – the life Charlie would rather have. We get a reprise of this when Charlie is caught in the gears of the machine. There’s a short march when Charlie accidentally joins the protest. When Charlie first meets the Gamin, we’re introduced to ‘Smile,’ a theme from Chaplin’s original score for the movie which was released separately with lyrics. The musical version would include the full song with lyrics as the couple’s main love theme. They also get a rollicking roller-skating number and a “meet cute” domestic ditty as they’re setting up their makeshift home. We keep Charlie’s nonsense song, of course. And end with a reprise of “Smile” as they walk into the sunset. – Jandy Hardesty

• Globally ranked #76
• 4699 users have ranked it
• 5 have it as their #1
• 241 have it in their top 20

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Ben: The Princess Bride (1987)

There has been no official announcement by the Disney Theater Group as to whether the currently in development stage adaptation of The Princess Bride will be a musical or not. While a dramatic production would certainly be welcome, I think it would work quite well as a musical (it’s quite possible we’ll even ultimately see a screen-to-stage-and-back-to-screen version as happened with Mel Brooks‘s The Producers). For a musical adaptation of The Princess Bride, I would remove the framing story of the original movie (which does not exist in the book). Some of the most famous quotes could become great songs: “As You Wish”, “Inconceivable!”, “Life is Pain/To the Pain”, “Mostly Dead”, and of course “Hello! (You Killed My Father, Prepare to Die!)”. I would love to see an expanded narrative of the Dread Pirate Roberts section of the story. There are some scenes that absolutely need to be included: the Cliffs of Insanity, the Battle of Wits, and the Fire Swamp. This fantastical swashbuckling adventure is full of romance and comedy and a gallery of memorable characters–what more could you want in a musical? – Ben Shoemaker

• Globally ranked #45
• 62706 users have ranked it
• 967 have it as their #1
• 12170 have it in their top 20

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Nigel: Galaxy Quest (1999)

I’m not a big fan of musicals, so recreating my favorite films as musicals feels like sacrilege, if not just plain goofy. Aliens? No. Heat? Heck, no. Raiders of the Lost Ark? That’s just crazy talk. I could take the cop out route and say that Finding Nemo might work well as a musical, as so many animated movies already do. Trying not to go this route, however, I think the best option I have left just might be Galaxy Quest. Certainly, having the crew break into spontaneous song and dance would add an extra level of goofiness to this loving Star Trek spoof. I can envision numbers where Sarris prophesies his victory a la Scar in The Lion King, or a duet for Tony Shalhoub and Missi Pyle in which Fred Kwan declares his love for Laliari. I’m not so certain this would add any benefit to the film, though; after all, when the source material is not a musical, it would make little sense to add songs to the spoof. – Nigel Druitt

• Globally ranked #1157
• 34220 users have ranked it
• 33 have it as their #1
• 1001 have it in their top 20

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Hannah: The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)