Pippin (1981)

Sorry, this movie sucks

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Absolutely brilliant

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

David Sheehan needs to be drawn and quartered for his handling of this classic musical (ugh - the cross-fades during the Manson trio dance, the poor framing, etc).I love Chita Rivera but she is bit miscast as Fastrada.William Katt might sound better if he was miked to the camera.On the other hand, this is the only record we have this amazing musical circus. Obviously, even in pristine state, it would still lose something because it really is a live theater piece.I simply have newbies watch it, explain the mistakes/edits, and have them listen to the original cast album.

Perhaps there's a worse librettist in the history of musicals than Stephen Schwartz but I don't know one. What the hell does the lyric "morning glow/fill the earth/come and shine/for all you're worth/we'll be present/at the birth/of old faith looking new..." mean? He begins with a vague hopeful image but then the sentence keeps going and going, desperately trying to find it's point; the next twelve words do little to deepen things.This is what annoys people about musicals. You can get away with perky, poorly written sentiment tossed away as dialogue (I've just named every drama that won an Oscar in the last 70 years) but as songs, the schlock is transparent. It's called padding; it appears most often on college exams and in poor creative efforts from the 60s and 70s. It was all Fosse could do to undermine this amorphous treacle with his more acid take on things. Schwartz could make a decent melody but his lyrics...ugh. Give him enough rope and he'll hang himself.Pippin is absolutely trite, and in it's current form it barely resembles Fosse's work.

What a wonderfully filmed Broadway show! The show is wonderfully done and the direction by Bob Fosse is like always wonderful. Ben Vereen was great as the Leading Player; full of life and song. William Katt sings beautifully, my only regret is that he is a stick when he does.The plot is simple. Pippin is a prince who wants to do something important with his life. First he becomes a warrior, and then he becomes obsessed with women. And so on. Yet he never finds what he wants to do until the end, in the delightful scene, entitled `Pippins Grand Finale'. What a show. What a circus. A musical not to be missed. Its only flaw is that like all taped live on stage videos is that something is lost. But thankfully, not as much is missing here. We have great entertainment, and the show was incredibly funny. So now it is time for me to stop rambling on and for you to click that little `buy the DVD from Amazon.com' button and purchase this movie from Amazon. You won't regret it!It got magic to do… Just for you!MPAA: NRMy Rating: 13 and up for mature themes, language and a brief scene of violence.My * Rating 8.6

This is one of the finest videos of a musical available anywhere. In addition to being an unbelievable musical, this top notch cast brings PIPPIN to an astounding level.Particularly amazing is Ben Vereen... his singing, acting, and dancing abilities are on full display. Broadway legend Chita Rivera is also spellbinding in her small but show-stopping performance.This is a musical not to miss!