I enjoyed this in as much as I don't get my morality from Hollywood movies, apparently as some of these P.C. reviewers indicate. The movie is very enjoyable but this review is simply about one song. I knew what were commonly held to be the high points of this movie (Barn Dance etc.) but was pleasantly surprised, moved even, to stumble across "Lonesome Polecat" as both a mournful beautiful Johnny Merecer song, AND as a slowly-orchestrated, atypical production number.
The 6 unmarried brothers are doing winter chores when their efforts become half-hearted & listless. Mercer hands them a trifle with a mournful melody, slight lyrics and haunting chorus consisting mostly of an extended "whooo-ooo-oooooo-oo." And Michael Kidd generated a 'dance' out of slow moves in which barely any work is done, and a bang is incorporated every 4 bars.
I was about to fast forward through it when even the sped-up image revealed synchronized axe movements and that the actors were using real axes. I backed up again, watched it and have been watching it for about the last hour.
Although the scene is constructed out of convention and a phony interior mountainscape, it doesn't matter. It's as beautiful a moment I've ever seen in a musical, and so rare to have slowed the tempo down as much as they do. The orchestration is quite minimal, but a horn swells at a few moments.
The 6 unmarried brothers are doing winter chores when their efforts become half-hearted & listless. Mercer hands them a trifle with a mournful melody, slight lyrics and haunting chorus consisting mostly of an extended "whooo-ooo-oooooo-oo." And Michael Kidd generated a 'dance' out of slow moves in which barely any work is done, and a bang is incorporated every 4 bars.
I was about to fast forward through it when even the sped-up image revealed synchronized axe movements and that the actors were using real axes. I backed up again, watched it and have been watching it for about the last hour.
Although the scene is constructed out of convention and a phony interior mountainscape, it doesn't matter. It's as beautiful a moment I've ever seen in a musical, and so rare to have slowed the tempo down as much as they do. The orchestration is quite minimal, but a horn swells at a few moments.