Cheap Village People - Can't Stop the Music (DVD) (Nancy Walker) Price

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Customer Reviews of Village People - Can't Stop the Music

Good, clean campy fun.
I dinstictly remember when 'Can't Stop The Music' was released in Australia. The popularity of The Village People and disco music in general was at an all time, so it's not surprising that the movie reached number 1 at the Australian box office. I was eight years old, and the Village People were my favourite group. When I got to see my heros on the big screen I was elated - I remember walking out of the cinema feeling so happy and wonderful for days after. I still have my copy of the soundtrack record all these years later....

So it is with saddness that now, rediscovering the Village People once again through CD and DVD, that I read such bad reviews and comments about this movie. Is it a 'good' movie?? Depends on how you define 'good' - sure the movie has hamy acting, a paper thin plot, many continuity errors and a real sense of fantasy about it, but it also has the wonderful theme that dreams can come true. Can't Stop The Music also captures a period in history (1980) where there was still a shred of innocence left before the emotional and financial corruption of the 80's really came into prominence.

The movie will certainly appeal to many gay men such as myself. There are many subtle (and some not so subtle) gay references that Can't Stop The Music could be called the ultimate gay musical! I can certainly relate the overall campiness of the movie, as well as look longingly towards an era where body hair was actually considering desirable on a gay man!

For such a commercially unsuccessful movie, it is wonderful to see that effort has been made to release Can't Stop The Music on a well packaged DVD. Firstly we get a remixed audio soundtrack to take full advantage of home theatre systems, a high quality, clean widescreen transfer and good packaging. However the extras are somewhat disappointing. We get the usual trailer (which is interesting from a historical perspective to see how films were promoted in 1980), a photogallery (which includes not only the usual promo shots, but some candid shots of the Village People on the set) and a 'photoessay' which is a series of static text screens describing the Village People story accompanied by a few photographs. Whilst the extras are interesting (and considering the age and lack of commercial success of the film it is amazing we get anything at all), I think more effort could have been put into providing something extra special to the fans of the movie. The E! Network did a behind the scenes' special about the Village People in 2000 with recent interviews so it would have been nice to get at least an edited version of that. But kudos to the distributors for at least attempting to provide a decent set of extras.

This movie has no drugs, violence, death or negative imagery- just good, clean, campy fun. So try and suspend your belief in realism and sit back and enjoy entering an era of our modern times where music and people were considerably less corrupt.

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It takes a village to raise a rukus!
It pains me not to give this movie five stars. What a magnificent failure! What fluff and froth! The perfect movie to watch on a lazy Saturday afternoon...or at 2:00 am when you find yourself suddenly awake and incapable of going back to sleep. CSTM is "quicker picker-upper" Nancy Walker's sole directorial effort (she's quoted on the DVD extra, "The Village People Story," as defining movies as "nothing but little pieces of ... snipped together"). Like Mae West's 1978 box office dud, "Sextette," CSTM has just about everything you'd expect to find in a camp classic (beautiful men, clever women, music, over-produced self-spoofing dance numbers, costumes, costumes, and more costumes)...everything except wit, that is. But camp humor is most successful when directed against a staid and self-satisfied oppressive regime. And CSTM (like "Sextette" before it) was conceived when disco was thriving, acceptance of gay and bi culture was at its peak, and most people still believed "whatever people did was okay as long as they didn't hurt anyone." Double entendres just don't have a reason to exist when there is no moral overlord to subvert. By the time CSTM was released in 1980, disco was as dead as Duncan in Act 2, Scene 3 of "Macbeth." A year later, rumors of a "gay cancer" would change the mood of the gay community forever (in fact, a decade later AIDS would take the life of Jacques Morali, one of CSTM's creators).

One wonders who Walker turned to for advice while making this film. It is a veritable Cornell box of filmic allusions (one thinks immediately of her own explanation of what she was doing). In defter hand, say Truffaut's, these efforts might be considered homages. But in Walker's, they seem to be more the bold thievings of a street Arab desperate to grab anything that might be sellable. Among the plundered are: Busby Berkeley (especially, "The Gang's All Here"), Howard Hawks (compare the YMCA number with Jane Russell's efforts to play games with the Olympic team in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes"), "My Sister Eileen" (does anyone in Greenwich Village have an apartment the size of the ones in these two movies?), and every Mick and Judy "gee, it would be swell to put on a show" MGM musical. And then there's Marilyn Sokol, who turns in a fine performance in the Nancy Walker role of the homely-but-horny sidekick of the beautiful blonde lead. The Village People were great just being themselves. The only real disappointment was Bruce Jenner. He's not an actor and he has a high nasal voice that seems at odds with his athletic physique. One wonders if co-star Valerie Perrine wasn't speaking to Jenner the actor, rather than to his character, when she said, "It takes more than a pretty face."

My one remaining question is, if "Can't Stop the Music" is finally out on DVD, can "Valley of the Dolls" be far behind? Hey, Hollywood, what are you waiting for?!!!?

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Relentlessly incredible
This film is one of the best musical movies ever made. The Village People are incredible. I highly recommend this film to everyone that likes to watch a bunch of fun people having a great time.