Fame (1980) - Film directed Alan Parker

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An interesting film and not what I was expecting. Watching this was a little bit like my experience of watching Saturday Night Fever because you know that they are both about dance/music but you don't realise that they also explore quite deep story lines. Fame follows numerous ambitious students in a prestigious New York high school for dance, drama and music.

The film has a weird inconsistent energy because there are long fairly boring sequences that don't seem to aid the story and only slow down the film. In addition the dance and musical sequences don't fit in with the rest of the film because this isn't a musical so the songs don't inform the viewer and the dance is just for spectacle.

The character's back stories are quite compelling and cover a wide range of teenage issues from overbearing parents to sexuality. The fact that they explore so many problems that a lot of teenagers might be able to relate to is probably why this film is quite popular, similar to the Breakfast Club. Unfortunate I found some of the characters unlikeable and therefore not overly relatable but that is personal taste.

Slightly disappointing for such a famous film but it might be a case of the song in the film of the same name being more famous and well known. The main topics span the test of time because it seems that in any era teenagers will always be struggling with the same issues. Similarly the genre of musical students is a fairly popular one with films such as Step Up or Hairspray.