The Phantom of the Opera

[timepiececlock]

Watched the movie for the first time tonight. It's my first exposure to the story, though I had a friend in high school who "OMGLOVEDIT." Anyway, I was not particularly happy.

There was the fact that one of my earlier reactions was "I think I'd enjoy this a lot more if it were a book than a movie" only to decide at the end that I was so put off by what I'd just watched that I couldn't see how changing mediums could possibly fix massive inherent flaws.

There was also the way that it was lushly designed and beautifully sung, yet inspired no emotion in me whatsoever. Which, as I was telling my mom, is damn shame, because big spooky gothic romances with supernatural undertones and a love triangle with a white hat and a black hat and the girl torn between happiness or dark evil lust? I could totally dig that. I mean, I'm a Spike/Buffy shipper. This is EXACTLY the kind of stuff I could totally dig --- if only it were written with an entirely different plot carried out by entirely different characters.

That wasn't the thing that killed the movie for me, though. About two thirds of the way through the film, I turned to my mom and said "I hate her character. She's the mostly passive female character I think I've ever seen in a movie."

Yes. I hated Christine's characterization. All she does is sing about how much she wants to sing, sing about how much she misses her daddy, sing about how she can't decide between two guys, sing about how much she wants to sing some more, and then finally sings some more.

Meanwhile, she does nothing. The people around her sing and have swordfights, sing and operate a theater house, sing and pass secret messages, sing and get killed, sing and run around to get attention, or sing and kill people.

Christine does...nothing.

It's not just the time period and her status as a woman being something to protect. Despite the oppression women have suffered historically, and especially the oppression going on in the Victorian era, within their spheres of influence women can still do a fucking lot. They may not be able to stab you with a sword in a duel, but they can have your tea poisoned or grossly & publically humiliate you. Just watch HBO's Rome, if you'd like an example. The women back then had little legal power, but you couldn't possibly call them passive.

Christine is completely passive as a main character. I can't call her a heroine because she isn't at all heroic. I can't even call her a protagonist because that implies some kind of pro-active behavior. Everything that happens to Christine in the film, every basic plot point, is put on her or driven by the men around her. She barely even reacts to them except to fall from one's arms into the other's, while singing. This carries all the way through to the end of the film, by which time I wanted to scream.

I see this as a fundamental problem with the plot that wouldn't be solved whether I saw it live or read the book. So I'll be doing neither.

Comments

[gweniveeve.livejournal.com]

I saw the play in London in last June, and have seen the movie. My mom LOVES the movie, and has watched it multiple times (which is very uncharacteristic of her).

I do agree about Christine; I guess the reason it didn't bother me so much is that she's supposed to be so young (okay, so I wasn't that way when I was 16, but many people are). Also, I thought part of the point is that Christine has always been sheltered by men. She's never HAD to do anything, and she's genuinely confused when things start getting . . . creepy and complicated and she can no longer really differentiate between her father figure and her lover.

I sympathize with wanting to stab people just for singing a whole lot, however.

[brigidforest.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I thought I was the only one. I have a lot of friends who are deeply in love with it, and I am just like, whyyyyy?

I hate Christine. 20-Minutes into it, I had to MST3000 it, because there's no way I could have finished it otherwise.

[spikewriter]

I saw the show on stage several times and I can tell you exactly what dealt with that problem in the original production -- Michael Crawford as the Phantom. He so completely dominated the stage that you didn't realy notice Christine wasn't being particular active because you were thinking, "Stop screwing around and fall into his arms, damnit!"

Also, the various Christines I saw (productions in London, New York and Los Angeles), had some steel to them, a hint that they weren't some simple ingenue waiting to be swept away. You're right about the movie Christine, though -- she really didn't do anything except wait. I think that may explain the reason why, even though I enjoyed the film, I still haven't bought the DVD. Every time I go for it, I ended up buying something else.

[araceli-maura.livejournal.com]

Yeah, yeah. That movie really sucked. Sadly, I saw it in the theater. I about killed myself, it was that bad. And what's with repeating like, the last word of every sentence in a song? "The music of the night...night.........night." UGH! We get it, NIGHT. Jesus.

I hated Christine. The most useless character of all time. Not that the rest of the cast was so spectacular but all the same. Dumb movie.

[memlu.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to remember correctly -- it's been a few years since I read the book (and, er, by few I mean four) -- but I don't recall the book focusing on Christine quite as much, at least not until the Big Stuff starts happening. There's a much larger focus on Raoul. (Confession: I didn't like any of the characters.)

I've never been a big Phantom fan, though, so! I hate the Phantom, I hate Raoul, I hate Christine, I hate the supporting cast. WHOLE LOTTA HATE.

[donna-c-punk.livejournal.com]

I hate all Andrew Lloyd Weber musicals. When POTO was released in the theatres, I had no desire whatsoever to see it. The storyline was only part of the reason, too. I just hate ALW productions.