Fabulous Hair - Must be the Hairspray
The other night I was watching the end of the original “Hairspray”, and before I knew it I was bopping around and singing along with it.
There are some movies that when you’re flicking through the channels and you see it, you just can’t turn it off – Hairspray is one of them. However, it has to be the original version, as the remake, didn’t seem to have the same magic.
The 1988 version is a cult classic, filled with cheesy humour and great 60s music. The remake seems too serious and dark – which is sad as it lost its cultness. To be honest, I can’t remember much of the remake, apart from John Travolta dressed as a woman – who seemed be enjoying himself far too much. The new cast lineup did their best, but how were they ever supposed to beat the performances of Sonny Bono, Divine, Debby Harry, Pia Zadora, Mink Stole and of course Ricki Lake?
I love Christopher Walken, I think he is a brilliant actor and a great dancer – but he wasn’t that memorable in “Hairspray”. I won’t go into it about Zac Efron, but all I will say is – he hasn’t exactly come very far from “High School Musical”.
For those of you who haven’t seen this film, you should – here is the plot. Despite the whole emphasis on huge hair and doo-wop music, there is actually a deeper story that has substance. Ricki Lake plays Tracy Turnblad (dreadful surname!) who has become a regular on a local dance show. She's an instant local celebrity and adored, but despite this, she cannot ignore the fact that coloured people are never allowed on the show with white kids--even though all the music has roots in the African-American culture. When Penny, her dippy friend begins dating a coloured boy, Tracy cannot just ignore the segregation even though it would have been the safest thing for her to do in the early 60s where the movie is set.
While John Waters' style is one of the best things about the movie, in another way it's one of the worst. In his earlier films, the content is generally distracting enough for the audience not to really notice the rather boring directorial style; but this film doesn't have sufficient, and the style is a big distraction at first.
Water’s himself appears in a small cameo in the movie playing the psychologist. The message regarding segregation may well be a good one; but really it's not all that interesting and isn't put forward particularly well – and that's where, for me, the film falls down. But overall, I do like the style of the film and appreciate the ideas behind it – it’s a great little toe-tapping movie.
Before I?forget, there is a strange scene in the original that I could never quite work out – it´s when two women throw cherry bombs in the amusment park. I don´t understand who they are or why they are doing that. If you can figure it out, you´re a better man than I am!
By Amy Thomas
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