I remember the first time I saw the movie “Popeye” in 1980. A couple friends and I loved Robin Williams on television, so we were anxious to see the very first movie he starred in. We sat in the very front row of a movie theater in Westwood Village (which – sadly – isn’t there anymore) and we loved the movie. We thought he looked great as Popeye and his singing was hysterical (one of the only movies he ever sang in).
Flash forward 44 years to when I recently watched parts of the movie on cable TV. I still think the movie is good. I think that children these days would enjoy the movie. In my opinion, it’s better than some of the live action versions of Disney animated movies that have been released recently. Out of curiosity, I looked up who directed the movie. To my shock, it was directed by Robert Altman.
DIRECTOR: Robert Altman – Known for movies like “Gosford Park”, “Nashville”, and “M*A*S*H*” (the movie that the TV series was based on). His nominations and awards include 5 best director Academy Award nominations and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the DGA.
“Popeye” was the ONLY family film that he ever directed and it’s one of the only musicals he directed. He received another nomination for “Popeye” from “The Stinkers Bad Movie Awards”. The tagline for the award was “stop them before they direct again”.
I have no idea why he decided to direct a family musical. As I was looking into it, I discovered that he’s not the only well-known director that directed a family musical. I found at least 6 other directors.
DIRECTOR: Francis Ford Coppola – Known for “The Godfather” movies, “Apocalypse Now”, and “The Conversation” among others. He received several awards and nominations including a best director Academy Award for “The Godfather Part 2” He also received the Irving G Thalberg Memorial Award from the Academy and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the DGA.
The movie he directed was the G rated “Finian’s Rainbow” (1968) starring Fred Astaire and Petula Clark based on the stage musical. Since that movie almost 60 years ago, he continues to direct movies (his newest movie “Megalopolis” coming out later this year) but – except for the “Captain EO” short film starring Michael Jackson that only played at Disneyland for several years – he has never made another family musical.
Director: Alan Parker – Known for movies such as “Evita”, “Mississippi Burning”, “Midnight Express”, and “Angel Heart”. He has quite a few nominations and awards including 2 Academy Award nominations (“Mississippi Burning” and “Midnight Express”) and a Cannes Film Festival “Grand Prize of the Jury” award for “Birdy”.
He directed a wide variety of movies up until he death just 4 years ago (in 2020) including some musicals like “Fame”, “Evita” and “Pink Floyd The Wall” (which is DEFINITELY NOT A FAMILY FILM) but he’s only directed 1 family musical that I know of. The movie was the G rated “Bugsy Malone” (1976). It’s based on the life of the gangster Bugsy Malone. How can a movie like that be rated G??? First, the entire cast are children. It stars Scott Baio and Jodie Foster (she made the movie right after she made “Taxi Driver”). There are shootouts throughout the movie, but they shoot pies. There’s a lot of scenes with people covered in whipped cream from pies. I don’t think that most children these days would enjoy watching this movie but it’s sort of interesting to watch. Especially if you’re a Jodie Foster fan.
Director: Sidney Lumet – Known for dramatic movies such as “Dog Day Afternoon”, “12 Angry Men”, and “Serpico”. His awards and nominations include 4 Academy Award nominations for best director, an honorary Academy Award, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the DGA, and a “Honorary Life Member Award” from the DGA.
The only G rated family musical he ever directed is “The Wiz” (1978). The movie is based on the stage musical which re-imagines the story from “The Wizard of Oz”. It’s fairly well-known since it’s one of the only movies Michael Jackson and Diana Ross starred in.
Director: John Houston – Known for classic movies like “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre”, “The Asphalt Jungle”, and “The Maltese Falcon”. His awards and nominations include 1 Academy Award win for “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” and 4 nominations for directing. He also won a Lifetime Achievement Award from the DGA.
One of the last movies he ever directed was the family musical “Annie” (1982) starring Aileen Quinn, Albert Finney, and Carol Burnett. Based on the stage musical about the young orphan. He got another nomination for that movie, but it was a Razzie Award nomination for “Worst Director”.
Director: Carol Reed – BEFORE the family musical, he was mostly known for making film noir movies like “The Third Man”, “The Fallen Idol”, and “Odd Man Out”. He received an Academy Award best director nomination for “The Third Man” and “The Fallen Idol”. However, he is now mostly known for the family musical he directed.
He directed the G rated “Oliver!” (1969). The movie is based on the stage musical which is based on the classic Charles Dickens “Oliver Twist” book. The movie won 6 Academy Awards including best picture and best director.
Director: Norman Jewison (RIP – he passed away in January of this year) – Known for movies such as comedies such as “In the Heat of the Night”, “And Justice for All”, and “Moonstruck”. His awards and nominations include 3 best director Academy Award nominations, an Iriving G Thalberg Memorial Award from the Academy, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the DGA.
This time the director made TWO family musicals BACK-TO-BACK. The first was the G rated “Fiddler on the Roof” (1971). Based on the stage musical about a Jewish peasant who deals with marrying off three of his daughters. It won 3 Academy Awards and the director got one of his best director nominations for it.
Right after that, the director went in a completely different direction (pardon the pun) when he directed the G rated “Jesus Christ Superstar” (1973). Also, based on the stage musical about the story of Christs last few weeks. Unlike the previous movie, this movie only had 1 Academy Award nomination for best music.
7 well known directors that made 1 family musical. You may not remember some of them because it was around 50 years ago, but in modern terms it would be like Ridley Scott, Christopher Nolan, Todd Field, Paul Thomas Anderson, Quentin Tarantino, Wes Anderson, or even Francis Ford Coppola (if he hadn’t made one years ago) made a G or PG rated movie for the whole family. There are some directors you could see directing a family musical such as Steven Spielberg (directed “West Side Story”), Robert Zemeckis (directed “The Polar Express” and “I Wanna Hold Your Hand”), or Ron Howard (directed “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”) but there’s other directors that you can’t imagine would. What if Quentin Tarantino announced that his next and last feature film will be a family musical.
Another thing you should know is that there were a lot more musicals made in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. These days there’s maybe 2 to 4 musicals released every year. Back then there were MANY more. There were Disney musicals (“Mary Poppins”), Elvis Presley musicals (“Viva Las Vegas”), Barbara Streisand musicals (“A Star Is Born” (1976)), Audrey Hepburn musicals (“My Fair Lady”), and even The Beatles made some feature film musicals (“A Hard Days Night”). A musical won the Academy Award for best picture 4 times in the 1960s. So, if those directors wanted to direct a musical there were a lot of other musicals (not family films) such as “Hair”, “The Rose”, “Cabaret”, “All That Jazz”, and “Tommy”. They could have directed one of those instead of a G or PG rated family musical.
A couple of the directors (Francis Ford Coppola and Alan Parker) probably made the movie because it was one of their first movies. They would have directed whatever the studio let them direct. Some of the directors may have chosen to direct a movie because they wanted to make something their children or grandchildren could watch (like John Krasinski recently did with “IF”). Some of the directors may have directed the movie because they loved the original musical (like Steven Spielberg did with “West Side Story” (2021) or Bradley Cooper did with “A Star Is Born” (2018)).
No matter what the reason, I would guess that some fans of those directors were surprised when they found out about those movies. Director Ridley Scott is currently developing a “Bee Gees” biopic, but I doubt that it will be a G or PG rated family musical.
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