Cradle Will Rock [1999] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

His heroes are Blitzstein (a warm, gently impassioned Hank Azaria) and cheery WPA Theatre director Hallie Flanagan (Broadway star Cherry Jones), but in the process he snidely turns Welles and producer John Houseman into sour, silly caricatures. The stew of artistic creation and political action gets murky and at times contradictory, but vivid performances and Robbins' driving pace and staccato crosscutting keep it humming through even the most didactic moments. The songs are by Blitzstein, and the character-rich cast also features Vanessa Redgrave, Susan Sarandon, John Turturro, Emily Watson, and Philip Baker Hall. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com

The plot hinges on the premiere of The Cradle Will Rock, a real-life musical by wunderkind Marc Blitzstein (Hank Azaria), originally staged by Orson Welles (Angus MacFadyen) as part of the Federal Theater Project in the mid-1930s. However, storylines involving the creation of a mural depicting syphilis molecules above the heads of capitalists in the new Rockefeller Center, the decline of a vaudeville ventriloquist (a brilliant Bill Murray) and the selling of paintings by Mussolini's ex-mistress (a divine Susan Sarandon) to American fat cats to fund the Duce's war chest. And that's just scratching the surface.

That Robbins manages to juggle so many stories and still craft such an involving and moving experience is astonishing given the relative simplicity of Dead Man Walking. The first-rate cast, which also includes Vanessa Redgrave and the Cusacks, John and Joan, would normally have guaranteed box office success, but this is not really mainstream material. Few American filmmakers can still make such overtly left-wing films and get away with it; Robbins just scrapes by commercially (it is rumoured that his performance in the pretty dire Mission To Mars was a thank you to Touchstone for Cradle). Yet don't be put off if you haven't heard of it; the film is a genuine experience. As history, it is certainly confusing, given its status as "mostly" true and the whirlwind sketching of characters, but persevere and you will find an unusually satisfying film at its centre. It is worth it for the closing shot alone, a brilliant example of dramatic irony and a genuinely shattering punchline. A five-course meal of entertainment.


A film that shows the oppression of expression   July 23, 2002
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

"Cradle will rock," tells the stories of a variety of people living in the American depression who are all linked together through the theatre, or art. The main plot of the film being the production of the play called "Cradle will rock", a government funded play that attacks the government.
The substance of the film deals with the issues of freedom within art, political expression within art becoming the main theme in the film. In particular, this film highlights the American fear of communism, at that time, and the issue of unionisation. This film shows the oppressive stance the government took on expressive and challenging theatre at that time. This film may appear to be focusing on the production of a play, but it is the message of the play that becomes the true focus of the film.
An all star cast including John and Joan Cussack, Bill Murray, Jack Black and Hank Azaria (to name a few) turn in exceptional performances to make "Cradle will rock" the powerfully meaningful film it deserves to be.
This film is an effective social document, and a joy to behold. Never before has a period drama touched me like "Cradle will rock" has. This film has a strong message; Politics will always try to suppress expressive art, but, it will never succeed.