Cradle Will Rock
| Cradle Will Rock | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Tim Robbins |
| Written by | Tim Robbins |
| Based on | Events surrounding The Cradle Will Rock by Marc Blitzstein |
| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Jean Yves Escoffier |
| Edited by | Geraldine Peroni |
| Music by | David Robbins |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Buena Vista Pictures Distribution |
Release date |
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Running time | 132 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Languages | English Italian |
| Budget | $36 million[1] |
| Box office | $2.9 million[1] |
Cradle Will Rock is a 1999 American
among many intellectuals, artists and working-class people in the same period.The film is not based on Orson Welles's unproduced screenplay for The Cradle Will Rock, an autobiographical drama about the production of Blitzstein's musical. Written in 1984, a year before Welles's death, the script was published in 1994; the film has not been produced.[2]
Plot
At the height of the Great Depression, aspiring singer Olive Stanton dreams of getting a job as an actress with the Federal Theatre Project. Playwright Marc Blitzstein is working on his new musical, The Cradle Will Rock, but lacks the inspiration to finish it. While attending a public protest, he is visited by two imaginary figures representing his late wife and the famed German playwright Bertolt Brecht. They encourage him to make the play more relevant to the times rather than an abstract concept.
At the same time, the FTP faces increasing pressure from the federal government, which has begun investigating leftist infiltration of American society through the
Huffman rejects Crickshaw's advances. He oversleeps and wakes up to Sid and Larry doing his routine, with one of them playing the dummy. Depressed, Crickshaw gives a show in which his dummy is a communist. Part of the disgusted audience, Huffman cries and leaves. Crickshaw leaves his dummy on the stage, which is carried off by Sid and Larry. After her testimony, Huffman is shunned by her coworkers.
The WPA, faced with the threat of losing its budget, cuts funding for all FTP productions, lays off thousands of workers, and orders all ongoing projects, including The Cradle Will Rock, to cease their activities. The actors' union refuses to let them perform without federal approval, cancelling the show's opening.
Rather than give in, the show's director,
As the cast and audience break into celebration, a group of former FTP performers stage a mock funeral of Crickshaw's dummy (renamed "Federal Theatre Project") down the street outside. The procession walks into present-day Times Square, which is lined with billboards advertising Broadway plays.
Cast
- Hank Azaria as Marc Blitzstein
- Bob Balaban as Harry Hopkins
- Jack Black as Sid
- Rubén Blades as Diego Rivera
- Corina Katt Ayala as Frida Kahlo
- Victoria Clark as Dulce Fox
- Joan Cusack as Hazel Huffman
- John Cusack as Nelson Rockefeller
- Cary Elwes as John Houseman
- Gregg Edelmannas Dream Larry Foreman
- Kyle Gass as Larry
- Paul Giamatti as Carlo
- Philip Baker Hall as Gray Mathers
- Erin Hill as Sandra Mescal
- Barnard Hughes as Frank Marvel
- Peter Jacobson as Silvano
- Cherry Jones as Hallie Flanagan
- Angus Macfadyen as Orson Welles
- Audra McDonald as "Joe Worker" Singer
- Bill Murray as Tommy Crickshaw
- Allan F. Nicholls as George Zorn
- Vanessa Redgrave as Countess Constance LaGrange
- Gil Robbins as Congressman Joe Starnes
- Susan Sarandon as Margherita Sarfatti
- Jamey Sheridan as John Adair
- Barbara Sukowa as Sophie Silvano
- John Turturro as Aldo Silvano
- Emily Watson as Olive Stanton
- Martin Dies
Historical context and production
This film takes place in the 1930s during the
In telling the story of
The film was released in conjunction with a book that Robbins put together to provide a deeper look into the film's time period. The book includes the film’s script, which is accompanied by essays and pictures describing the people, events, and themes that are the basis for the film.
The 1937 children's play Revolt of the Beavers by playwright/screenwriter Oscar Saul (who would later do the screenplay for the 1951 film A Streetcar Named Desire) was also featured in this film. It, too, was under scrutiny from the HUAC for promoting a communistic ideal of equal work and equal rewards. In the film it was valiantly defended by the head of the FTP, Hallie Flanagan (Cherry Jones), and the play ran for approximately one month at the Adelphi theater in New York.[3]
Reception
Cradle Will Rock was met with mostly positive reviews. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 65%, based on 74 reviews, and an average rating of 6.3/10. The site's consensus states: "Witty and provocative."[4] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 64 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[5]
While the original production of The Cradle Will Rock was stated to be "The most exciting evening of theater this New York generation has seen" (MacLeish, Cole 2000)[citation needed], some critics did not feel the same about Robbins' reproduction of the event for film. Although it was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival,[6] among other festivals, and some have praised the film as an astute commentary on censorship and the lines between art and life (Cole 2000), others have criticized the piece for attempting to bring too many themes together into one story, and thus losing the power of the original context altogether (Alleva 2000; Weales 2000).[citation needed]
References
- ^ a b "Cradle Will Rock (1999)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved August 15, 2011.
- ^ Rosenbaum, Jonathan (June 17, 1994). "Afterword to The Cradle Will Rock, a screenplay by Orson Welles". jonathanrosenbaum.net. Retrieved February 12, 2023.
- ^ "The Revolt of the Beavers". Internet Broadway Database. The Broadway League. Retrieved May 7, 2018.
- ^ "Cradle Will Rock (1999)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved July 16, 2022.
- CBS Interactive. Retrieved May 7, 2018.
- ^ "Cradle Will Rock". The Official Selection 1999. Cannes Film Festival. Archived from the original on August 22, 2011. Retrieved October 4, 2009.
External links
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