A nasty piece of work
CHICAGO Director: Rob Marshall Cert. 12A
This is one of those films which after you have seen you wish you had not. The certification gives no clue to the offensive raunchiness and cynicism which pervade the whole thing.
But it is the message of the film which is so sad. The plot revolves around a woman in prison, arrested for murdering her lover, and is explicated through the means of jazz nightclub dance routines and songs. Thus life is seen as either a prison or a performance. This becomes a vehicle for nihilistic postmodernism set to music. There is no truth, there are no values or justice in this life. Courtroom decisions turn on the style and theatre of the witnesses. Anyone who is loyal or loving is an idiot to be manipulated. Life is to be lived by 'razzle-dazzle', in other words by lies and deceit. And finally as the two female stars get together in a last dance routine we find that not only do relationships mean nothing, but the audience are applauding guns and murder.
This musical places our culture squarely in Isaiah 5, where God announces: 'Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light.' In many ways the film would make a good background against which to preach the gospel, but it is far too nasty to be used in any church setting.
The re-emergence of heavy shepherds
What would you think if you received a letter from your church leaders that read like this? ‘Are church members …