Phantom of the Opera

Describe- The Phantom of the Opera is a musical by Andree Lloyd Webber, based on the French novel Le Fantome de l’Opera by Gaston Leroux. The movie that we watched was a remake of both of these directed by Joel Schumacher. The film was also produced and co-written by Lloyd Webber. The movie is 143 minutes long and classified as a drama, musical, and romance. The Phantom of the Opera grossed approximately $154 million worldwide, and received mixed to negative reviews, praising the visuals but criticizing the writing and directing. In short, the movie is about a disfigured musical genius who lives under an opera house. He coaches a young singer and becomes obsessed with her. Throughout the movie, he terrorizes the members of the singing company.

Analyze- A longer summary: The beginning of the movie begins with an auction being held in the Opera House. An older man buys a monkey who clangs cymbals and sees a broken chandelier. Then the film goes back in time. You see a rehearsal taking place. The opera manager announces that he’s leaving for Australia and a prop falls on the head of the main female performer. She storms off stage and one of the dancers stuns the crowd with her beautiful voice. Christine, the dancer, then takes the place of Carlotta, the previous main female opera performer. After her performance, Christine hears singing in her dressing room. She sees the Phantom and follows him to his lair. He is angry because Raoul, a childhood friend of Christine’s has stolen her heart. Once in his lair, the Phantom tries to convince Christine to stay with him and Christine takes his mask off. This angers the Phantom and he returns Christine to the surface. The Phantom sends notes to the head powers of the opera instructing them to put Christine in the lead role. They don’t listen and put Carlotta in the lead role instead. The Phantom gets mad and changes Carlotta’s voice, forcing Christine to take the lead. While Christine is getting ready the Phantom hangs a man from the rafters, scaring her. She runs to the roof while Raoul follows. When they get to the roof, they proclaim their love for one another and the Phantom overhears. 3 months later, during a Masquerade, the Phantom reappears and presents everyone with a play he has written. He tells them to perform the play or he will wreak havoc on everyone again. During rehearsals, Christine becomes overwhelmed and visits her father’s grave. While there, the Phantom tries to lure her into a tomb but Raoul comes and fights the Phantom. During the performance of the Phantom’s opera, he takes the place of one of the main characters and sings to Christine. Once realizing it is him, she takes his mask off and he whisks her away to his lair once again. Raoul shows up to save Christine but the Phantom traps him and tells Christine that the only way she can save Raoul is to be with him (the Phantom). She kisses the Phantom and tells him that he’s not alone. This startles the Phantom and he lets Christine and Raoul go. Before Christine leaves, she gives the Phantom back an engagement ring he had given her. As an angry mob surfaces, the Phantom smashes all the mirrors and disappears through a secret passage way. The movie goes back to the present as the old man who won the monkey at an auction (Raoul) is at Christine’s grave. When he puts the monkey on her grave he sees a rose with an engagement ring attached to it.

Interpret- The Phantom of the Opera has many underlying messages. The main character, Christine, is one example. The name Christine means “Christ-like”. Christ teaches that everyone is valuable and can be loved. Christine shows this love towards the Phantom. Also, Christine was willing to die to save her true love, just as Christ died to save his love; the world. Another message from this film is that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The Phantom was physically deformed, but he had the gift of beautiful music. He was able to share with Christine this gift of beauty. Just because his physical appearance wasn’t appealing, doesn’t mean he wasn’t beautiful in some way. The movie gives off great feelings because it shows that love comes in all different forms. Christine loved the Phantom before she even saw him, for his music.

Evaluate- I loved the movie. It was really powerful and it was interesting to watch an opera type movie. I’ve never seen one like it before so it was a new experience for me. I thought the actors and actresses did a fantastic job. The music was really pretty and very moving. The movie was very passionate and romantic, as well as horrifying and a little frightening at times. It kept my attention throughout, even though the majority was sung. I really enjoyed watching it and I hope to see it in play form one day.