All That Jazz (1979)

I recently watched A Chorus Line (1985), and maybe I put off watching All That Jazz because I thought it might be the same sort of story. Not at all.

Yes, Joe Gideon (Roy Scheider) is a Broadway director, and there is a little bit about that and his work with dancers and putting on a show. But there's a lot more about him and his race toward death. Much of the movie is the "delusions" he experiences. I'm not sure "delusions" is the right word. Maybe what we get is Joe experiencing his life flashing before him, plus the "bonus content" that his brain creates while he's lying in his hospital bed. Not sure how to explain it.

Suffice it to say, Joe smokes too much, womanizes too much, works too much. His daily routine is to shower, take his meds, put eye drops in his eyes, and yell "It's Showtime!" into the bathroom mirror. Except for the womanizing, he doesn't come off as a bad guy, really. He has a daughter and seems to be a good father to her, at least when he's and has a few spare moments between womanizing and working.

I never find myself judging Joe as I watch him live his life. Pity him, sure. But not really judging him. The film is semi-autobiographical and based on the life of Bob Fosse. I wasn't familiar with him or his story before watching this film. but I watched a couple of the interviews with him on the Criterion DVD. He seems like he was a nice guy. He smoked about 4 or 5 packs of Camel unfiltereds a day, but he claims he just let them dangle from his mouth. He did have a number of relationships with women, but they mostly ended in a way that he and the women remained friends and we're able to keep working together.

In the interviews at least, Fosse came across as shy, reserved, hardworking, and dedicated to his craft. Maybe Joe is a fair reflection of who Bob Fosse was, or how he saw himself. Fosse would die of a heart attack in 1987 at the age of 60.

Rating: 4/5 stars

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