Product Description

Part tragic, part comic, this outrageous look at life in the fast lane in the Academy Award-winning musical about Bob Fosse's excessive life in show business. Played by Roy Scheider, Fosse's alter-ego drives himself over the edge and soon finds he is caught between a recurring fantasy about his death and the reality of a near-death experience. Dazzlingly presented, this electrifying story about the perils of pushing yourself too hard is filled with Fosse's legendary song-and-dance choreography.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7373 in DVD
• Brand: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
• Released on: 2007-04-03
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Color, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Subtitled in: Spanish
• Dubbed in: French
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 123 minutes

Amazon.com
Choreographer-turned-director Bob Fosse (Cabaret, Lenny) turns the camera on himself in this nervy, sometimes unnerving 1979 feature, a nakedly autobiographical piece that veers from gritty drama to razzle-dazzle musical, allegory to satire. It's an indication of his bravura, and possibly his self-absorption, that Fosse (who also cowrote the script) literally opens alter ego Joe Gideon's heart in a key scene--an unflinching glimpse of cardiac surgery, shot during an actual open-heart procedure.

Roy Scheider makes a brave and largely successful leap out of his usual romantic lead roles to step into Gideon's dancing pumps, and supplies a plausible sketch of an extravagant, self-destructive, self-loathing creative dynamo, while Jessica Lange serves as a largely allegorical Muse, one of the various women that the philandering Gideon pursues (and usually abandons). Gideon's other romantic partners include Fosse's own protégé (and a major keeper of his choreographic style since his death), Ann Reinking, whose leggy grace is seductive both "onstage" and off.

Fosse/Gideon's collision course with mortality, as well as his priapic obsession with the opposite sex, may offer clues into the libidinal core of the choreographer's dynamic, sexualized style of dance, but musical aficionados will be forgiven for fast-forwarding to cut out the self-analysis and focus on the music, period. At its best--as in the knockout opening, scored to George Benson's strutting version of "On Broadway," which fuses music, dance, and dazzling camera work into a paean to Fosse's hoofer nation--All That Jazz offers a sequence of classic Fosse numbers, hard-edged, caustic, and joyously physical. --Sam Sutherland

Customer Reviews

Belongs in Every Broadway Musical Lover's Film Collection
Bob Fosse's thinly-veiled autobiographical homage is everything a movie musical should be -- lively, tuneful, funny and even poignant.

With a cast which includes the wonderfully sexy Roy Scheider of Jaws (Widescreen Anniversary Collector's Edition) fame, Fosse acolytes Ann Reinking and Ben Vereen, and a fabulous pre-plastic surgery Jessica Lange as the gorgeous, ever-present Angel of Death, this musical story of a genius Broadway director with a death-wish, is nothing short of mesmerizing.

The story follows Fosse's own life story closely enough to be almost eerie -- even foreshadowing his ultimate demise from heart failure at an out-of-town new play try-out in Washington, D.C., which happened years after this movie was released. But even if it didn't, the movie stands on its own as a very gritty, sweaty and true-to-life look at what it takes to make it on Broadway.

This Special Music Edition of the DVD has some excellent special features. I especially liked the featurette on the evolution of Fosse's iconic choreography.

If you loved Cabaret (for which Fosse won the Best Director Oscar), and Chicago,( the play of which Fosse originally directed and choreographed on Broadwway), you will love this movie. And if you love it, you should have it in your permanent collections. Fosse was a true American treasure. His unique dance stylings will be influencing choreographers for generations to come.

Self-indulgent brilliance
Fosse's "All that Jazz" is one of my all time favorite movies and I don't generally enjoy big production dance movies. In this movie, Fosse, through his actor, Roy Scheider, gets to play himself with all his talent, weakness, brilliance, stupidy, self-indulgence...and...evil. He lets us feel the phrenetic pace of an overcharged life and he shows us the fears, along with the associated thick skin, that come along with being a choreographer and playwrite. Without an effort to justify himself, he shows his opportunism in seducing young women trying to make it big. He shows us something of the women and child that he has injured but who are, at the same time, trying to save him from himself.

He shows a man dying of overwork, drug abuse and guilt. He shows us a man who simply doesn't care. He has a heart attack but lives...for a time...but a man like Fosse/Gideon simply doesn't live for long. They burn up like a short burning match. The movie is great but the last scene is even better. Death comes to him in the form of the hauntingly beautiful Jessica Lange. There is a truly remarkable dance routine centered on a jiving Ben Vereen. Everybody is there...everybody from his past...the strippers, whores, wife, child, girl friends, angry business partners. The rockin' tune is "There goes my Baby" and the rhythm is that of Fosse/Gideon's beating heart. Vereen's perfect eulogy is on the mark, "And you AIN'T nobody's friend." Bomp, bomp, bomp...bomp. Sweet death gets closer, closer, closer. Fosse/Gideon--or whatever is left of him--are brutally zipped up in a body bag. Terrific. Terrific and brilliant. Fosse has gone and choreographed his own death.

Ron Braithwaite author of novels, "Hummingbird God" and "Skull Rack"--on the Conquest of Mexico

Lotta singing, lotta dancing, a fair bit of drugs and sex... it's like life, only snazzier!
Or should that be jazzier? Very entertaining film, but it's not all fun and games. There's definitely some dark stuff here, this is no "Meet Me in Saint Louis" style musical. But the songs and dancing are great, the story and acting are great. If you haven't seen this before, you're in for a treat. A really original film with many great, memorable scenes.