Newsies

Certain movies hit your emotions so strongly that, even if they start to fall apart, you seem to keep rooting for them. That’s basically the case with the 1992 film, “Newsies.”

It’s a large, bright, moving period musical and its subject – the 1899 New York City newsboys’ strike – makes it feel out of place. Michael Wilmington said in his review, “The various elements often seem to clash: Golden Age musical and the ‘30s- or ‘60s-style left-wing labor drama, the young cast careening and leaping to songs like “Seize the Day” while the writers try to fill a broad canvas with social detail.”

Wilmington continued, “The bumptiously sunny Hollywood happy ending, probably a commercial prerequisite, clashes with everything. The real strike didn’t end this happily, and to suggest that these Davids could bring Goliaths Pulitzer and Hearst to their knees with heart and hope, some slingshots and an assist from Teddy Roosevelt, is as false to the material as it is to history.”

However, for all its flaws, “Newsies” has something that many successes miss. Wilmington noted, “It’s done with such full-bore enthusiasm, verve and energy, that--crazy as it often seems--it really does have moments that lift your heart or moisten your eyes.” Kenny Ortega, the director and Peggy Holmes, the co-choreographer, don’t act like the material has flaws: automatic plot twists, corny lyrics or characters. Ortega is like the newsies: He’s out to seize the day. When the material works, so does he.

The story is standard. We see three boys who will be the main people in the strike: an intellectual (David Moscow), his kid brother (Luke Edwards), and a rebel (Christian Bale). Wilmington said, “We get a glimpse of their seething turn-of-the century world, and the forces arrayed against them: local bullies, their weaselly distributor (“Barton Fink’s” splendidly sleazy Michael Lerner), all the way up to Joseph Pulitzer--played as a cold, compassionless patrician by Robert Duvall.”

Wilmington continued, “In the first, and best, part of “Newsies,” Ortega keeps rushing us and the boys from place to place, in big, eye-catching, mobile Panavision shots that bustle and boil with background detail. The production design and cinematography (Andrew Laszlo) are often smashing, and Bale--the boy protagonist of “Empire of the Sun”--has lots of streetwise charisma. When we reach the end of the first “act”--Bale’s wistfully romantic, nocturnal walk-in-the-streets-and-dream number “Santa Fe”--the movie has created its own little world, sucked us in with its movie-movie romanticism.”

Then Pulitzer raises the price on newspapers, the strike begins, and the story deteriorates.  Wilmington said, ““Newsies” which, up till then, has looked a bit like “Oliver!” mixed with “Ragtime” and “Angels With Dirty Faces,” suddenly becomes, more obviously, a formula Disney movie.” The tone goes off. There’s little feeling of how this strike might develop or tolerate itself.

Writers Bob Tzudiker and Noni White insert a prison, an evil warden (Kevin Tighe), a principled reporter (Bill Pullman), unlikely twists, benefits (with Ann-Margret), and melodrama aplenty. Wilmington noted, ““Newsies” becomes a string of set-pieces, some of which work, some of which don’t, all barreling full-speed ahead toward its Teddy Roosevelt deus ex machina.”

However, if you’re stuck at the opening – maybe because of preference – it keeps some of its charm. Wilmington noted, “Composer Alan Menken, who lost his longtime partner, lyricist Howard Ashman, to AIDS, is like Rodgers without his Hart. He has a new lyricist here, Jack Feldman (who, unpromisingly, wrote Barry Manilow’s “Copacabana”)--but, although Feldman can’t match Ashman, Menken’s music is still in the best Tin Pan Alley-Broadway heart-tugger tradition. It has lilt and range, infectious inevitability.”

Wilmington continued, “These days, big-studio movies don’t often look at labor unions or history. They leave it to low-budget, documentary or independent efforts like “Roger & Me,” “American Dream” or “Matewan.” So, treading on this new and old ground--trying to revive the Hollywood musical and the ‘30s social drama--”Newsies” (MPAA-rated PG) stumbles a little.”

Maybe the movie’s “fall” is like its own breathtaking last shot: a freeze frame of a jumping newsboy, who suddenly falls to the ground after the credits finish rolling. It’s a hilarious mistake: a mistake that may lead Ortega and the rest to better ones.

I don’t think this movie is entirely bad. There some good things in this film that unfortunately get overshadowed by all the mistakes of it being annoying. If you want to check this out, I don’t think it will hurt, as it is streaming on Disney+. The choice is yours, but if you don’t see it, I don’t think you’re missing anything. Still, this is an average film.

Tomorrow I will review a Disney Channel Original Movie in “Disney Month 2024.”