Scheinfeld has smartly hired Denzel Washington to “play” Coltrane in voice-over, reading from print interviews and liner notes. Coltrane gave no television or radio interviews before he died in 1967 at the age of 40. He does, however, have an ace up his sleeve. If you are new to the great instrumentalist’s work, you may find yourself shouting “show, don’t tell!” Frustratingly, director John Scheinfeld has a tendency to cut just when the music starts to wail. If you are a Coltrane fan, you’ll be nodding in agreement. Their group choreography is a little off at times and none of the songs are good enough to hit the replay button a hundred times, but it turns the fun movie into an offbeat adventure you can’t help but fall hopelessly in love with.Mixing concert footage, home movies and photographs with talking head interviews from colleagues, inspired younger musicians and a few well-chosen commentators, “Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary” gives you all the biographical data you need, plus testimonials swearing he was one of the great geniuses of recent history. The icing on the cake is the musical numbers sung by the newsies.
If the papers don’t write about it, no one cares about it, thereby shaping public opinion to suit his/her personal interests. Not only does the film go into child labor, but it also shows the dangers of someone influencing and/or controlling mass media. People who will work any job for limited wages. Their strike does little in gaining public interest because, shockingly, the city thrives on child labor.
When Jack and his comrades can’t afford to make a living, they go on strike, catching the attention of other newsies in Manhattan and Brooklyn who have also been overworked for years with little to show for it. ( Les Misérables, Sweeney Todd, Phantom of the Opera, Rocky Horror, Rent and Sound of Music) Disney made Newsies more family friendly, but the plot is centered around child labor and fighting against oppression, not exactly a light-hearted subject. It may be a musical, which gives the impression that it’d be cheerful (which it is), but for some reason, musicals are always full of dark material. Simply the Best: The first completely live-action musical produced by Disney is loosely based off of the 1899 Newsboy strike, which targeted Joseph Pulitzer and his paper, “The New York World”. Related Story: Michael Pitt: 10 Greatest movies of all time
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