August is Musical Month in the Catholic Movie Club! We’re going to look at movie musicals from across the history of the genre to see how these song-and-dance spectaculars can teach us about our faith.
One element of musicals that I have not touched on yet this month is dance. If bursting into song is a musical’s way of expressing what often goes unsaid, dance is its way of expressing what can’t be spoken. Through dance, actors use their bodies to convey wild joy, deep anguish and every emotion in between. On film, dance becomes a dynamic, immersive experience through camera movements and editing techniques; this is also very tricky to do well. Unsurprisingly, some of the most celebrated movie musical directors were also choreographers: Busby Berkeley, Gene Kelly, Bob Fosse, Rob Marshall and the director of this week’s film, Kenny Ortega.
Ortega choreographed music act tours and music videos (including Madonna’s famous “Material Girl”) before getting involved with film and becoming a protégé of Gene Kelly, who taught him how to compose dance for the camera. As a director he is best known for his work with Disney, including “Hocus Pocus” (1993), the “High School Musical” franchise and, perhaps most famously, “Newsies” (1992).
Written by Bob Tzudiker and Noni White with music by Alan Menken and J.A.C. Redford, “Newsies” is the rare family-friendly musical that also serves as thematically appropriate Labor Day viewing (which is exactly why I chose it). Loosely based on the historical New York newsboys’ strike of 1899, the film centers on Jack Kelly (Christian Bale), one of the many young boys who hawk newspapers on the streets of New York. The newsies receive measly compensation, certainly when compared to the men who own the papers, like the imperious New York World owner Joseph Pulitzer (Robert Duvall). When the newspaper tycoons start charging the newsboys more per paper in order to increase their profits, Jack is encouraged by a new friend, the intelligent and principled David Jacobs (David Moscow), to lead the others in a strike. As the newsies face brutal strikebreakers, their plight gains attention thanks to the pen of journalist Bryan Denton (Bill Pullman). But as the newsies become front-page news, secrets from Jack’s past jeopardize their noble fight.
“Newsies” resonates with the Catholic Church’s long history of teaching the importance of workers’ rights, from Scripture’s insistence on fairly compensating workers to more recent articulations. In the 1975 pastoral letter “This Land is Home to Me,” the Catholic bishops of Appalachia wrote: “The real power of the labor movement, a power which has not been totally crushed, is the vision that an injury to one is an injury to all.”
Jack echoes that message of solidarity at a rally of newsboys: “If we don’t act together then we’re nothin’. If we don’t stick together, we’re nothin’. And if we can’t even trust each other, then we’re nothin’.” Forming an impromptu coalition with other newsboy unions and child laborers throughout the city, they become a force that cannot be ignored. Aside from unity, their greatest strength—like that of many strikers before and since—is the courage to put their bodies on the line, making the very instrument of their labor a tool for protest.
That’s where the dancing comes in. A more realistic portrayal of the strike would show them marching or standing stoically, which could certainly be a powerful image. But Ortega heightens the moment with his choreography. When the newsies go on strike, they leap and twist; they swing fists; they link arms as they move in unison. In their movements we see everything that rages below the surface—anger, resolve and particularly a commitment to each other—brought to vivid, physical life. It is meaningful that the big dance numbers come as the characters move from ideation to action; strikes become real when human beings plant themselves on the picket line and refuse to move.
“Newsies” is a great example of the versatility of the musical genre. Ortega uses dance and song to convey the raw emotion at the heart of the strike, the outrage and hope that fuels the newsies in their struggle. There are several ways that “Newsies” feels dated now (a number of which were amended in the 2012 Broadway production), but its portrayal of the power of collective action—and the courage it takes to risk life and limb to demand your rights—is still compelling today.
“Newsies” is streaming on Disney+.
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