Search - All That Jazz on DVD

MPAA Rating: R Content Advisory: Nudity, Adult Situations, Not For Children, Adult Language, Substance Abuse, Sexual Situations Movie Release: 1979 DVD Release: 08/19/2003 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV - Closed Captioned Edition: Dual Layered Audio Tracks: English, French Subtitles: English, Spanish SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 2 hrs 3 mins Studio: 20th Century Fox Members Wishing: 5 Genres: Drama, Musical, Musical Drama, Showbiz Drama See Also: All That Jazz [Gold O-Ring Packaging], All That Jazz: Music Edition

"It's showtime!" In this part film à clef, part musical phantasmagoria, director/choreographer Bob Fosse takes a Felliniesque look at the life of a driven entertainer. Joe Gideon (Roy Scheider, channeling Fosse) is the ultimate work (and pleasure)-aholic, as he knocks back a daily dose of amphetamines to juggle a new Broadway production while editing his new movie, not to mention ex-wife Audrey (Leland Palmer), steady girlfriend Kate (Ann Reinking), a young daughter, and various conquests. Joe cannot, however, avoid intimations of mortality from white-clad vision Angelique (Jessica Lange) that lead him to look back at his life as he heads for a near-inevitable coronary and his departure from this mortal coil with the appropriate razzle-dazzle. Taking his cue from Federico Fellini's 8 1/2 (1963), Fosse moves from realistic dance numbers to extravagant flights of cinematic fancy, as Joe meditates on his life, his women, and his death. Following a similarly dark revisionist vein as Martin Scorsese's New York, New York (1977), Fosse shows the stiff price that entertaining exacts on entertainers (among other things, he intercuts graphic footage of open-heart surgery with a song and dance), mercilessly reversing the feel-good mood of classical movie musicals. Critics praised Fosse's daring even as they damned his self-indulgence, while Scheider was lauded for giving the best performance of his career. Though not a disastrous failure, All That Jazz came nowhere near the popularity of 1978's Grease, as late '70s audiences increasingly turned away from "difficult" movies. For all its excesses, Fosse's fiercely personal approach turned All That Jazz into another striking work from one of the few directors able to make, and experiment with, movie musicals after the 1960s. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

Roy Scheider - Joe Gideon
Jessica Lange - Angelique
Ann Reinking - Kate Jagger
Cliff Gorman - David Newman
Leland Palmer - Audrey Paris
John Lithgow - Lucas Sergeant

Bob Fosse's 1979 award-winning musical drama All That Jazz arrives on DVD from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. Presented with a widescreen anamorphic transfer enhanced for 16 x 9 televisions. Dolby Digital soundtracks are offered in Stereo English or Mono French. Subtitles are available in English and Spanish. Special features include scene-specific audio commentary by Roy Scheider recorded in 2001, three Roy Scheider interview clips recorded on the film's set in 1979, five clips of Bob Fosse directing the "On Broadway" audition sequence, and the theatrical trailer. This is a welcome release of a highly regarded film that has previously been only available on home video in VHS form. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide