Phantom of the Opera

Describe:The stage musical “The Phantom of the Opera” was written by Andrew Lloyd Webber in 1986.  In 2004, the stage musical became a movie directed by Joel Schumacher and produced and written by Andrew Lloyd Webber.  The movie is rated PG-13 and is 143 minutes long.  It was filmed at Pinewood studios in Buckinghamshire, England as well as in London, England and was nominated for 3 Oscars.  The roles of each character are played by Gerard Butler as the Phantom of the Opera, Emmy Rossum as Christine, and Patrick Wilson as Raoul.  This movie is a musical thriller based on drama and romance. 

Analyze: “The Phantom of the Opera” is about a disfigured musical genius, the phantom, who falls in love with a young woman, Christine, whom he has been training to become an amazing opera singer.  Christine always believed the she was the “angel of music” and never knew who her opera teacher was. Little did Christine know that the Phantom was sabotaging the Paris Opera House just so that she could be the star.  After the Phantom finally gets rid of the lead opera singer, Christine comes in and becomes the star of the show.  During the show, one of her childhood romances remembers the times they shared and immediately fell back in love with her.  This turns the Phantom’s love, Raoul’s love, and Christine’s love into a love triangle.  When the Phantom sees the love connection between Raoul and Christine, he kidnaps Christine to marry her.  While she is with the Phantom she realizes that he is her musical tutor and falls under his trance.  She then removes his mask to see his disfigured face which angers the Phantom and he brings her back to her room.  After that experience Christine tells Raoul about the Phantom and Raoul promises to protect her and gives her a kiss. This angers the Phantom and he kidnaps her again and says that if she does not marry him then he will hurt Raoul. Christine accepts his offer and kisses the Phantom. There was no feeling from Christine in the kiss which made the Phantom realize that she will never love him and he lets both Christine and Raoul go. Christine realizes that she has the Phantom;s ring and goes to return it.  The phantom begs for her to stay with him but she refuses.  The Phantom then masks himself with his cape and when his cape is removed all that’s left is his face mask.

Interpret: The Phantom of the Opera was a love triangle with a lot of lust. In a love triangle there is always someone that gets the short end of the stick, and in this Opera’s case it was the Phantom.  The Phantom put all of his time and effort into making Christine fall in love with him, but Christine already had her heart set on Raoul who was in love with her too.  In the end the Phantom realizes that there is nothing else he can do to make Christine love him and that he has to let her go with Raoul and move on himself.  This movie is all about how actions affect where love goes.  The Phantom did bad things to try and make Christine love him, which in the end led to his downfall and Christine said that it was his scars that turned her away but it was his bad actions.  Christine gave her heart to Raoul because she knew he was a good guy and had a good heart.  

Evaluate: After watching this movie, I put it on my list of favorites because it was so good.  It kept me on my toes the whole time, making me guess what was going to happen next.  I loved how the movie unfolded in the beginning with the present day auction of the opera house chandelier and then the chandelier lit up signaling a flashback to where the whole movie was to be taken place.  I also loved the grandeur costumes and the amazing music.  The movie had an awesome flow to it and the plot was such a twist, you never knew who Christine was going to love.  One downfall of the movie was that it was a little lengthy in time which gave you parts that were more boring than others.  Despite the length of the movie, it was amazingly written, directed, and played out.  All of the actors and actresses did a great job performing their roles.  I would definitely recommend this movie to someone who is in the mood for a musical thriller.