Cavalcade: 1933

 Cavalcade (n.) - A formal procession of people walking, on horseback, or riding in vehicles.


I didn't want to like it. I don't know what it was about the first sixty seconds, but I said, "Yeah, I'm not going to like this," OUT LOUD to my roommates.


Cavalcade follows an upper-class British family for the first three decades of the twentieth century. The first scene takes place on New Year's Eve of 1899, shortly before the family patriarch, Robert Marryot, and the head of household staff, Alfred Bridges, head off to Africa to fight in the Boer War. The almost two hours that follow detail the personal lives of the Marryot and Bridges families; Robert and Alfred return home to their wives and families, the children grow up and find love, and we see how Jane Marryot adjusts to time reshaping her family unit.


I'm beginning to feel like a broken record by saying that I was surprised by this movie, so I won't say it. What I will say is that it isn't at all what I was expecting. When I looked up the word "cavalcade," I expected a war movie. While this film includes events of two wars, and two of the main characters become casualties of war, it is not the main event. I couldn't really pinpoint the MAIN event, because the story takes place over more than thirty years. The Great War battle montage was jarring, disturbing, and unexpected. As much as I didn't want to like the movie, I didn't even notice how quickly I became invested in the characters; I rooted for their successes, like Fanny's entertainment career and Edward's love affair with Edith. I mourned with Jane when she endured loss. When I saw the date of Edward's honeymoon and heard the song playing on the boat, I was in such a state of denial that I whispered, "no, no, no, no..." to myself during the entire scene. That was the scene where I said to my roommate, "oh, man, I think I might like it."


The most unexpected part of the story for me was the musical element. There were multiple theatrical performances involved in the story; Margaret takes Jane to the theatre to get her mind off of the Boer War, and Fanny grows up to have a career as a singer/dancer, and we see her perform several times. (Side note: the black leather dress Fanny wore with a choker covered in feathers with a matching fan was BREATH-TAKING.) 


As much as I liked this movie, I don't actually know that I would consider it Best Picture material. I don't know which of the Six Elements would have contributed the most to its success, but Spectacle sticks out to me for the reasons I've already mentioned: the montage, the costumes, the stage performances, even the title cards and transition slides. Although the visuals were stunning, and I found myself emotionally invested in the lives of the characters, I found the film slightly forgettable. I'd put it at the bottom of my ranking; while a good movie, it just wasn't my favorite.


Next in the lineup is the first movie I've actually seen before: It Happened One Night, starring Clarke Gable and Claudette Colbert!

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