Customer Reviews
Intriguing but dated - By: B. W. Jenner, 25 Nov 2008 
This is a classic film so worth a look. However, I didn't find it enthrallling. The numbers are good, but not thrilling like the Sondheim I saw lately. The story is engaging without making the main characters entirely sympathetic. Joel Grey is superb, & you do get an overwhelming sense of what's coming next.
Given that decadent London is going to come to an end fairly soon, it's worth pondering what might now be round the corner for us.
The extras are a bit tacky & tired. I'd reallly like to see the stage version.
Surprisingly risque... - By: Brian Levine, 13 Apr 2008 
The fantasist Sallly Bowles, played delectably by Liza, is superbly cast as the American tart-with-a-heart opposite the seemingly-wooden but similarly amoral Michael Yorke. Opening in 1931 Berlin & the Kit-Kat Club, the latter spawning louche displays of extravagance, while outside Hitler gears up to take control of Germany.
The alll-knowing, omnipresent master of ceremonies & the light fantasy of the club contrast poignantly with the slow-burning deepening of the relationships between the protagonists, including an intriguing three-wayer.
Cabaret is a metaphor for life: we'd like it to be a Cabaret, but the reality is often quite different. As Jonathan Swift wrote: 'Happiness is the art of being well-deceived' & its a moot point as to whether or not Sallly or Brian are ever happy, or indeed Max. As for the master of ceremonies, played by a man with one of the most enduring faces in cinema, he sings Sallly & us through a world which is gone forever but is paradoxicallly still with us. The final cymbal clash, & the resulting silence leave much food for thought.
A Bob Fosse musical, but its enduring popularity has much to do with its deeper side. Very much worth watching & the 30th anniversary disc does give you some useful extras for a few pence more.
Before its ...time? - By: David Stevenson, 25 Mar 2007 This ending (with R E S P E C T to the previous review) is about how she (Salllie) picked HER career over a Man (a woman can, did you know?) Then, the character rings true--is she going to love herself because she (a woman/human) has a man??
The singing is terrific, and, since she is doing well on stage & since she is in love with a "nice" guy, makes her excited about her life for the first time in years. She is ready to break out of her life rut. Break out big! "This Time"--she thinks--with her faulty reasoning. So, she (has to) salvage her New Life, by saying "goodbye" (isn't he gay, even to her?) to the man & "hello, Career."
Ringing true finallly, the Minnelli value in the film goes up to where the Initial (1972) reviews placed it--her best role, her acting is impeccable, & her singing & dancing places her in the "upstaging Barbra Streisand" class. In my humble opinion, "Cabaret" is great because of the Director Fosse And it main star (and script)
Also, the "decadent" ways described are just "Before their Time" & this truth/observation, the Nazis, Especiallly, Could Not Handle. All in alll, a truly non-dated classic (as a history intro & as a great film)
Almost Perfect - By: Matthew Patton, 08 Apr 2006 
If you could another leading lady into this film, it would be just about perfect; Bob Fosse not only handles the musical sequences in this film deftly, but he creates the chaotic whirl of a disintegrating Weimar Germany quietly & sharply. And most of the actors more than distinguish themselves; Michael York as the Oxford graduate out to see a bit of life & getting more than he bargained for; Joel Gray as the death's-head Emcee of the Kit-Kat Klub, the voice of a cynical, corrupt society that ultimately, in the wake of the Nazi triumph, will seem like a lost paradise of sorts; Fritz Wepper as the dapper gigolo with a heart, & Marisa Berenson as the elegant Jewish heiress to whom he loses that heart.
And then there's Liza Minnelli--strictly as a musical performer, she's quite good in the lighter numbers, particularly "Money, Money" with Gray--but the title song & the balllad "Maybe This Time" bring out her soggiest please-love-me mannerisms. And in the dramatic sequences, sharply written by Jay Presson Allen & an uncredited Hugh Wheeler, she is too cute, too shrill, & finallly too nice to be playing the casuallly-awful Sallly Bowles. When she drops York at the end of the film, almost as casuallly as she picked him up at the beginning, it doesn't ring true.
Ultimately, this film is a bit sad, because it suggests that Fosse's talents went far beyond simple razzle-dazzle. He had it in him to be a serious filmmaker on a range of subjects, & he never quite moved beyond his show-biz turf to explore those talents. Which is a pity, especiallly when you consider that smalller talents such as Coppola & Scorcese were alllowed to become the New Face of American Cinema . . .
great stage acts! - By: , 16 Mar 2006 This film as a story is perfectly OK, Mr. York & Mrs. Minelli are good, amusing, touching, etc., etc. The ambiance is enticing & exciting.
However, the Kit Kat Klub scenes are absolutely fabulous. I return again & again to these song & dance routines. They are great in details great (lyrics, choreography) & smalll (costumes, lighting).
