Entertainment
10 Heaviest Musical Movies, Ranked
Do you like movies where people break into song? Do you like dancing? Do you like Singin’ in the Rain, Mary Poppins, and The Sound of Music? You could’ve answered yes to all those questions, and still, you might watch some of the following and not really love them. They are musical movies, but they’re not really fun musicals, to put it mildly.
Some of the following titles might have entertaining scenes, or some comparatively fun/light moments, but you wouldn’t really feel comfortable calling any of them feel-good. It’ll start off with some that might be a little more bittersweet, rather than outright miserable, but things will end with the inevitable heaviest musical movies of all time. Spoilers won’t be gone into too much, but a movie being here does suggest, at the very least, that the ending likely won’t be entirely happy, you know?
10
‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ (1973)
Starting off with something a bit obscure, or maybe just not quite as well-known as some of the soon-to-be-mentioned movies, here’s Jesus Christ Superstar. It sounds pretty wild, and maybe even campy, because it’s about Jesus during his final days, with Judas also being a prominent character, and what happens in the Bible during that relevant part plays out here, just as a musical.
The betrayal and death inherent to this part of the Bible obviously take place here, and Jesus Christ Superstar also has some difficult questions it raises about things related to the Bible, and then some things more recent, or beyond the Bible. It’s not exactly comparable, and wasn’t as controversial, but it almost (emphasis on the almost) does for this part of Jesus’s life what The Last Temptation of Christ did, in terms of being a somewhat striking and daring re-imagining, though that film did admittedly lack singing and dancing (had some great music, though).
9
‘Better Man’ (2024)
Thankfully, a good deal of Better Man is about overcoming personal struggles that one grapples with when they start to become famous. It’s about Robbie Williams who, at the time of writing, is still alive, and so you know Better Man isn’t going to have as heavy an ending as biopics that were made after a famous person’s death, since they’ll often end with that, or imply it’s about to happen.
It’s just that with Better Man, punches aren’t pulled when it comes to depicting the hardships. It’s a movie that tackles addiction, self-hatred, and insecurity in genuinely upsetting ways, in its most intense moments. That does make the personal victories achieved near the end feel all the more meaningful, but the film as a whole is more of an emotional roller-coaster than many give it credit for. Oh, and also, Robbie Williams is a chimpanzee the whole movie. And it works, somehow.
8
‘Les Misérables’ (2012)
With that title, if Les Misérables ended up not having some amount of misery in it, might you not feel a little disappointed? It’s based on a novel about hardships, crime, justice, and redemption or, more accurately, it’s based on a stage musical that was based on a novel about those things. So, Les Misérables is maybe technically an adaptation of the novel, but not to the same extent as those adaptations without the songs.
They go heavy on the singing here, with every line being sung, and then they naturally go pretty heavy on the emotional stuff here, too. Some people go through it, in Les Misérables, a little more than others, but some people do lose a ton and have to keep on struggling. If it were a better movie quality-wise (it’s inconsistent), it might rank higher, because that could mean the emotional scenes hit harder, but some of the tragic/dramatic moments in this particular adaptation do come across as a little silly at times, sadly.
7
‘All That Jazz’ (1979)
It’s not the only movie here about death in some way, but All That Jazz is really, really focused on dying and death to an extent few musicals are. The main character here is living a life that is, to put it mildly, too busy. He keeps working, pushing himself, and alienating people, and then some health problems worsen, and he eventually finds himself having to face the fact that if his life continues in such a way, said life probably won’t go on for much longer.
All That Jazz also isn’t as much of a musical as some other movies here, with the big musical numbers not really coming in until the end, and also being implemented in a way that feels too surprising to outright ruin. Yes, it’s an old movie, and avoiding discussion of the plot for something that’s nearing half a century in age might sound silly, but if you’ve not seen All That Jazz and still want to, then you’ll be thankful. And if you’ve seen All That Jazz, you know what all those somewhat vague words mean. Everybody wins, while talking about movies where not many people win. Yay?
6
‘Phantom of the Paradise’ (1974)
At least there’s quite a lot of camp to be found in Phantom of the Paradise, which evens things out a little, taking that alongside the darker and more grisly parts. It’s a horror/comedy film that also functions as a musical, and then it’s a few other genres at the same time. It’s a bit of everything. It’s chaotic. So much is not only thrown in, but jam-packed into it all, since it’s not a long movie, in the end, at just over 90 minutes.
Phantom of the Paradise is a horror/comedy film that also functions as a musical, and then it’s a few other genres at the same time. It’s a bit of everything. It’s chaotic.
In case you couldn’t guess, that also makes it imperfect, but there’s a charm here, at least at times, and you have to admire how far Phantom of the Paradise pushes things. With the stuff it takes influence from (including the legend of Faust and, unsurprisingly, The Phantom of the Opera), tragic elements are inevitable, but to have tragedy and horror-tinged bloodshed hitting you in the face at the same time as all the absurd and weird stuff makes the whole film a rather interesting experience.
5
‘A Star Is Born’ (1954)
You don’t get much happiness with any version of A Star Is Born, because the story always has to be a tragic one. If you found the 2018 version surprising, then good for you! But if you were familiar with the iconic (though not quite as good) 1976 version, or the (perhaps underrated and probably the strongest overall) 1954 version, then you surely saw the sadness coming. The 1937 version (the original) is interesting, too; just not as much of a musical or anything.
All these movies are about the entertainment industry, and the sadness comes about because the love story each one tells is about someone who’s on the up, in their industry, and then the other person in love is going down, and losing popularity. They meet maybe in the middle, Benjamin Button-style, for all too short a time, and then things progress to where you fear they might. Every time. And it just never stops being sad, but it might be narratively at its saddest in the 1954 version, thanks to Judy Garland and James Mason giving probably the two best performances of their respective careers.
4
‘Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street’ (2007)
You get a lot of gothic horror in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and it’s paired surprisingly well with some suitably dark songs. It’s easy to explain why this movie is showing up here, just by summarizing the premise, since Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is about a man who murders people through his work as a barber, and then his neighbor/accomplice bakes their bodies into pies.
There’s more to it than that, with some complex moral questions and villains who are interesting and ultimately humanized, and then everyone feels like they’re pretty much probably doomed. But it’s all equal parts gloomy, beautiful, and violent before that point, benefiting from some of the best directing Tim Burton’s ever done (hell, he probably makes what is, so far, his best 21st century release here, truth be told).
3
‘Cabaret’ (1972)
Before All That Jazz, Bob Fosse also directed Cabaret, which is another grim musical, but grim in a different way. All That Jazz was introspective and psychologically intense, while Cabaret is more about a society’s downfall, and people not really noticing until it’s too late. It takes place in Berlin during the 1930s, and so the rise of fascism in Germany before World War II is dealt with, albeit in an interesting and unexpected way.
It’s in the background until it’s in the foreground. Watching it and comparing it to other organizations that have risen seemingly out of nowhere, but only seemingly, because you were distracted by something else… it’s uncomfortable to think about. Best to keep it vague, but there’s a lot to apply Cabaret to, both concerning the past and present, and maybe (but also hopefully not) the future, too.
2
‘West Side Story’ (1961)
It’s Romeo and Juliet, but with a more modern setting and also a good deal more singing, so yes, West Side Story gets inevitably tragic. If Romeo and Juliet weren’t super famous and also super old, that might feel like a spoiler, but, you know… you kind of see where this one is going. It might not go to the exact same places as Romeo and Juliet, yet the places are inevitably similar.
And tragically similar. Watching West Side Story is a bit like rewatching Titanic. You hope, every time, that things will be a little different, and that either the iceberg will be missed or that fateful street fight will get called off, but you’re never so lucky, and neither are the characters in either movie. Oh, well. At least the sadness here, in West Side Story, is also kind of broad and big, and so the tears shed are cathartic ones.
1
‘Dancer in the Dark’ (2000)
Dancer in the Dark has a reputation for being sad, so you enter into it feeling fairly prepared for a tearjerker, and yet it still ends up being surprising just how heavy it gets. Maybe saying that it almost feels like a horror movie at times is a slight exaggeration, but it’s not hard to call it one of the bleakest dramas of all time, even of all those that don’t include singing.
When you take into account specifically those with some singing and/or dancing (musicals, in other words, or technically another word), then yes, Dancer in the Dark is likely the heaviest and bleakest and whatever other adjective you want to use in place of “saddest.” The pun’s inappropriate, but what the movie is about was danced around just now, sure, but if you’ve seen it, then you definitely know why Dancer in the Dark has to secure the #1 position here.
Dancer in the Dark
- Release Date
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October 6, 2000
- Runtime
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140 Minutes
- Director
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Lars von Trier
- Writers
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Lars von Trier, Sjon
