Chicago (film)/Fridge

Fridge Brilliance

In the film Chicago I didn't know why Mama chose to give Roxy Billy Flynn's number. Then I recently thought about it. Billy knows there's too much publicity to get Velma off on a jury trial, so he asks Mama to find someone. He sets Roxy up as the 'sweetest little jazz killer', Velma vanishes from the papers; Billy can cut a plea-bargin for his original client. He really is the best lawyer.
The black woman whose husband ran into her knife ten times probably did it out of self defence. But she’s black, so she still goes to prison, natch.
- It's always heavily implied that all of the Cellblock Tango girls is guilty, with the excpetion of Hunyak who can't speak English. The running into the knife TEN TIMES is like someone fell down an elevator onto some bullets. There is nowhere in the script that calls for June, that particular character, to be African-American. The real racism comes through with Hunyak as they don't even bother getting her a translator and condemn her to death without her own testimony.
- She's not in prison, she's in jail. All of them are still apparently awaiting trial or still in the trial process, and when you're awaiting trial and can't make bail, you're in jail. You go to prison if you've been tried, found guilty, and sentenced to prison.

Same thing in Chicago. Roxie and Velma might end the show on a high note, having opened their own act, but when happens when the stock market crashes and the Depression kicks off?
- However, in Chicago, they deserve it.
  - Amos doesn't! Though as a lowly mechanic who'd saved up enough to shower affection on his undeserving wife, his quality of life probably wouldn't change too badly. And with Roxie out of his life, maybe he could find a good woman deserving of his time.
Throughout the film, we see musical numbers taking place on an imaginary stage in the characters' minds. At the end of the film, Velma and Roxie perform a wildly successful show to an adoring audience. But... Is that their real performance at all? Or is it their imaginations?...
- Compare Roxie's singing in the last musical number to her singing for her audition (after the imaginary sequence). Big difference, hm?

Chicago can basically be described as a film that trashes the rise and fall of stars, and the hype machine that makes them. So of course the movie won 6 academy awards. Does Hollywood recognize its own flaws, or is it actually that dumb?
- It's called "irony at its best."
- Not quite. Chicago's stars are "phony celebrities" who did nothing to deserve their fame and are basically a freak show. The film deserved these awards.

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