I wonder why the user below felt the need to criticize this film not once, but twice. Strange.
At any rate, I couldn't allow those negative and misleading comments to be the first read by those who haven't seen "Meet Me in St. Louis". This movie is NOT plotless, obnoxious or racist.
"Meet Me in St. Louis" is what is sometimes called a "slice of life" story. Basically, it tells the story of one year (1903-1904) in the lives of the Smith family. What gives the story its charm is that everyday yearnings and incidents become the stuff of major drama, just as they do in real life. Older sister Esther (the wonderful Judy Garland) is determined to get the attention of the object of her affections, the boy next door (Tom Drake). Youngest sister Tootie (Margaret O'Brien) uses Halloween to prove that she can be a mischief-maker on a level with the older kids.
Taken by themselves, neither of these events seems terribly exciting. What is great about "Meet Me in St. Louis", however, is that it gives these events the importance that they hold in the minds of the characters. As Esther sings in "The Trolley Song": "As he started to go, then I started to know how it feels when the universe reels!"
Most of us will never rule a nation or go on a great adventure. But we can all identify with what it's like to be seventeen, NEEDING to win the love of your crush. Or when you're five and MUST prove that you're not a baby anymore. This is why this film is so beloved and timeless.
As to the criticisms levelled at the color-saturation, I saw this as a way of showing how we always see our youth as a bright place. Don't we tend to imagine our youth as brighter, sunnier and more colorful than it actually was?
And as for the songs...well, if you can't appreciate and enjoy songs like "The Trolley Song", "The Boy Next Door" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", I feel sorry for you. No one sings "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" with the yearning and pain that Judy gives the song. And "The Trolley Song" makes me smile every time I hear it.
It's true that "Meet Me in St. Louis" isn't for everyone. The overly-cynical and pessimistic probably won't enjoy it at all. But for those of us who like to look back and smile on our youth and escape to a less-complicated world for a couple of hours, there's no place like St. Louis.
At any rate, I couldn't allow those negative and misleading comments to be the first read by those who haven't seen "Meet Me in St. Louis". This movie is NOT plotless, obnoxious or racist.
"Meet Me in St. Louis" is what is sometimes called a "slice of life" story. Basically, it tells the story of one year (1903-1904) in the lives of the Smith family. What gives the story its charm is that everyday yearnings and incidents become the stuff of major drama, just as they do in real life. Older sister Esther (the wonderful Judy Garland) is determined to get the attention of the object of her affections, the boy next door (Tom Drake). Youngest sister Tootie (Margaret O'Brien) uses Halloween to prove that she can be a mischief-maker on a level with the older kids.
Taken by themselves, neither of these events seems terribly exciting. What is great about "Meet Me in St. Louis", however, is that it gives these events the importance that they hold in the minds of the characters. As Esther sings in "The Trolley Song": "As he started to go, then I started to know how it feels when the universe reels!"
Most of us will never rule a nation or go on a great adventure. But we can all identify with what it's like to be seventeen, NEEDING to win the love of your crush. Or when you're five and MUST prove that you're not a baby anymore. This is why this film is so beloved and timeless.
As to the criticisms levelled at the color-saturation, I saw this as a way of showing how we always see our youth as a bright place. Don't we tend to imagine our youth as brighter, sunnier and more colorful than it actually was?
And as for the songs...well, if you can't appreciate and enjoy songs like "The Trolley Song", "The Boy Next Door" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", I feel sorry for you. No one sings "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" with the yearning and pain that Judy gives the song. And "The Trolley Song" makes me smile every time I hear it.
It's true that "Meet Me in St. Louis" isn't for everyone. The overly-cynical and pessimistic probably won't enjoy it at all. But for those of us who like to look back and smile on our youth and escape to a less-complicated world for a couple of hours, there's no place like St. Louis.