All That Jazz: a review and breakdown of Bob Fosse's best film

A review of All That Jazz, a 1979 musical directed by dance choreographer Bob Fosse

from a script co-written with Robert Authur. The film is loosely based on aspects of Fosse’s career as a director, choreographer, and dancer at a time when Fosse was simultaneously editing his film called Lenny and staging his 1975 musical Chicago. Like his fictional alter ego in the film, Joe Gideon, Fosse suffered a fatal heart attack on September 23, 1987; he was only 60 years old. In 1980, All That Jazz won 4 Academy Awards that included Best Director and the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival that same year. 

All That Jazz begins in a dressing room where film director and dance choreographer Joe Gideon shares his life story to a beautiful woman named Angelique. In fact, his fondness for beautiful women is a big part of why his life ends the way that it does. It all begins with a Broadway audition-or cattle call-for a play called NY/LA. Eleven of the 12 dancers can actually dance. He didn’t pick Victoria because of her dancing skills, though, but he vows--in time--to make her a better dancer. 

Gideon’s affairs ruins his marriage to Audrey who is starring in his new play. She still loves him. If not for his lies and constant affairs they could have made it work. But Joe loves sex and beautiful women, his only reason for getting into showbiz in the 1st place. So many lovers over the years that he can’t remember their names. But these empty fly-by-night encounters do provide inspiration for his plays. 

With the deadlines for his film--The Standup--and the opening of his Broadway play--NY/LA--fast approaching and nowhere near completion, Joe’s daily ritual of coffee, 5 packs of cigarettes, Dexedrine, and Alka-Seltzer intensifies and puts him on an operating table and center stage in a five act play called Anger, Denial, Bargaining, and Acceptance. For the first time in his career, Gideon’s the star of the show and the crowd loves him!

In All That Jazz, Joe Gideon serves as a metaphor for a narcissistic and self-centered me, me, me generation that wants to receive love and acceptance without giving anything in return. Joe burns through a series of one-way relationships that begin and end with such frequency that they have no chance to establish any emotional connection. As a result, his attitude towards those he hurts is callus as when Katie--a lover he refers to as a friend--catches him in bed with 1 of his female dancers. 

Joe is also the embodiment of all the contradictions that fame represents: closeness and disconnection; love and indifference; life and death. Joe wants to be different from everyone else, to stand out, to do something special. Joe built his life on trying to be counterculture to everything society condoned but at the same time based his self opinion on what that society thought of him and his work. 

I also see Joe as a metaphor of how we are all, ultimately, alone in our feelings and how we interpret the world. Self love. This is why sex is so important throughout the film, it being the most subjective of all experiences. And this is also why sex creeps into Joe’s plays, particularly the Airotica number that he incorporates into his upcoming NY/LA play. You notice that for all of Joe’s narcissism and ego, how much his self confidence hinges on what others think of his plays and films? That his pleasure of his plays and films are derived from the pleasure others get from them? What brings us all back and out of ourselves, ultimately, is the need to be loved which Joe seeks through his plays and films. Even self love is out of a need to be loved. 

Which brings me back to what Davis Newman told Joe--that Joe wanted to be special. When Joe was racking his brain editing The Standup--even going over budget on it--and finally got to a point where he thought he had it “right,” a bad review from 1 critic sends Joe over the edge. Now bring this in line with the fact that Joe left his wife to live with 2 women because nobody else was doing it. And that he also--according to O’Connor Flood played by Ben Vereen---was in the Selma Marches with Black people before “other cats saw it as a hip thing and jumped on the Blackwagon.” It seems that Joe loses interest in things where he does not feel special or unique. But the paradox of this need to feel special is that it reflects how the women in his life feel about him. They, too, want to feel special and don’t want to be grouped in with the crowd of women in his life. Joe is seeking the same thing that the women who love him seek. 

Sex is another thematic element in All that Jazz that deserves a closer look and what it really means in Joe Gideon’s life. He grew up around strippers and didn’t seem to have a great childhood. Older women turned him on to his sexuality and he discovered that if it didn’t take away pain in his life, at least it numbed it a while. You’ll notice that Joe also drinks alcohol, smokes 5 packs of cigarettes a day, and takes a drug called Dexedrine that acts as a stimulant.    There’s another metaphor here that relates to the theme of the racy dance number Joe puts on for the producers of his play, the play’s theme--he calls it-- of “casual or indifferent sexual encounters in contemporary society.” Lasting relationships that end cause a great deal of pain, casual relationships cause little or no pain at all. Limiting his relationships to sex decreases the chances of experiencing pain. But as I pointed out, Joe--as closed off as he is from others emotionally--needs love, too, and expresses this need through how others feel about his films and plays. 

These are some of the ideas I got from watching All That Jazz and reading the script. I am going to do an analysis of the film where I’ll go into greater detail on its themes. This film reminds me of Fellini’s 8 1/2 in that they are both about film directors who use their personal lives for inspiration. Even though there are dance numbers and music in this film I wouldn’t classify it as a musical but more like a dark drama with music throughout. This is a very dark film with some pretty graphic surgical scenes. One of the most memorable scenes to me is near the end when Joe stumbles into a hospital room where an old lady’s dying and moaning and he kisses her deeply and tells her she’s the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen. There have been a lot of great actors throughout the years but some of the best acting performances ever were by actors who weren’t household names and who didn’t do a lot of great films. I’m thinking of Peter O’Toole in Lawrence of Arabia, Brad Davis in The Midnight Express, and Richard Harris in The Sporting Life. Add Roy Scheider to this list. Amazing performance of a complicated character in Joe Gideon. All the acting in the film is great though I wish Ben Vereen as O’Connor Flood had more screen time but the time he does appear on screen is electrifying. If you haven’t seen this film and you think this is just a musical, you need to do yourself a favor and see it. I have it on DVD and it looks terrific.