32. Newsies

1992; dir. Kenny Ortega; starring Christian Bale, David Moscow, Max Casella, Robert Duvall, Bill Pullman
My views: 10

One summer when I was in middle school (I'm pretty sure it was 2003, but it might have been 2002), my sister and I went to this day camp which consisted of watching a film and putting on a mock trial about it.  That particular year we put Joseph Pulitzer on trial for cruelty to the newsboys during their strike, and for a reason that now escapes me, I was the one who played Joseph Pulitzer.  I had never seen this movie before, and I found it very confusing.  I thought the singing and dancing was kind of fun, if in a super cheesy way, but I did not understand the plot at all.  I was not alone in this, which made our trial possibly one of the least comprehensible mock trials in the history of mock trials.  I think the jury decided I needed to join an anger management program and left it at that.

I thought my relationship to Newsies was over after the mock trial ended, but it was just beginning.  Suddenly, my sister was completely obsessed with all things Newsies.  She'd go around singing and playing the songs on piano, reciting lines, constantly reminding me how hot all of the main actors were...there was no way for me to tell her that I thought it was a terrible movie.  I bought her the soundtrack and put it in a shoe box decorated with pictures of Max Casella because she said she wanted him for Christmas.  We didn't own the movie at the time, but she kept getting it from the library and borrowing it from her friends.  Occasionally I'd watch it with her just to make her happy, but I still thought it was really lame for a while.

And then, I have no idea how it happened, but somehow it didn't seem quite so strange that my sister loved this movie so much.  I started to appreciate its charms: hot guys dancing in period costumes; an Alan Menken score and songs; poor kids defeating a rich tyrant; the awesomeness that is Bill Pullman; even the cheesiness started to seem charming rather than annoying.  I wish I could pinpoint an exact time that this happened, but I'm not sure when it was.  All I know is that I went from absolutely hating Newsies to making it my life goal to see it on Broadway someday, and that my sister and I now each have our own copy of the DVD.  Headlines don't sell papes, Newsies sell papes, and they certainly sold me.