Classic Movies Influenced Michael Jackson's Performances

Photo: Entertainment Weekly

The world was shocked last Thursday when Michael Jackson, King of Pop, died at the age of 50. His family has lost a relative, the music industry has lost an innovative icon and the world has lost a well-noted Classic Movies fan.

From his Fosse-esque glove, to his Gene Kelly- influenced white socks and loafers, Jackson’s post-Jackson Five career was heavily influenced by movies, and in particular Classic Movies. Indeed, it was “Sidney Lumet’s version of  The Wiz [a 1978 retelling of  the 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz] with Diana Ross that first put Michael Jackson in contact with Quincy Jones to begin the most successful producer/artist partnership in the history of American recording.” -- Buffalo News

Just as Kelly wanted to reinvent stage and movie musicals, Jackson wanted to reinvent stage and music video performances by combining R&B  and Hollywood [ Marlon Brando cameos in one of Jackson’s music videos]. The Classic Movies influence on The Gloved One permeates many of his popular routines.

The iconic Moonwalk, a move in which the dancer appears to be experiencing the weightlessness of outer space while walking backwards, is an amalgamation of a variety of dance genres. This blend of dances includes a backslide that was often performed by the legendary film star Bill “Bojangles” Robinson.

In the 1982 music video “Beat It,”  and  again in the 1987 video “Bad,” Jackson appears on the streets of a city with a gang of people, snapping fingers, pirouetting, and trying to intimidate another group with dance skills, much like that in the classic West Side Story (1961),  a musical involving  tension between two New York City gangs. Indeed some of  the choreography seems to be directly taken from the terpsichorean introduction  of the characters in the Robert Wise movie. In “Bad,” Jackson even sets the number in a parking lot, much like the song “Cool” in West .

The 1991 “Smooth Criminal” video features Jackson, in a gray-white suit and fedora, entering a bar filled with  dubious characters and dancing. It is very much a tribute to Fred Astaire’s costume and maneuvers in “The Girl Hunt Ballet” from The Bandwagon (1953). The quick, jerky, repetitive actions in the routine are akin to those frequently used by Michael Kidd, choreographer  for the Betty Comden-Adolph Green film.

Like so many filmed dances from the 1930s through the 1950s created by Hermes Pan, Astaire, Kelly and others that emphasized everyday life, in the “Billie Jean” video, Jackson,  wearing spats, performs a dance that begins simply by walking. The singer is followed by shadowy, trench coat -wearing figures that seem to be right out of an MGM musical. Jackson even performs a little magic with a lamppost, not unlike the iconic shot of Kelly in that famous number about rain.

Among the many things  for which Michael Jackson will be remembered, his imaginative modern tributes to Classic Movies - which helped sustain renewed interest in iconic American musical traditions in the late 20th century - should not be overlooked.

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