The stories a society tells it self are not unimportant. Today, we have superhero movies but no westerns with beleaguered loners trying to live up to moral codes against the odds, and few films with amateur adventurers who find themselves caught up in something and forced to see it through because they understand that honor requires it. Perhaps this is because the ever more unreal computer effects require ever more unreal characters. Meanwhile, the supposedly unreal musical is as dead as the western, in part because it requires real human talent and, like Carnegie Hall, practice. The old-timey actors came with specialized skills: James Cagney and Bob Hope were both great dancers---and as my old pal Sammy Cahn liked to say, that’s not even what they do. By comparison, what do Brad Pitt or Leo DiCaprio do? I notice a big dance solo seems to be the only effect you can’t fake in CGI: If you can’t do it, you can’t do it, and the computers can’t help you. --- Mark Steyn in Gradus and Narcissum, Nat. Rev. 6/26/12 pg.48.
[Well you can, if you replace Gene Kelly's head with that of the star of the moment.
JimG33]