‘All That Jazz’ Is Bob Fosse’s Cinematic Self-Flagellation

Bob Fosse is a legend for a reason (or, rather, many reasons). Fosse is the only director to win a Tony Award, an Academy Award (Oscar), and an Emmy Award for best director in all three awards. Moreover, the same year, he won a Tony, an Oscar, and an Emmy. That won a Best Director Tony, a Best Director Oscar, and a Best Director Emmy in the same year makes the odds even more unbelievable. However, 1973 was far from the only year he won awards, as his career was virtually studded with statues throughout his adult life.

The director, dancer, choreographer, actor, screenwriter, and editor, who died in 1987 at age 60, led a fascinating life worthy of an awe-inspiring and award-winning biopic. That film came in the form of All That Jazz, which borrowed its title from a song in Chicago, a musical he was long associated with. All That Jazz is a hard-hitting and brutally honest look at the hedonistic, type-A personality artist that was Bob Fosse and chronicles his life up to and including his death from a heart attack.

In a twist of reality worthy of a Bob Fosse film in itself, All That Jazz was not released after Fosse’s 1987 death but eight years prior in 1979. Further, this prophetic biography was co-written and directed by someone who should have known the truth… none other than Bob Fosse himself.

To this end, the semi-autobiographical fantasy screenplay (written with producer Robert Alan Aurthur) substitutes Fosse with Joe Gideon, as brought to the screen by a post-Jaws Roy Scheider. Perhaps a lesser artist than Fosse would have romanticized Gideon into a better, more sympathetic version of himself. However, the Joe Gideon we meet is a constant womanizer, drug and alcohol abuser, and chain smoker who has sex with a different dancer nearly every night and manages his career and extracurricular activities by burning the proverbial candle at both ends.

As Fosse confesses here and as others have documented, what we see in All That Jazz is exactly what the Fosse of the mid-’70s was up to. After his triple Best Director win, Fosse went on to direct 1974’s award-winning film Lenny and frantically edited, re-edited, and re-re-edited the film almost constantly while simultaneously staging a 1975 revival of Chicago on Broadway. This era of the acclaimed director’s life almost killed him, and it was this era that inspired All That Jazz.

Fosse continues to “stage” Gideon as a stark and honest version of himself as Gideon is pressured by studio heads to complete his editing of the film-within-a-film called The Stand-Up (Lenny was the story of iconoclastic stand-up comic Lenny Bruce) while simultaneously bringing to the stage a huge Broadway musical. Gideon’s ex-wife is modeled after Fosse’s ex-wife. Gideon’s daughter is modeled after Fosse’s daughter. Gideon’s girlfriend is modeled after Fosse’s girlfriend. The man who plays the fictional editor of The Stand-up is Alan Heim, the real-life editor of Lenny and All That Jazz itself. Gideon is as much Fosse as All That Jazz truly is.

The brilliance of All That Jazz is that none of these prerequisites are needed to be fascinated by this film. Certainly, that this film is so personal and still so difficult adds many more facets to the story itself. However, if you watch it without background knowledge, you will see that All That Jazz is a brilliant film, though it is often hard to watch.

The Criterion Collection’s 2014 release of All That Jazz makes both the enjoyment and horror of All That Jazz more palpable. Certainly, the film looks and sounds better than it has, arguably since the first wet prints graced the silver screen with its 4K digital restoration and 3.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. Going beyond the feature (as Criterion always does and must) the set features select commentary by the late Roy Scheider, two documentaries, an engrossing booklet and even on-set footage. The bonus discs feature copious old and new interviews with those involved with Fosse and All That Jazz and the Fosse beyond the film.

Perhaps the most poignant and hard-hitting of these is a late-night Tom Snyder interview with Bob Fosse and fellow choreographer Agnes de Mille filmed for The Tomorrow Show. Here, Fosse, already a superstar, reveals himself to be a funny, affable, and likable guest, a far cry from the Joe Gideon self-indictment that we are given in All That Jazz. It’s hard to reconcile the fun yet dedicated artist Fosse reveals himself to be with the character he pastiches himself within All That Jazz.

Then again, Joe Gideon never quite crosses the line into villainhood, and it is hard not to hope that he will come through his troubled times and give us the amazing works that he has proven to have within him. Like Fosse, Gideon is revealed to be immensely talented. Similarly, Gideon is shown to have so many good people who love him that it’s hard to believe he is all bad. This character balance makes the fantasy sequences difficult to face. As Gideon dreams of his life on Broadway and his ex-wife, daughter, and girlfriend engage in a perfectly choreographed, dark song and dance routine demanding that he change for them, it’s impossible not to feel something for the man.

This is not to say such a sequence is a surprise as Gideon is shown to have a flirtatious relationship with a glamorized Angel of Death (played by Jessica Lange). As the dream sequences continue in All That Jazz and Gideon is brought almost literally into a hell of his own making by a gleefully smiling Ben Vereen, the depth of Fosse’s self-flagellation and perhaps even prophecy is on full display. Fosse had built his life on the stage and in movies. It’s fitting that his nightmares involve being trapped in a dark Broadway musical of his own making. The astute viewer may regard much of the film as horror instead of fantasy or drama.

These elements, dark though they are, comprise the real reasons that All That Jazz is a great film worthy of the Criterion treatment. Fosse fans, Broadway fans, and those fascinated with film will find much to admire in this 2014 release. However, those expecting a fun musical romp must inquire elsewhere. All That Jazz is engrossing and deep, but in the depths, there is darkness.

All That Jazz’s brightest moments are still darker than the darkest parts of Fosse’s 1972 stage musical, Pippin, at least as chilling as the most foreboding parts of Cabaret and even more cynical than the most depressing parts of Lenny. Make no mistake, All That Jazz is an excellent motion picture in just about every way. It shows Bob Fosse accurately predicting his own death in the most creative and skilled way possible.