Newsies

1992

Director: Kenny Ortega

Distributor: Walt Disney Pictures

Key: Story – Music – Message

My Review:

I was in grade school when I first saw this. I loved it so much, I put on suspenders and started dancing around with a stick in my hand. But even after growing out of that stage, I enjoy this movie.

We see Christian Bale before he was Batman as a New York newsboy leading a strike against exploitative big publishers. The story is strung together with amazing original songs and some great dancing.

It’s a blast to watch.

Clip:



Quotes:

• In 1899, the streets of New York City echoed with the voices of newsies, peddling the papers of Joseph Pulitzer, William Randalph Hearst, and other giants of the newspaper world. On every corner you saw them carrying the banner. Bringing you the news for a penny a pape. Poor orphans and runaways, the newsies were a ragged army without a leader, until one day all that changed.
• For a dreamer, night's the only time of day.
• This is for kids shinin' shoes in the streets with no shoes on their feet everyday. This is for guys sweatin' blood in the shop while the bosses and cops look away. This is to even the score. This ain't just Newsies no more. This ain't just kids with some pies in the sky, this is do it or die, this is WAR! Once and for all, we'll be there to defend one another. Once and for all, every kid is a friend, every friend a brother. Five thousand fists in the sky, five thousands reasons to try. We're going over the wall. Better to die than to crawl. Either we stand or we fall, for once, once and for all! …When you got a million voices singing, who can hear a lousy whistle blow?
• I'm just not used to havin' whether I stay or whether I go matter to anybody. Not that it should matter to you. I'm just sayin', um, well, does it? Matter?
• Sometimes all it takes is a voice, one voice that becomes a hundred, then a thousand, unless it's silenced.There's a lot of people out there, and they ain't just gonna go away. They got voices now and they're goin' to be listened to. Putting them in jail is not going to stop them. That's the power of the press, Joe. So thanks for teaching me about it.

Stills: