Intrigue, an all-star cast, and a hyper stylized look at an iconic era in American cinema. What more could we possibly need the Coen Brothers' upcoming Hail, Caesar!? As it turns out, what we need is Channing Tatum singing and dancing his way through a good old fashioned musical – we just didn’t know it. Check out the video below to see what I mean.
The clip, which was released courtesy of MovieClips, shows Tatum's character Burt Gurney, dressed as a sailor, sitting at a piano in a dingy little tavern. He begins to sing about going off to sea, where he and his comrades won’t see another girl for quite some time. Of course, seeing as we all know how stereotypes work, the scene is more or less played for laughs. And it does so by capitalizing on the homoerotic undertones of the song, as the sailors give each other longing looks while they sing about never seeing women while off at sea. In the hands of less adept filmmakers, this would come off tasteless. But in the careful and methodical hands of the Coen Brothers, it looks like pure cinematic gold.
We’ve always known that Channing Tatum’s talents extended beyond acting, with his early career was defined by his ability to dance both on stage and on screen. What we didn’t know is how damn well the man could belt out a song. Despite the fact that the scene seems to be played for laughs, we can’t help but marvel at Tatum’s ability to sell a 1950s musical performance. Even among the presence of so many modern acting icons in Hail, Caesar!, he just might steal the entire show.
Taking place in the early 1950s, Hail, Caesar! follows a fixer named Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) as he solves problems for the biggest Hollywood stars and studios. When movie legend Baird Whitlock (George Clooney) is kidnapped, Mannix is tasked with collecting the actor’s $100,000 ransom and securing his rescue. Along the way, the film examines and skewers various styles and personas of Hollywood during the era. In the film, Tatum plays a character named Burt Gurney; a role which pokes fun not only at Gene Kelly musicals of the era, such as Singin’ in the Rain, but at communism and the Red Scare.
If that video is any indication, we want Channing Tatum to sing more, and we want him to do it soon. With any luck Hail, Caesar! will be chock full of scenes like this from fellow cast members Jonah Hill, Ralph Fiennes, and Scarlett Johansson. Only time will tell, and you should be sure to check the film out when it hits theaters this coming Friday.
