As many reviewers here have noted, the film version differs quite a bit from the stage version of the story. I have never seen the stage version of the story, and therefore I have a more favorable review of the film than many other reviewers. Perhaps Richard Attenborough was not the best choice for director of the film, but the film is still an entertaining account of several dancers trying to make the big time in choreographer Michael Douglas' show. The film does right by not selecting any famous actors or performers to wind up in the final try-out group. This way our attention is focused on the dancers' movements and individual stories and struggles as they unfold during a marathon day of try-outs. Douglas is also probably not the best choice for the part. Apparently some songs were cut out in favor of a new one, and the backstage cliché-ridden story of a romantic liaison between a dancer and the choreographer was added. I have to say in all fairness this was the weakest part of the film. The repeated intrusions Cassie made during try-outs appear to mirror the almost desperate pleas one often has to make when engaging in the artistic professions in the absence of talent and/or luck. However, this aspect of the film has been done to death in the past, and it's curious to see this tired old shoe kicking its heel up once again. The revelations of the dancers themselves began promisingly enough with the "I can do that" number, but then it plodded a little at various points while the dancers were telling their stories. Frankly, their stories differed little from real life folks who never get a chance like this. *** of 4 stars.

A strange picture, as it peels the outer rims of human feelings and aims straight for the raw. Auditioning for a Broadway stage musical are hundreds of youngsters who dream with a place in the limelight. The plot, you can imagine, is basically an audition, with all its highs and lows. And when I say it has raw feelings, i'm talking about the cold process of selection, which is encarnated by the obscure character of Michael Douglas, who, in the obscurity of the audience, with only a little light next to him, says who stays and who goes, even if he has to be brutal sometimes ("Then don't dance!!!", he says shouting to a girl who didn't have any dance classes). The result is a film sustained by the different phases of selection and the suspense of who is going to be a star and who has to leave, which, altogether, will charm only dance-addicts and everyone who would like to be in one of these shows one day.

Not a great movie, but it won't waste your time. It is far from the worst musical by a non-musical director. No one who heard Marlon Brando sing for Joseph Manckiewicz in "Guys and Dolls" can doubt that. They even had the right idea with the Cassie subplot, although it doesn't work too well the way it's done. How would anyone really film this thing? On stage "A Chorus Line" gets all its power from the stripped-down electric proximity of the speakers. But if you don't open it up for the film then you have got a talking picture of a line of people for 2 hours. The only places they really screw up are cutting away from "I Can Do That" to show Cassie doing nothing (nice irony, unfortunately it trashes the dance number) and in the scene where the "winners" are selected, which is not credible. The choreography is noisy, but it was the '80s and cargo pants and MTV were in the air along with coca dust. Maybe it was necessary to cover up some of the dancers' limitations? Every time Alyson Reed tried and failed to lay back and put her hand on the floor or hang her heel on her nose, I thought of Eleanor Powell. (To see someone actually do those moves, and do them in one take, check out "Broadway Melody of 1940".)