Really great movie

I saw this when it first opened in 1979. With a friend who danced with me in a few shows in High School. (not that either of us were all that good, mind you...just fans). I remember thinking...that's Bob Fosse's life (later confirmed by friends). I knew just enough about him to know who he was and a little of his style.

I remember thinking, when he passed in 1987, how he had known, and told the world that was how he would go. Of course, his bad habits were well-known to cause heart disease, and he knew he was doomed. I think he put more into charities in the last years of his life because of Ben Vereen's comments in the movie.

Now, watching it some 35 years later, I appreciate so much more, how it captures his absolute choreographic style. Of course, I knew who Gwen Verdon and Anne Reinking were, then, but I didn't understand some of his little points of style, the use of hats (because he went bald quite young), the sloped shoulders (because he had odd posture for a dancer), the amazing body shapes that people put themselves into for him.

It truly shows what a perfectionist he was, especially the early scenes with "Victoria", and how he beat his dancers up, making them work so hard.

Having just "Fosse'd myself" to the extreme, seeing Chicago and Pippin in one weekend, I found re-watching this a great treat.