Unless you’ve been living under a rock (or stuck inside a "Thriller"-like crypt), you’ve probably been hearing a lot more of Michael Jackson lately. That’s thanks to the release of Michael, a big-screen dramatization of Jackson’s origins as the “King of Pop.”
The movie, which spans some 20 years, chronicles the start of The Jackson 5 and winds its way through the height of “Michaelmania” in the 1980s. It presents the iconic singer’s meteoric rise to fame in thrilling fashion but does so without any reference to Jackson’s numerous controversies in the 1990s and 2000s. Reportedly, a sequel is in the works that may or may not address those later chapters of Jackson's life.
Taken on its own, Michael is an entertaining if not somewhat surface-level view of Jackson’s early career that often borders on hagiography. It does help that Jaafar Jackson, who happens to be Michael’s real-life nephew, delivers a lead performance that captures both his uncle’s physical mannerisms and emotional fragility.
With its vignette-driven, jukebox musical structure, Michael is more or less a paint-by-numbers retelling of Jackson’s biggest moments and greatest hits. There’s little in the way of real surprises for those who are already familiar with Jackson’s life story. What is surprising, however, is the movie’s emphasis on cinema as a source of inspiration for Jackson.
The film is stuffed with allusions to several movies (and books adapted into movies) that ended up influencing Jackson. What follows is a breakdown of the many films referenced in Michael, listed in chronological order.
Modern Times (1936)
Jackson was a lifelong admirer of Charlie Chaplin, whose universal appeal as a performer strongly influenced the “King of Pop.” At one point in Michael, we see Jackson watching Chaplin’s classic comedy Modern Times, a movie that the silent film legend not only starred in but also directed, produced, wrote, co-edited and even scored.
It’s a fact that Jackson proudly points out, hinting at his own desire for artistic freedom and foreshadowing the tight creative control he would exert over his music and public image.
Jackson would later pay tribute to Chaplin in the ‘90s by recording a cover of “Smile,” a song that Chaplin first composed for Modern Times. Chaplin’s original version reportedly meant so much to Jackson that it was ultimately included in the late singer’s memorial service in 2009.
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
The first act of Michael largely revolves around Jackson’s troubled childhood and the emotional and physical abuse he suffered at the hands of his father Joseph. Like many children, Jackson turned to fantasy and storytelling as a form of escape. We see this when Jackson opens up The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the L. Frank Baum novel that was famously adapted into The Wizard of Oz starring Judy Garland.
That story’s central theme of finding one’s way back home must have struck a chord with Jackson, whose search for an idyllic home life continued long into his adult years.
Jackson’s love of The Wizard of Oz would come full circle in 1978, when he played the Scarecrow in the film adaptation of The Wiz, the all-Black Broadway retelling of Baum’s story. One of Jackson’s most celebrated scenes in that film is his performance of “Ease on Down the Road” with the legendary Diana Ross.
Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
Few people ever made dancing look as joyous or effortless as Gene Kelly. It should come as no surprise, then, that Jackson took some performance cues from Kelly’s signature film, the 1952 musical Singin’ in the Rain.
There’s a scene in Michael in which Jackson plops down on the couch to watch the film with his mother, the two of them drinking in Kelly’s iconic rendition of the title song. That scene alone no doubt made an impression on Jackson, who would go on to film a decidedly rain-soaked music video for his song “Stranger in Moscow” in the mid-90s.
Peter Pan (1953)
Arguably no other story loomed larger in Jackson’s mind than the novel Peter Pan and its 1953 film adaptation by Walt Disney. Sure enough, there’s a pivotal scene in Michael in which the young singer, tormented by his father’s unrelenting abuse, turns to a Peter Pan picture book for solace. Inside the book, we see an illustration of Peter Pan and Captain Hook, their character designs resembling those from Disney’s film.
A close-up of the illustration shows that Jackson has scrawled his father’s name next to the image of Hook, Pan’s archenemy and the story’s main antagonist. It’s a telling moment that provides a glimpse into Jackson’s fragile emotional state as a child. It also foreshadows Jackson’s decades-long obsession with Peter Pan, which was best exemplified in Neverland Ranch, the sprawling estate and private theme park that Jackson named after Pan’s imaginary island.
House of Wax (1953)
Jackson’s love of movies spanned many genres, and horror was no exception. We see this firsthand in Michael when the trendsetting singer watches the climactic unmasking scene from the 1953 film House of Wax.
Why is this significant for Jackson? Because that all-time scary sequence features none other than Vincent Price, the horror icon who would later lend his spooky voice to the spoken word section of Jackson’s mega-hit “Thriller.”
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Speaking of “Thriller,” there’s a good chance we would’ve never gotten that iconic song or music video if it wasn’t for Night of the Living Dead. First released in 1968, George A. Romero’s genre-defining classic set the template for all subsequent portrayals of zombies in pop culture, including the dancing undead in Jackson's horror-themed video.
Michael doesn’t shy away from acknowledging Romero’s outsized influence; we first see Jackson watching the black-and-white zombie flick before we’re thrown into the behind-the-scenes creation on the "Thriller" set.
It’s a rather fitting homage to Romero, who, like Jackson, was unafraid to mix social commentary and entertainment. In Night of the Living Dead, for example, Romero cast Duane Jones, an African American man, in the lead role at the height of the Civil Rights movement and incorporated undertones of racial prejudice into the story. Jackson would similarly weave socially conscious themes into his music throughout the rest of his career, from the core message of racial harmony in “Black or White” to the environmentalist lyrics of “Earth Song.”