Revising History (Film)

MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS (Vincente Minnelli, 1944) is a movie that seems to me both obvious and essential for any list of the 10 greatest American movies ever made—let alone any list of the 100 greatest. Yet Minnelli’s exuberant musical is nowhere to be found on the AFI’s 1998 list. Why is this? A box office success at the time and critically respected today, MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS seems like a natural for the AFI. It’s a movie musical as American as apple pie. Made during World War II, the film brims with nostalgia for a warm, simple, and idealized American past. It’s an idealized, harmonious past in which seemingly contradictory elements resolve themselves effortlessly. You can have it both ways. St. Louis is a city that is also a small town. “New York is a big city,” says matriarch Anna Smith, comparing her beloved St. Louis to the Big Apple. “Not that St. Louis isn’t big. It just doesn’t seem very big out here where we live.” And thanks to the World’s Fair, the Smiths can stay put and have the wonders of the world brought to them, “right here—in St. Louis!”.

However, despite MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS’S strong flavoring of Americana, the film is highly un-American in one regard: its structure. An overriding conflict, three-act structure, and strong narrative drive are all central components of classical Hollywood cinema. Yet MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS lacks these typical elements. It is a film organized by seasons and episodes, not a central character’s growth over the course of three acts. And where is the conflict? The threat of the Smith family’s move to New York from St. Louis does not emerge until more than midway through the picture, so we can hardly call this an inciting incident. In his thoughtful essay “Happiness,” David Thomson suggests that “perhaps happiness is the absence of story” and goes on to celebrate MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS as a “movie in which nothing happens.” In lacking any sort of serious conflict, Minnelli’s musical invites us to live with the characters and share in their happiness. It’s a movie that suggests it’s ok to not take action—to not take the promotion, not move to New York. It is ok to just be.