The great Hollywood musical, "Singin' in the Rain," contains all the constraints and accouterments that a typical musical would have: joy, a happy ending, strong personalities, song and dance. This surface view of the film indicates that, as with many other films produced during the height of the "Hollywood Era," one of the aims of the film was to entertain and earn money. Under the guise of this, the film participates in part of the "consensus narrative" of musicals and the Hollywood industry by challenging the existing status quo of Hollywood. .
The film is deeply critical and revealing of the greedy, dark, and capitalist side of films. As a participant in the consensus narrative, and through extreme self-consciousness, the movie creates a dichotomy by also glorifying and praising that which it is criticizing. The message throughout the film is that the simple pleasure that is provided by the entertainment of Hollywood, specifically song and dance is important because it brings happiness and joy into people's lives, but that we must also be weary of the evils of greed and extreme self-interest. This is deeply ironic, which I believe the movie is self-conscious of, because the movie itself participates in the same Hollywood process. .
The performance "Broadway Melody," exemplifies the movies themes and message through a self-conscious portrayal of the movie as a whole in song and dance. Brought to life through song and dance, the movie's first message is that Hollywood has the potential to fulfill the dreams of performance, entertainment, and fame of Gene Kelly's character, the Hoofer, dreams of performance and entertainment. This message, associated with happiness and joy, is juxtaposed with the movie's second message that the fame has distorted and blinded the Hoofer to his original joy for performance. This is the very definition of the "multiplicity principle". The movie stays true to the original purpose of creating an entertaining movie, while simultaneously providing a commentary of Hollywood's greed and selfishness.
