Do not take my tag-line as an insult. I love this movie - it was one of the first musicals I ever saw. It is definitely NOT the best musical ever made or filmed, however it ranks one with the very best. When it was filmed in 1978 it was one of the last musicals to be filmed, so it was a magnificent finale to the musical film era. The music is rocky and the dancing sequences are great. It is very different from the soapy musicals of the 1950s, the story (as little as it has) is more realistic and it is set in an era very closer to us - 1959. It was a great nostalgic movie of the rock 'n' roll era.