I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

A Masterpiece!

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

First of all, I love musicals. When this originally was released back in the 70s, my family was excited. We had the album with all of the wonderful Bacharach/David music and knew all of the songs before seeing the film. Then we saw it. Peter Finch's song, "If I Could Go Back" was cut, I guess for time. And so were two others. This was a pivotal point in the film. Otherwise, it seems like his character decides to leave Shangri-La and go back to civilization in about 2 seconds. Almost a "Umm, bye. See you." feel. Is still like the film and love the score.

I was 15 years old at the time, and I loved the message of the movie. There are some songs better than others, but the message is simple and so the music is simple. Why was this movie gone from circulation? I have no clue. There are blockbusters a lot worst than this movie. I'm giving it a 10 in context with the year when it was released. I thought was a beautiful movie.

What makes a musical, is the music. The music in this is excellent. Burt Bacharach and Hal David seldom miss and here they hit on every song. Reflections, The World is a Circle and I Might Frighten Her Away being great songs and routines. I recall, this movie bombed, was panned, by fan and critic alike, when it came out. At the time, the 70's, musicals were not a hot topic. Unless you were making a gritty, realistic, musical, like Cabaret, you were going against the grain. Dancing and prancing people seemed strange in this time of Easy Rider, Midnight Cowboy and grittier films of the era. The movie was mistimed to be sure, because there isn't anything more ridiculous in this, than any of the great musicals of years past, be it prancing, knife wielding, gang members, to store clerks, to lions, to scare crows.I am sure the great actors, known so much more so for drama, than a musical, threw off the public. Seeing Ullmann, Finch, Kellerman, York, and Kennedy especially, so often playing the heavy, in lighter roles was different. But guess what? They are all great actors and pull it off completely.If you have read any of my reviews you know I review lesser known or disparaged movies that I feel deserve a lot better fate. Why review, for the one millionth time, Casablanca, Spartacus, Network, or Gone With the Wind? Guess what? They are great and considered so for a very real reason.Lost Horizon, on it's own is one of the best musicals made and a great telling of the classic story. The B & W, Ronald Coleman version , as good as it is , is flawed due to the lost footage and the scars the film has due to it's repair. This musical version, is the best version of Lost Horizon, I recommend giving it a try . I guarantee you will be whistling the songs soon after.

My parents took me to see this version of Lost Horizon when it came out. They said we were in for a treat. After all, the original was great, right? Two hours later, we emerged, numb and reeling, into the 1970's smog, never again to mention the horrors we had witnessed. Where to start? The songs. None for the first 45 minutes. Songs by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, performed by Sally Kellerman, George Kennedy, Liv Ullmann. As Bette Midler said, in another context: I never miss a Liv Ullmann musical. Not that Bacharach and David were bad, exactly. Just that, in this particular case, they seemed a mite over their heads. The score sounds like AM radio, circa 1973. The cast, too, has talent. Not musical talent, unfortunately (Bobby Van excepted). But they were considered some of the best of their day. You simply would not believe it, when you see this movie. Cheesy doesn't begin to describe it.The original film gives you a feeling of scope and grandeur. A well- thought-out and well-designed musical could have given you these things, too. Instead, we get, among other miscalculations, a lamasery refashioned from the castle set of Camelot (1967), that looks like Grauman's Chinese Theater relocated to Topanga Canyon.All the fake-y, new-age-y dialogue, costuming, and set design comes across as tacky. Like they didn't trust the timeless simplicity of the piece. Hey, let's tie it into the hippie-veggie seventies, that'll prove how ahead of his time James Hilton was, right? Wrong.It doesn't help that the cast had already appeared in some very adult, realistic, sophisticated films. Sunday Bloody Sunday, Persona, M*A*S*H, etc. The world had changed, movies had changed. I believe it was still entirely possible to make a decent musical remake of Lost Horizon, but it needed a whole different approach.