Chicago · reception & legacy

How Chicago has been received, argued over, and remembered.

The arc

A box-office smash that swept the 2003 Oscars — six wins including Best Picture, the first musical to take the top prize since Oliver! in 1968 — then spent years as a punching bag in 'undeserving winner' debates, and has lately been reappraised as a sharper, more cynical film than its awards-bait reputation suggested.

What's debated

The perennial fight: did it really deserve Best Picture over The Pianist and Gangs of New York, or was it robbed of respect by the backlash?

Its footprint

'Cell Block Tango' ('He had it coming...') is a permanent pop-culture fixture — endlessly performed, lip-synced and memed — and 'razzle dazzle' became shorthand for style-over-substance spectacle.

Where it stands

Widely credited with resurrecting the Hollywood musical, it now sits as the gateway movie-musical of its era — a Best Picture winner people actually rewatch for fun.

Named by the director

Influences Rob Marshall has publicly named — the director's own word, distinct from the inferred lines of influence.

• Bob Fosse — Marshall repeatedly cited Fosse — who created the original 1975 Broadway show and had planned his own film version — as the guiding spirit for the film's choreography and staging.
• Cabaret (1972) — Marshall pointed to Fosse's Cabaret as the model for making a musical work on screen for modern audiences by motivating the numbers rather than having characters simply burst into song.