Don Lockwood’s First Impression

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For my first post, I am going to do a close reading into the first scene introducing the main character, Don Lockwood in, “Singin’ in the Rain.” Instead of just talking about how the scene was shot, I will take a look at how his character is beginning to developed in his first scene.

From the beginning, we are left in suspense for the arrival of a big star, and when Don Lockwood shows up, the crowd goes wild. This alone shows the viewer how big of a star Don really was, but it wasn’t until his interview that we really could begin to understand how he got there.

When Don first gets asked to tell his story, he pretends to not want to answer. Not only does he not seem very convincing, but he ends up giving in, in a matter of seconds, looking eager to tell his story. As he begins, we are lead into a montage of his past. By watching flashbacks from a childhood dance academy to music school, the audience is able to see how much work Don actually put into his career. However, the lighthearted nature of the scenes we watched let us know more about Don as a character and show how truly enthusiastic he is about what he does.

These scenes also begin to develop Don’s relationship with his best friend, Cosmo Brown, and his less than ideal relationship with Lina Lamont. Wit this, we see more about Don’s Life in a matter of minutes than I have ever seen in earlier movies. Even in, “Casablanca,” the character development takes place over a much longer period of time.

A good thing to also keep in mind is that, “Singin’ in the Rain,” is actually a satire on the development of the film industry as a whole. This could very well have been one of the reasons that Don’s Character is thrown at the audience so abruptly. Although it may have been used as a part of the “joke,” I can’t help but be kind of impressed in how well they pulled it off.

21 thoughts on “Don Lockwood’s First Impression”

  1. I agree that a lot of the time in Singin’ in the Rain the narrative seems to almost be playing a joke on the audience. I think it was very insightful of you to read into Don’s character so much during that opening scene. I never thought about it very much but you’re right in your argument that even though he pretends to not want to tell his story, he eventually does (in great detail and for an extended period of time). Nice insights and interesting blog post!

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  2. I can definitely relate to what you’re saying in your blog post. Don is clearly a very important character in “Singing in the Rain” and the choice to develop his character early on is a smart move by the directors. I also feel it does a good job of setting up the rest of the film and the type of humor we can expect throughout the film. Similar to the other comment you’ve received I believe that much of “Singing in the Rain” revolves around humor and seems at times to be playing jokes with the audience. The introduction of Dons character fits in perfectly with the narrative of the film and I agree that they pulled off his introduction very well.

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  3. Great blog post! What you mentioned about the timeline of the story is really interesting. I didn’t really realize how much they showed us about his life so quickly and so early on. Without that scene of background information the film would not have had the same depth, and Don certainly would not have had the same depth. That scene of background story also felt so natural and not at all forced, which is great because otherwise it would have felt like a contrived montage or something of the sort.

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