50 Greatest Musical Numbers In Film History

34. I've Seen It All - Dancer In The Dark

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8FJyhnC2Eo Everything about this screams "acquired taste" -- specifically this song, but really the entire film and the fact that Bjork stars in it. But if you're willing to give it a chance, it's an incredibly special experience. Dancer in the Dark is a film about a factory worker who throws herself into a fantasy world of music and dance to avoid the sad reality that she is rapidly losing her sight, and her son is beginning to show signs of the same degenerative disease. In this song, she's trying to explain to her friend Jeff that although she is going blind, she feels that she has seen everything that's worth seeing. When he reminds her that she hasn't seen Niagara Falls, she counters with, "I have seen water. It's water, that's all," which is such a poignant response, one that the song is filled with. It's a rare artsy piece that has a tremendous amount of raw emotion to back it up.

33. Cool - West Side Story

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wugWGhItaQA Everything about this number exudes a nervous energy, as the Jets recover from the fact that their leader Riff has just been killed in a knife fight with the Sharks. The lighting is dark, the ceilings are low, the troops are demoralized, and tension is running high. They want to fight, to lash out in anger, but their new leader warns them that they need to play it cool. The expansive choreography in such a tight space gives the scene a claustrophobic feel, which perfectly fits their sense of paranoia and rage. All the dancing is seriously on point, especially considering the fact that this was one of the most physically demanding pieces in the film. Eliot Feld, who played Baby John, performed this scene while suffering from pneumonia, and when it was over all the dancers ritually burned the kneepads they wore for the number. But it was all worth it, because it's one of the most technically proficient and exciting dance scenes to watch in all of film history.