The Violation of Cinematic Expectations and Conventions in "Cradle Will Rock"

In the 1999 film Cradle Will Rock, writer/director Tim Robbins uses familiar cinematic conventions and popular character actors to build a specific expectation in the minds of the audience. Doing this, he makes the plot itself (which defies most or all such expectations) seem more profound.
<Tab/>Robbins' use of music--always juxtaposing it, as Marc Blitzstein did in his musical The Cradle Will Rock (the creation of which is the story of the Robbins film), with violence--is particularly intriguing. The typical mold of the Hollywood musical, with Julie Andrews singing merril…