Xanadu (1980) – A Movie A Day 2021 #4
Xanadu (1980) – A Movie A Day 2021 #4
Everyone has gaps in their movie-watching history. Even the most avid filmgoer is bound to have missed a few semi-important movies in their favorite genres. It’s totally normal, and that’s the excuse I’m using to explain away the fact that I’d never seen Xanadu up until now. I love musicals, but Xanadu became one of those “yeah, I’ll get around to it” movies that I never got around to. Me not having seen it kind of became a thing between my friends and me, but I was recently cornered and gently nudged into finally sitting down and watching Olivia Newton-John sing and skate around with Gene Kelly and that one guy from The Warriors. So now now I’ve seen it, and you know what? I enjoyed it.
Is Xanadu a good movie? Maybe not by any conventional definition of the word “good,” but I had fun watching it nevertheless. I enjoyed most of the music and the majority of the dance numbers, and when you get right down to it, that’s all you really need to enjoy a musical. Well, that’s all I really need to enjoy a musical.
I look at it this way, Xanadu is a genre movie through and through, and genre movies, in my opinion, are best judged on whether or not they meet the expectations tied to that genre. So what’s needed for a movie to be considered a musical? Music, obviously, but to be more specific, the movie needs a good number of sequences where the music is the main focus of the film. What else do you need? Dance numbers aren’t absolutely required, but they’re a welcome addition that firmly places the film in the musical genre. Beyond that, I’d say that a charismatic lead or leads doing a lot of the singing and dancing will go a long way in helping to pull everything together when the plot and story end up lacking. And yeah, the story and plot of Xanadu are famously lacking, but I didn’t really care. Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly are insanely charismatic, and the goofy story about muses and inspiration and gods and dreams was just a colorfully absurd foundation on which the musical numbers were haphazardly placed. And that’s fine.
It’s like when I watch a martial arts movie. As long as I see some people punching and kicking each other every ten to fifteen minutes or so, and as long as that punching and kicking is fun to watch, I’m going to get at least a base-level enjoyment out of the movie. That’s largely how genre movies work in my head. But anyway, back to Xanadu.
If you’ve never seen Xanadu, it’s a musical starring Olivia Newton-John as a mysterious woman named Kira who is often on roller skates and who is also magical in some way (you find out how and why later in the movie). That one guy from The Warriors (Michael Beck) is a painter named Sonny who has lost his inspiration, but when Kira skates up to him and kisses him before disappearing in a flash of light, Sonny gets inspired to find her again. On his journey, Sonny meets Danny (played by Gene Kelly). Danny used to be a musician, but he lost his inspiration decades prior when he lost the love of his life (she disappeared, not died). So the three main characters end up running into each other repeatedly, and Sonny and Danny are inspired to open a dance/music/skating club called Xanadu. Then some stuff with gods and muses happens, but I won’t spoil everything for you. So yeah, the story is silly, but it’s fine. There are some extended sequences of Kira and Sonny getting to know each other that often feel like references to other movies (most obviously Singin’ in the Rain), and their love arc is fine. Danny also has a connection to Kira, but it’s not clear until later what that connection really is.
Speaking of Sonny and Danny though, there’s a strong theme of the past and present coming together with Sonny representing 1980s spandex and synths and Danny representing the 1940s big bands. The two of them trying to find common ground when designing Xanadu led to what is probably my least favorite part of the movie. There’s a really long musical number with Danny dreaming about a big-band while Sonny dreams about a “rock” band circa 1980. The two dream bands play alternating verses beside each other, then they literally start to come together as the stages slowly roll into each other and the bands integrate their two songs into one song. It’s an obvious metaphor that didn’t need what felt like ten minutes to play out.
I don’t want to complain too much though, because I did enjoy the movie. My favorite bit was later on when Sonny and Kira decide that Danny needs to update his clothes for the grand opening of Xanadu. What follows is a ridiculous sequence with Danny trying on a whole bunch of very 80s outfits with neon-painted dancers wiggling around the various sets. That sequence probably had the best editing throughout the entire movie because it was just an absurd barrage of color and sound. The scene had no bearing on anything in the movie, but I loved it.
I will say the directing cinematography was noticeably lacking at certain times. Sometimes it felt like the director did a wide shot but forgot to get any close-ups or anything that might suggest fun and movement. Other times I felt like I could see why the director made certain decisions, but the result didn’t always fulfill the intention (like the single shot on Kira as she’s singing in the other-worldly plane of light tubes and stars). But I’m not going to go film-school on Xanadu. There’s no reason to, because the movie is just supposed to be light and fun. It was very light, and it was pretty fun. Some of the songs and sequences are still stuck in my head, and that’s a good thing. So yeah, I enjoyed Xanadu. I don’t know when I’ll watch it again, but I’m sure I’ll get around to it.