The first musical on the AFI list is the 1942 "classic" Yankee Doodle Dandy. I was not even aware this movie existed until I decided to do the whole AFI list, but I asked around to friends and family and the best description I received was : "sickeningly patriotic." I would have to agree.
Screening Date: 7/24/2009, 12:01 AM
Run Time: 126 minutes (2 hours, 6 minutes)
Director: Michael Curtiz
Release Date: 1942
Attendance: Weird Dave (alone!)
This movie wasn't all bad, and I can kind of see why it was included on a list of the greatest American movies of all time. It was "sickeningly patriotic," I'd have to agree, but it also possesses an innocent charm hearkening back to the days of World War II. The last romantic war, that's for sure, and its spirit is captured in this autobiographical story.
The movie follows the life of George M. Cohan, famous for writing "Over There," that thrilling diddy of kicking the snot out of Germans in World War I. He was born to an Irish singing, dancing family known eventually as the Four Cohans - him, his sister, his father, and his mother. They traveled the United States, playing in every state and county fair available throughout the early part of the century. Oh, and George M. Cohan was born on the 4th of July. Of course.
The music was actually pretty catchy, and the scenes were well rehearsed and quite engaging. The rest of the movie, however, suffered from a noticeable lack of conflict. Most stories follow similar patterns, with an introduction of the protagonist, introduction of conflict, protagonist deals with conflict and fails, protagonist learns some lesson, protagonist overcomes conflict with a rousing song and dance number.
"Yankee Doodle Dandy" followed that pattern minus the conflict. It had less of a movie feel and more of a music biography special about a man who became famous, earned lots of money, had his name in lights, and then was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. The end. The whole story is told by George M. Cohan to FDR after the opening of Cohan's first new play in a decade.
Overall the "movie" was well done, and James Cagney has a screen presence that is just electrifying. However, the lack of any sort of confict beyond Cohan's own arrogance (which only manifests itself a few times, not enough to be really considered a problem) and the constant musical numbers (which are all presented as theater, so no spontaneous song and dance in a mess hall nonsense) bring the whole experience down for me. While not bad, I don't think I'm going to watch this again.
1 comment:
Sorry I missed this one (but not too sorry). I think that there is probably a good reason that the American Film Institute has chosen each entry, but still, I think some things are just not my cup of tea, and I think it would be particularly difficult to review something that thematically doesn't appeal, for whatever reason. You seem to be doing a pretty good job far, though finding both good and bad things to discuss, even for "Yankee Doodle Dandy." I can't wait till "The Sound of Music!"
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