Xanadu

Rating:
Summary: ....and the world shines for me today......
Review: Ok reading some of these reviews are making me sick! This movie is very well put together. It has its moments kof goof and not so good effects/acting/directing. It looks like that it was filmed in different sections, by different directors, porducers, and tecs. Then it was put together by one director that did not seem to get together and agree on the way the film was to flow. I liked reading the one review about the history of a muse. I was raised Christian so Greek Mith. Was not exposed to me. I found the dream sequence very interesting. It explained why ONJ and Kelly recited the first few lines of the poem. I never understood that until I read that review. I meet ONJ her in Dallas back in 1990. She was so pretty and very nice. She was opening up a store called Quala Blue, that later folded. I also purched a music video on VHS called OLIVIA in concert. Between songs she was talking to the audience. She was talking about a current movie that she made called Xanadu. The audience went wild. She seemd shocked and exclaimed "You mean you've seen it??" Then she started in on the Xanadu song. I was way to young when the movie came out, at the age of 8. The first time that I viewed it I was in awa not understanding it at all!! Then after seeing it over and over agin the movie grew on me, and now I love it!! I never listen to what the critics say about movies, I form my own opion. It is an interpretation of Greek mith. With a spin on {that time} today's style and entertainment. By that I mean, look at Godspell, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Joseph and the Amazing Tecnocolor Dream Coat. They are about, in some form or fasion, a religous story line, with contemporary interpretations for entertainment val

Rating:
Summary: Xanadu: Fruition of a Great American Theme.
Review: One strong theme in the American arts is the idea of transformation of person. The New World has been envisioned as a place without an entrenched aristocracy, where people can leave behind a former self and begin anew. This theme, before reaching fruition in Xanadu in 1980, was exemplified in three works: Benjamin Franklin's The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Horatio Alger's rags-to-riches tales, and F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. This is refected primarily in two motifs: 1). the transformation of an abandoned roller skating rink into a vintage fin-de-decade 70s roller disco rink and 2). the recurring cartooned versions of certain characters, a literal transformation of self that is entirely controlled.
Astonishingly, there is little in Xanadu to betray its 24-year gestation period. Whimsy, satire, and tart sympathy are kept in nimble balance throughout the gorgeous musical, and even if Gene Kelly's life defies the laws of logic, it has all the buoyant integrity of a Chagall painting. It has rightly been called, by amateur film critic Tim Edstrom, the most important film to reflect on issues of women's emancipation.
In Xanadu, we also see the passing of the torch between Old Hollywood in the form of Gene Kelly and New Hollywood, brilliantly displayed in the form of Australian actress Olivia Newton-John.