Xanadu:
(1980) Where the 40s meet the 80s....Was that the pitch they used
when the producers dug up financial backing for this film? Xanadu
is a "fantasy" musical. The storyline (what little there
is) involves a muse (that's one of Zeus' daughters in Greek mythology)
coming to earth to help a frustrated commercial artist realize
his dreams by opening a discotech! Really!! That's about as deep
as the plot gets. During the movie the muse (played by Olivia
Newton-John a.k.a. ONJ) falls in love with the male lead (played
by an Andy Gibb look-alike) and she has a song and dance number
with Gene Kelley who is thrown in to give the film the appearance
of "class" because, after all, it is supposed to be
a musical. Whatever. Xanadu is actually around a 90 minute music
video. If you took out the fluff between the songs that's supposed
to resemble a plot all you're left with are musical numbers which
could have easily been played individually on Mtv during the 80s.
To me that's what makes Xanadu so great. It's the immediate predecessor
to the final form of the music video as we came to know it during
the 80s. I won't bore anyone with a long "film school"
history of Xanadu and its genre. Suffice to say, at the time of
its release Olivia Newton-John was hot, hot, hot. Unfortunately
Xanadu was a big stinky flop. However, teenage girls loved it
and the soundtrack (which mainly features ONJ coupled with ELO,
The Electric Light Orchestra) sold like hotcakes making much more
money than the movie did. Luckily Xanadu, though a dismal critical
failure, only served to provide ONJ with more exposure. She continued
to ride the tidal wave of her own success well into the mid-eighties.
After the enormous success of her next album, Physical, she never
quite got back to that pinnacle again. However, she's still around
and has some of the strongest fan support of any artist today.
Whether you're an ONJ fan or not if you want to see a hysterically
bad movie that in virtually every way embodies early 80s pop culture
see Xanadu! The mega-over-the-top finale with a huge cast of extras
and song-upon-song sturng together will have you gaping in astonishment
at its own self-indulgence....but after all wasn't that what the
80s were all about!?!