Open Your Eyes And See Xanadu

I've opted to postpone the book recommendations this weekend and instead, write about a movie I watched last night: Xanadu! You know, the "...story about a girl who makes dreams come true!" Xanadu is what I lovingly refer to as Flash Gordon with choreography. I own the DVD, so naturally I'm a fan. Here's hoping you are too.

After watching Xanadu, I thought I would get online and see what kind of reviews the average person gave it. The majority were overwhelmingly positive, but there was the occasional wet blanket looking to impress the reader with his/her handful of cinematic jargon. Such whiny complaints of bad plots and acting, to the superficial dislike of the wardrobe choices. Well, I'll be the first one to say that everyone is entitled to their opinion. Especially mine. The right one. Lol! Just kidding. But seriously, I don't think I'd probably want to know, much less be friends with, someone who's train of thought and sense of fun is so stunted as to go into a campy movie like Xanadu, looking for the cure for Cancer. It ain't here, folks. Xanadu is fun eyecandy with great music. Plain and simple. If you go into it with any other preconceived ideas, then you might as well stay home and watch Masterpiece Theater. This film wasn't made for you.

There's so many things that I enjoy about Xanadu. From the opening homage to the old Universal logo: When you see the airplane circling the Earth...changing into a 747...changing into a rocketship, and finally into a UFO, you know fun times are ahead. I also made a few observations this time around, that I thought were fun and/or interesting, from a social and trivia standpoint.

First off, anyone who knows me, knows that I am not a big fan of the whole interworkings of corporate America. I may be getting old, or maybe I'm just nostalgic for a time when things weren't as complicated. Perhaps a foreshadowing of what was to become, the scene where Sonny goes to talk to his boss who tells him "...before you know it, you've got a bunch of people running around doing what they want to do. That's not a company, that's chaos." Oh no! People doing what they want to do? The horror! The horror!

On the trivia front, I noticed that the rock that Gene Kelly's character, Danny, is sitting on, playing the clarinet, is the same rock that Robert Downey, Jr.sat on when he was strung out on coke in Less Than Zero (another 80's favorite of mine).

My favorite chapter on the DVD, which includes the original trailer, by the way (a definite plus), is chapter 13. The scene begins with Kira and Sonny taking Danny shopping for some new threads for the opening night of club Xanadu. The shopping spree turns into an all-out dance number, that reminds me of another favorite movie scene from Girls Just Want To Have Fun. Very fun. Great music. VERY 80's. Me likee.

So, if you get the chance, go rent Xanadu, or if you already own it, pop it in the ol' VCR/DVD player and be whisked away to a place where nobody dared to go, the love that we came to know. They call it Xanadu. Where time stops and the magic never ends!