Wow, what a crapfest.

by CJay » Mon May 6 2013 19:09:22 Flag ▼ | Reply |
IMDb member since August 2000
Post Edited: Mon May 6 2013 19:11:58
> It's a cheap film shot cheaply..

Come on, BG, stop pulling flames out of your nether regions.

The original budget was 3 or 4 mil, which says here was alot in 1980 dollahs.

When the dust settled X production had spent FOUR times as much as originally planned.

# ONJ Solidarity R Us

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Dr Horribles Singalong Blog (last words): Don't worry Billy. Captain Hammer will save us.

My professional opinion is that this was a test market film to see if the female lead could carry a film with an American audience without another major star (Gene Kelly not withstanding, but he was on the golf side of his career at that point).

It was not a very skillfully made "musical" as far as musicals go. The opening animated sequence with the muses was threadbare, fortelling the rest of the film. You'll notice that there's only a couple of big dance numbers, one of them being the final climactic sequence which included all the trends at the time; roller disco, martial arts, the Urban Cowboy thing, and so forth.

Compare it to a Gene Kelly film, "Hello Dolly" where lots of money was spent on lots of extravagant sequences.

If I had shot Xanadu, I would have demanded money to shoot several sequences in Greece, maybe put the muses opening dance at the Parthenon, and show them inspiring people and artists all around the world (a tie in with the ELO song).

I would not have used the Sonny Malone opens a roller disco with an aging Big Bander, but something with a little less trend and a little more global impact in terms of artistic themes.

I probably would not have cast Michael Beck, but someone who knows how to sing and dance (a rarity back then and today).

And, I would have shot it differently, and possibly not used the smash cuts to transition sequences.

The flashback scene with Gene and Olivia was another bare bones low-money, shoot it on a budget, sequence. I would have gone the extra mile and just done up an old fashioned big band era club, and filled it with costumed extras, and maybe hire a youthful look-a-like to play the young Gene Kelly character dancing with miss Olivia Newton-John. And THEN at the end of the film, hooked Gene's character up with an aged version of her so he isn't left out in the cold.

I could go on and on here, but this film really was a low budget test market film, and it failed by leaps and bounds. Where all the money went that they spent I can only guess at ... lights? Newton-John's salary? Gene's salary? Props? I don't know.

But, in spite of all the criticisms I've levelled at it, it still has a charm. Unfortunately that charm doesn't translate into a larger better picture with larger appeal.

In short it could have been a really good film. And by that I mean a really excellent movie that MIGHT have revived interests in musicals in spite of what people were feeling back then.

Just my two bits.

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