The Xanadu Xperience part 1 of 4 : My introduction to the movie

This post is the first of 4 posts that I have put on this board. If you could please read this one first before checking out the other 3 posts. I originally posted these subject threads on the Xanadu message board but I thought some of ONJ's fans would probably like to read it as well so I decided to post them here on this message board too. This first post deals with my experience with watching the movie for the first time. The second post answers a few questions and explains a few issues about the Xanadu movie that some people may not have realised upon viewing the film for the first time. The third post deals with things that could be done to improve the existing Xanadu movie ( a sort of redux of Xanadu). And in the fourth & final post I will suggest what I would have done had I been in charge of producing the Xanadu movie in the first place.

Please excuse this very long post but I always wanted to share my thoughts with Xanadu fans & non-fans about my first-hand experience with the movie, please bear with me & thank you for your patience.



My first introduction to Xanadu
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My very first memory of Xanadu was seeing Olivia Newton John singing in what I thought looked like a hotel lobby/las vegas show room. This is of course, as everyone knows, is the closing musical number in the movie.

I do not know how old I was when I saw this video, I am not sure if it was back in 1980 but I only remember these few brief images. I think it may have been the very early 80s when I first saw these images of Xanadu because I remember having a major crush on ONJ , who at that time was going through her “Physical” phase wth her short cropped hair as I remember being surprised seeing her with this totally different look in the Xanadu video.

The only other memory during the 80’s of Xanadu is when I remember seeing the trailer for it’s premiere on British TV (Channel 4 around ’85 or ‘86). I only remember seeing a lot of neon light FX, and the scene where ONJ is dancing with a guy in front of building with a neon sign that read XANADU.

It is around this time that I learned that Xanadu was a musical which was a commercial failure ( this I may have read in some TV magazine around the time of the TV premiere). Although I never actually saw the movie in the ‘80s


Fastforward to 1998
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During the 80s I was also a huge fan of ELO. In early 1998 I purchased their excellent greatest hits compilation CD “Light Years”. I was surprised to learn that ONJ’s song Xanadu was actually an ELO track. And that the compilation had other ELO songs that I had never heard before such as the excellent “All over the World” (which became my favourite ELO song), and “I’m Alive” & “Don’t Walk Away”. I was surprised to learn from reading the liner notes of the CD package that these were all from the Xanadu movie. The liner notes also showed some posters & merchandise from the movie. This really got me interested in the movie and seeing the Xanadu poster of ONJ also re-ignited my interest in her.

From listening to the songs, particularly the title track & looking at the ONJ poster I got the idea that she played some sort of angel character in the movie. And that the lyrics of the title track, with it’s supernatural theme & sound , conveyed that Xanadu was some sort of heaven-like place where “nobody dared to go”. So the basic premise I got about Xanadu from merely listening to the songs was that it was a movie about angel from a mystical place falling in love with a mortal. It sounded like a decent movie but unfortunately my interest soon faded after a while as Xanadu wasn’t available on VHS for me to buy..



Fastforward to 2003
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I had found the ELO compilation CD among my collection & I started listening to the songs again. This really sparked my interest in the Xanadu movie so I checked out the IMDB page on the movie. I didn’t read the plot synopsis just some of the IMDB reviews. I was surprised to see the impressive cast of Gene Kelly & Michael Beck of (Warriors fame). I was also surprised to see the low ratings and some of the negative Reviews. I learned from IMDB that indeed the movie was a commercial failure in the US. Even actor Michael Beck claimed on his bio page that Xanadu killed his movie career.

All this didn’t put me off seeing the movie as I do know a lot if musicals get derided by a lot of people, particularly teenagers. Even classics like “Singin’ in the rain” & “Wizard of Oz” get jeered at by many people . Also the fact that Xanadu was a flop, to me , was not an indication that it was a bad movie. Most musicals fail at the box office, even Moulin Rouge was a flop at the US box office, and Evita was a very minor hit. The 80’s was a period, due to the advancement of the music video, where the musical as a lucrative genre was laid to rest. The only 3 successful musicals from the 70’s onwards were Cabaret, Grease, & Chicago. Unlike Xanadu which was an original musical film, all the others were successful Broadway productions before they made their way to the big screen. All the other musical films were failures, due to growing derisison towards musicals from the younger generation.

From reading the IMDB reviews I learned that ELO never make an appearance in the movie which I thought was strange given the prominence of their music in the project. I also learned that the movie segment for “Don’t Walk Away” was an animated short which I also thought was strange given that it was a very tragic & sombre song to be used in this way. I was also surprised to learn that a plot point of the movie was that ONJ inspires an artist to build a roller-disco but I didn’t pay too much mind to it as I didn’t think it would be the main plot, which I thought would be the forbidden love story between the angel & the mortal that the songs actually hinted at.

I also started looking at the posters & merchandise on IMDB & Ebay. I particularly loved the movie poster of Xanadu where ONJ is standing on a podium holding up the ELO emblem. I was also intrigued by the absence of ELO in the movie, and that only their ambience was in it which lent itself nicely to supernatural & fantastical theme that permeated their music for Xanadu. Though unfortunately I still had to wait to see the movie as It had not yet been released on DVD.


Fastforward to May 2004
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I finally purchased the R2 DVD of Xanadu when it was released. I had the perfect opportunity to premiere the movie. I had the keys to my brother’s house while he & his family were away on holiday. My brother had a special home cinema system with a 10 foot screen & DVD projector with surround sound, the perfect setup to view DVD movies. As I waited for the movie to begin, I read the liner notes and was a bit surprised by the tagline “where the 40’s musical meets the 80’s”. I thought that a 40’s style musical was a strange concept to use the prog-pop sound of ELO. Nevertheless I sat back and finally watched a movie that has sparked my interest for many years on a 10 foot cinema screen with blaring surround sound.


THE XANADU XPERIENCE
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I loved the opening sequence with the planes and there was a genuine thrill of finally seeing the movie. I have to admit I didn’t know what a muse actually was or what they did, I wasn’t up to speed on my Greek mythology. The movie didn’t explain what one was till near the end, which made the experience of seeing ONJ and bunch of dancers jumping out of a painting without any exposition a bit confusing. The director could have had some exposition about Muses explained between 2 Greek mythology experts on a TV in the background whilst Beck was doing his artwork in the beginning which would have set everything up for the movie.

Nevertheless it was great finally seeing a video for the “I’m Alive” song which I loved listening to for years. The whole “I’m Alive sequence was wonderfully done. The film flowed nicely although I did notice that Beck’s acting was very poor. He was totally miscast, he even didn’t look like the “starving artist” type. Beck is a great supporting actor but he doesn’t have the qualities of a leading man. The actor playing his friend at the art studio would have been a better choice.

But the filmed flowed along very nicely and Gene Kelly was very charming in his performance which more than made up for the stiff Beck. I really loved the sad beauty of the “Whenever you’re away from me” segment. In fact the film was going well until the part where Kelly & Beck discuss their plans to combine a nightclub that’s cross between a 40’s Big Band club and an 80’s rock venue. This absurd concept came as a huge shock to me, and it was then reinforced with a horribly edited & directed concept video where flashes of 40’s Swing & 80’s Rock were competing with each other for screen time. The 40’s segment looked lovely & decadent but the 80’s segment was horribly edited with tacky costumes which was really in your face, although I was impressed when the 2 bands merged together at the end but the video sequence was overlong and greatly damaged the movie.

Then ONJ appeared and suggested they call this god-awful club “Xanadu”. This completely destroyed the magical concept of movie, and it completely contradicted the magical theme of the ELO songs where it was insinuated that Xanadu was a mystical place that nobody dared to go. It showed that the film’s writers did not listen to the ELO songs before they put pen to paper. They should have renamed the dimension of “Mount Halycon” where ONJ lives as "Xanadu", and that the club that she inspired Kelly & Beck to build was to be an architectural tribute to this domain of the Muses. This would have supported the fantastical theme of the songs, whilst giving the movie a touch of epic in the mystical sense.

But by calling the club Xanadu meant that the entire movie was really about an absured 40’s/ 80’s concept club, and that everything else, such as the love affair between Beck & ONJ (which really should have been the main focus of the movie ) were all secondary plot devices.

From there on it got worse, the animated segment used for “Don’t Walk away” doesn’t suit the song at all. The song with its tragic tone would have been better suited for the scene where ONJ leaves Beck after revealing her true identity. They could have used Beck lip synching to the song and it would have given the movie more emotional clout. The biggest disappointment was the video segment for, arguably the best song, which is “All over the World”. The images of the characters running around a clothes shop has nothing to do with the theme of the song and it completely demeans it. It’s a very lazy decision on the part of the director to use this setting for the song. The segment could have had ONJ bringing Beck around different locations around the world, (ie: Arc d’Triomph, Eiffel Tower, Brandenburg gate, Sydney opera house, etc) even if it was all animated, it would have been better than what appeared in the final product.

I liked the part where ONJ reveals her true identity to Beck & the “Suspended in time” segment was good, and I particularly liked the Xanadu segment. The choreography during the "Drum Dreams" was brilliant. And ONJ totally stole the show when she appeared for the Xanadu song. Although I didn’t like the mimes & acrobats in the scene, And I also couldn’t believe that they were crazy enough to include an awful tap dance sequence with a cheesy country & western number before the end. Did the director & the producers not think that these elements were absolutely stupid & unnecessary. I’m surprised that the studio didn’t insist that all the musical numbers were rigorously screened to test audiences to gauge their reaction so they could weed out any silly elements. I did like the “Fool” number and I loved the Xanadu encore. But I thought the ending where ONJ suddenly disguises herself as barmaid was one of the most confusing & lamest endings in motion picture history.

The film left a real bitter taste in my mouth after all those years of waiting. The most annoying thing is that ONJ was so under utilised. She is the main reason why the movie got made and yet the writers & director had her character written so ambiguously that it became annoying when she kept on avoiding Kelly & Beck’s questions.

The film should have focused on her as the central character rather than Beck, and the movie should have been about ONJ falling in love with Beck. ONJ is a very good actress and her scene where she explains her identity to Beck was the best example of acting in the movie. It’s a pity she wasn’t used more in the movie.

In fact the movie makes out ONJ’s character to be heartless & uncaring in the way she treated Kelly’s character. He fell in love with her when she joined his band to inspire him to build a jazz club. When the club was finished and her task complete, she abruptly left. He thought she would come back but when she didn’t he was heartbroken and gave up his music club to spend many years sitting on a beach sulking about her. Even after she reveals her true self to Beck, she never tries to reconcile or apologise to Kelly for ruining his life. The fact that ONJ was never in love with Kelly in the first place (she admits that Beck is the first mortal she fell in love with) makes her treatment of him even more cold. It’s a pity that the script writers didn’t try to include a scene where ONJ apologises to Kelly as it would have given the movie more emotional weight.

There also should have been a Muse or heavenly advisor scripted in the movie that ONJ character confides in, to help develop her character. Maybe a character to whom ONJ could acknowledge her guilt for ruining Kelly’s life. Though admittedly the omission of any resolution to ONJ/ Kelly’s affair by the scriptwriters does provide a real tragic undercurrent to the movie when one views the film from the perspective of Kelly’s character.

Nevertheless I was terribly disappointed with the film, it was badly directed, badly scripted, & Beck was totally miscast. It was simply a wasted opportunity to make a perfect film. You had the perfect leading lady in ONJ, and the legendary presence of Kelly. The songs were excellent, and the fantasy storyline of an angel falling for a mortal would have made a perfect musical. Unfortunately the producers, writers & directors totally messed up. After I slipped the DVD back into case I vowed never to watch it again, especially since they totally messed up the video segment of my favourite ELO song “All over the World” and left my brother’s house in disappointment.

Then during my journey from my Brother’s house to my own place I had a feeling of Deja Vous when I recalled the video segment for “All Over the World”. Then I remembered that I had seen this sequence before when I was very young. It was some kids program where they were doing a run down of summer movies, and they showed a very catchy music video of a blonde lady with 2 other guys running around what looked like a department store. I remembered the presenter mentioning that the lady was ONJ, this of course would have to be the summer of 1980 as I also remember the program reviewed a Battlestar Galactica movie called Mission Galactica. So I had seen the “All Over The World” segment of the Xanadu movie before, way back in 1980. This made me feel very nostalgic because I particularly remembered & enjoyed that particular summer

This made me feel a little more tolerant towards Xanadu, and I have watched it numerous times since. I still think it is a missed opportunity of a movie but I consider it one of the best musicals. The songs are excellent, ONJ is beautiful and her performance is excellent (I just wish there was more of her in the movie) and Kelly was brilliant as usual. I think Xanadu is a movie you have to watch a few times to truly enjoy. Now if only I could get my hands on that poster of ONJ holding up the ELO emblem?!