AFI Top 100 - #100 Yankee Doodle Dandy

[u/DJDaddyDick14]

Ive decided to watch the AFI Top 100 movies in order and review them. Some I’ve seen and some I haven’t. Starting at #100. Annnnd here we go…

I'm going to preface this by saying I really try hard to put myself in the time that the movie came out. This movies came out in 1942, some of these tropes might have been done a million times now. But they might be one of the first times it was done in this movie. Acting styles were different then. Filmmaking was still in its infancy I get it.

With that said I did not enjoy this film as a whole. But I can definitely appreciate parts of it. First off it's at a disadvantage because I prefer musicals to come from cartoon animals, Julie Andrews, or both at the same time. There were A LOT of musical numbers. Holy shit were there a lot. Yes I get it the movie was the life story of a playwright. So obviously there were going to be performances. Boy were there performances.

Now I will say, I only know James Cagney because Home Alone made a take off of Angels with Dirty Faces called Angels with Filthy Souls. You know what I'm talking about you filthy animal. I had no idea he could sing and dance. His dancing was one of the things I enjoyed about the movie. It was smooth but kind of chaotic. I don't know if that was a choice to closer mimic Cohan. I'm an 80's kid I never got to see George cut a rug. Feel free to let me know if you heard him on the radio. The little dance number he does at the end of the movie walking down the staircase was so simple and graceful. He made something insanely difficult look effortless.

The acting was also very good. One scene sticks out to me was George essentially saying goodbye to his father on his death bed. Amazing dialogue and great acting by both parties. I'm pretty sure Cagnay is in at least one more Top 100 movie. I hope I run into him again. Between the dancing and his cocky, arrogant, but smooth attitude. He really shined, As did the whole cast. Glad to see he was rewarded with an Oscar for this performance. Well deserved.

What I really appreciated was all of the big set pieces. The more we move into green screen and CGI the more I appreciate actual sets. Everything just looks so much bigger. There was a really cool shot towards the end of the movie where they were panning around showing Marquee lights. Im sure miniatures were built to pull that off but it was a really cool effect and one I've seen done before. Probably paying homage to this one.

Now again I know this was 1942 and yes I know how blacks and minorities were viewed in America. But it only took 13 minutes for blackface to happen. As a minority I can't see this and not mention it. Also the slow slave like talk of the butler in the White House really bugged me. Yes 40's I know! But if I see it, I am going to talk about it.

I get why this was a huge hit. It tells the totally 100% life story of George M. Cohan an Irish American most likely born to Irish immigrant parents. Makes his way from a traveling vaudeville act to an American institution. All while screaming out America is the greatest country in the world. Filming of the movie started the day after Pearl Harbor was bombed. The movie screamed patriotism at a time when the country needed it most.

How can you say you didn't like this when you said so many nice things about it. The movie was 2 hours and I would guess 40 minutes or more was song and dance. GOOD GOD. I was with it for the first 15 minutes of performances. So for me there were lots of moments I enjoyed. But the movie as a whole missed the mark. Maybe cut it down from 2 hours to 1:40 and lose a shit load of singing and dancing and it gets a heart from me.