Yankee Doodle Dandy (AFI #98)

“I’ve noticed that my AFI write ups generally tend to be a lot shorter than my current movie write ups. Im not entirely sure why that is. I think I feel weird doing the whole “”I liked this, this didnt work for me”” thing for movies that are considered to be the best.

Totally unrelated but I got District 9 playing in the background. It looks \m/ awesome on Blu-Ray. Just saying.

I had a hard time getting into Yankee Doodle Dandy at first. But after a while, it picked up. I went from not caring about the big musical numbers to those being the best part. However, I dont get why this is considered one of the all time best movies. I had to Wikipedia George M Cohan about 45 minutes into the film because I still had no idea who he was.

As far as cinematical breakthrough, the best I can find is that it was one of the first movies to be colorized after its release. That definitely helped a lot. I can’t see those broadway numbers working too well in B&W. Also, James Cagney’s Oscar winning performance as George M Cohan is considered one of the all time best. I’ll give him that. I was quite impressed with his dancing, and I did totally buy his arrogant yet sweet character.

Really liked his relationship with Mary. That was probably my other fave part besides the big broadway numbers. And I suppose it was the theater geek in me that liked the musical-ness. But still, mostly unimpressed.”

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