AFI Movies: #100 Yankee Doodle Dandy
My journey through the "best" movies ever begins.
If you missed my first post where I explain what this is and how I’m scoring things, here you go.
I love movies. I love rewatching movies that I’ve loved in the past. I love watching new movies in the theater. I love watching older movies I’ve never seen before. I really do. This little project of mine would not exist if I didn’t love movies, so you may be wondering why I’m rambling on about this instead of writing about the one-hundredth ranked film in these rankings, Yankee Doodle Dandy. Well, I just wanted to make it very clear that I am trying to make this a positive experience and a fun place to learn about some really important films of the past. That positivity comes with a pretty glaring weakness…I’m not a real big fan of musicals. Yes, I know, I’m prepared to take the heat. I just really hate that this is how we have to start things off on this list. Even though musicals are not my thing, I really am trying to keep an open mind as I watch through these films. I’m sure I’ll find a musical I like. In fact, I like plenty of musicals, but they have to be interesting in other ways for me to get hooked.
Let me tell you now, Yankee Doodle Dandy did not interest me in the way a musical needs to in order to win me over. Yankee Doodle Dandy is a musical biopic, released in 1942 and starring James Cagney. It follows the “real” life events of the musical theater actor George M. Cohan, with the typical embellishments that come with a film like this one. The real life George M. Cohan was a Broadway legend, and basically owned the place in the early part of the twentieth century, so it makes sense that they honored his life in this way. However, this is exactly the type of movie that is destined to fail with me, for a number of reasons. First, see the whole thing about musicals above. Second, George M. Cohan died in 1942, forty-eight trips around the sun before yours truly was even born, so the subject matter is not exactly anything that gets me excited. Thirdly, and maybe most importantly, the movie falls into the trap of having a lot of rah-rah American exceptionalism, which is just not anything I’m interested in at all, even if it is a product of its time and the very significant events that occurred on a global scale during that time.
Anyway, let’s get to the rankings:
Entertainment Value- 0.5/2
As I have already spent probably too much time on, this movie was not entertaining to me at all. I decided to give it a half of a point here simply because I can acknowledge that James Cagney’s performance in the lead role really was great. He was even awarded the Academy Award for best actor for this performance, which isn’t all that surprising, since this is the type of acting performance the Academy goes crazy for to this 1 .
“Correctness” Score- 0/2
Before the main character even hits adulthood, there is a scene of him and his family performing on stage in blackface, which earns this an automatic zero. I realize that even 80 years later, there are still people who think doing blackface is something that is acceptable, but I was still shocked when this scene happened. It’s just not something you’d ever see in a piece of mainstream entertainment today, and thank goodness for that. Also, while there are actors of color in this film, they are all playing characters that are servants to the white characters in the movie, which probably won’t be the worst offense committed by any of these movies, it’s still worth noting.
Influence- 2/2
While this was not the first musical biopic ever made, it definitely built on the existing genre. The genre continues to thrive, both in box office results and critical/awards acclaim. Elvis made $150 million at the box office in 2022, so the genre is definitely thriving, even when the films are about people nobody under the age of 40 really cares about2.
“Rewatchability” Score- 0/2
I am trying to watch every movie on this list twice for the purpose of this project, and wow, that was a chore for this one. I was dying to reach for my phone the whole time. Easy zero.
Technical Score- 1.5/2
Something I have failed to mention this whole time is that this film is in black and white. The reason I haven’t mentioned it is that this is not something that bothers me even a little bit, especially when it is done well and looks good. Well, this movie is over 80 years old now and it still looks really good. Everything seems well edited, and there were a couple of camera shots where I noticed a cool pan, or some interesting framing, which did add to my viewing enjoyment, especially on the second viewing when I was doing everything I could to distract myself from the story.
Overall- 4/10. I would not recommend this to anyone who isn’t just watching through this list like I am. Let me know if you’ve seen it/what you think in the comments!
Sorry I was so negative. Here’s to the next one being better!
Hasta luego,
Josh
Up Next: #99- Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
See Rami Malek in Bohemian Rhapsody, or even Austin Butler this year in Elvis, more on these later
Sorry if there are any young Elvis Presley diehards out there.