Verdict
Summary
Gene Kelly looks lost in this craziness, and while Newton John was basically a sprite with her wispy beauty and nice singing voice, she doesn’t come across as a Greek muse at all, despite her Aussie accent and pretty face. Beck, who fared much better in The Warriors and later in Battletruck, doesn’t make much of an impression here. This one feels fueled by cocaine and fever dreams more than true inspiration. Kino Lorber brings Xanadu to 4K Ultra HD / Blu-ray in a two-disc combo, and the new 4K scan brings vibrancy to the image in ways that seemed impossible for a film this old to look before.
Plot:
A painter is inspired by a muse on roller skates.
Review:
Sonny Malone (Michael Beck from The Warriors) is a talented artist who works for a record company, but he’s completely run out of inspiration and hates that his work doesn’t give him the freedom to create original things. By fate, the wind takes up his trashed ideas (literally), and from them is manifested a Muse – a daughter of Zeus – and she shows up on roller skates on the beach boardwalk in Los Angeles. Her name is Kira (Olivia Newton-John), and suddenly she’s everywhere in Sonny’s life, showing up out of the corner of his eye, and inexplicably on a record album cover no one seems to take ownership of but has suddenly been catapulted into the public eye. Kira is famous, and Sonny falls head over heels in love with the idea of her, but because she’s so elusive and mysterious, he has no idea who she is or what she’s all about. Sonny’s life takes a turn when he makes friends with a charming older guy named Danny (Gene Kelly in his final film performance), an old timer musician and dancer who himself has been looking for a muse and an excuse to open up a nightclub. When he and Sonny collide right while Sonny is swooning for Kira, suddenly it’s kismet and all their dreams start coming true when they all decide to open up a hip nightclub called Xanadu where nostalgia for the ’40s meets the disco / rock era. But when it’s time for Kira to go back from whence she came, Sonny holds on and tries to bargain with Zeus (whom we never see, only hear) to let him keep her.
Filled with clashing musical and visual pop culture styles, Xanadu is a real product of its time with lots of optical visual effects, an animation sequence, dance numbers (coordinated by Kenny Ortega), musical acts by Electric Light Orchestra, songs by Olivia Newton John herself, and a story so thin it might be better suited to a music video concept. It’s stuck between the awkward closing out of the 1970s and the ushering in of the 1980s, but proudly declares itself an ’80s product (“It’s the 80s!” someone shouts, not realizing that it very much still feels like the ’70s). Gene Kelly looks lost in this craziness, and while Newton John was basically a sprite with her wispy beauty and nice singing voice, she doesn’t come across as a Greek muse at all, despite her Aussie accent and pretty face. Beck, who fared much better in The Warriors and later in Battletruck, doesn’t make much of an impression here. This one feels fueled by cocaine and fever dreams more than true inspiration. From director Robert Greenwald.
Kino Lorber brings Xanadu to 4K Ultra HD / Blu-ray in a two-disc combo, and the new 4K scan brings vibrancy to the image in ways that seemed impossible for a film this old to look before. It includes four audio commentaries, a vintage sizzle reel, a documentary from 2009, TV and radio spots, and trailers. There’s also a slipcover.
