No. 98 - Yankee Doodle Dandy

Number 98 on the American Film Institution's Top 100 is Yankee Doodle Dandy which was made in 1942. The movie is a biography of the life of George M. Cohan who was a self-described, "song and dance man." Cohan wrote such classic songs as "The Yankee Doodle Boy", "Over There", "Give My Regards to Broadway", and "You're a Grand Old Flag," in addition to many shows that were performed on Broadway and throughout the U.S.

The story of George M. Cohan is the biggest selling point for this movie. Nearly everyone can recognize the popular songs that were written by Cohan and performed in the film. Watching how these songs came to be is a surprisingly fun thing to watch. It isn't even that you watch him compose the pieces, but rather get to watch the songs performed in a re-creation of the shows that Cohan became so famous for. I have no idea how many shows that Cohan created himself, but the film portrayed him as a pioneer of Broadway shows and a regular to the biggest of venues. These shows looked as though they were big productions that dazzled the eyes and entertained the masses. The film did a fantastic job at recreating the spectacle of these shows. It was not just the music or the shows that made the film such a pleasure.

Another reason that Yankee Doodle Dandy was such a successful film, was the acting of James Cagney as Cohan. Cagney does a wonderful job not just performing the songs, but also recreating the shows and making you feel as though you were there. The dancing that Cagney displays is a joy to watch; you just no longer see such skillful dancing, especially tap dancing. In several separate sequences Cagney wows the viewer with his display of athleticism while making tap dance look easy. Not only does Cagney excel at singing and dancing, but the slow moments of the movie are kept interesting through the acting of Cagney. All the hard work that Cagney put in trying to emulate Cohan was well spent, as he was rewarded with the Academy Award for best actor, and rightfully so.

One aspect of the film that I paid particular attention to was the acting. After watching Ben-Hur and the "over-acting" that resulted in an Academy Award for Charlton Heston, I was curious if that was simply the norm for that time. After watching Yankee Doodle Dandy I can confidently say that it may have just been the norm for Ben-Hur. Yankee Doodle Dandy was well acted by everyone involved, and never seemed to go over the top. It will be interesting to continue watching older films to see how the acting compares to the movies that I am used to watching.

The cinematography was about what you would expect for such a movie, nothing special but certainly was not lacking anything. The shows that were recreated were fun to watch but did not take any special shots as you would expect from a movie in today's era. However, you could argue that this type of movie had no need for any special cinematography, and it would have even taken away from the movie if there were.

Yankee Doodle Dandy did not have to rely on any fancy story lines, or trick photography. Instead it knew it had a winner with the story alone, and was able to add to the overall experience with the superb acting of James Cagney. Erin was unable to watch the movie, therefore can give no rating. I however would give the movie a high 4 out of 5, lacking only because of few slow spots in the movie. I would certainly recommend watching it, not only for the entertainment it brought but also the historical aspect of it.

One of the new rating systems I will be implementing is my personal top 10 movies of the AFI's Top 100. Although I have only watched three thus far, I will be continually updating my top 10 with any movies that I feel have outperformed the current top 10. So here are the top 3 so far.

1. Toy Story
2. Yankee Doodle Dandy
3. Ben-Hur
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.