"My mother thanks you, my father thanks you, my sister thanks you, and I thank you."
Plot: A biography of composer, playwright, singer, and dancer George M. Cohan, whose music fueled American patriotism during WWI, the depression, and into WWII.
One special note about this film is that it's the first James Cagney movie I've ever seen. I know he's known for playing mobsters, but he was phenomenal in this movie. His acting was on point, and that man could dance. Being the Broadway geek that I am, I hoped for a little bit more vocal-wise, but he was still great. He rightfully won the Oscar for best actor.
The movies gets off to a slow start, but after about 45min I found myself really enjoying it. All of the performances are solid, most of the characters are likable, and I even got a little choked up once or twice during the more serious scenes. But what really drives the film is the absolute shameless patriotism (and I mean that in a good way). This movie loves the USA in a way no modern movie could. We get to see the US in that wide-eyed, innocent way we do as kids, and it's wonderfully refreshing. All I hear all day is complaints about this president, that law, this amendment, etc. etc. Sometimes we forget how blessed we really are to live here. This film gives us a pleasant reminder. Overall, a very enjoyable watch, though I'm not certain it belongs on the Top 100 films ever list. Definitely worth a view if you stumble across it one day, though.
Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5
4 down, 119 to go...
No comments:
Post a Comment