In a film best fit to be watched on the Fourth of July, Yankee Doodle Dandy is an exceptional, patriotic film. Starring the legendary James Cagney as the also legendary writer, producer, and actor George M. Cohan, this movie is a musical biography of the late performer's life. Blasting with loud, brass musical numbers and a decently-interesting story, I am surprised at how much I enjoyed this. While the directing and pacing is quite a bit awkward in many scenes, I can see how this film has become such an important, American classic since its release in 1942.
The most interesting aspect of this entire film is the writing of the story revolving around George M. Cohan's life. It was actually riveting to learn about his family's history with stage performing and vaudeville and how he rose up the ranks of stage performance, eventually earning the Congressional Medal of Honor from President Franklin D. Roosevelt. However, this best part of the writing was very limited. This entire film is put through the narrative of George receiving the medal as he recounts his life to FDR. This was a creative technique, especially for the time, but the beginning threw me off very quickly. Michael Curtiz's directing and pacing is incredibly fast and at times, I was hopelessly lost in the dialogue, searching for any kind of context clues. So much was thrown at the audience from the very first shot and it became a bit flustering. The main issue with the pacing, however, was that the musical numbers and high-energy performances overwhelmed a lot of the biographical element of the story. There were few scenes that truly showcased the cast's acting talent, including the marriage conversation between George and his sister Josie, played by Jeanne Cagney, and George's marching in the parade in the very last shot of the film. These extremely emotional moments were amazing to see and I would have liked to seen more of them shared between George and his family to show more of their development.
Production value is obviously a very large factor in these older, classic films, and this movie is no exception. The large-scale, theatre-esque tone of this film works incredibly well for the story, particularly during the performance sequences. As mentioned before, even though his productions were very important, I wish there would have been less of a focus on the constant show tunes. However, that does not mean that they were not extravagant and amazing. The costumes and set design were fantastic and really showed how important these parts of a movie were for audiences back in the 1940s. The songs included in this film that Cohan wrote and produced also helped to set the shamelessly patriotic feel throughout. Hits such as "Yankee Doodle Boy," "Over There," and "You're a Grand Old Flag" helped to not only further Cohan's expansive career but also to set the stage for WWI as it was introduced in the third act of the film.
Yankee Doodle Dandy is quite the epitome of an all-American film. The production and musical numbers were incredible and it is amazing to see how many of them I recognized due to generations of patriotism through learning about this country's history. I would definitely recommend this film, especially if you're a fan of good ol' 'Murica.
My Rating: ★★★½
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