![]() Watching the news, I feel like I’m watching helplessly as a violent storm approaches. Reading social media feeds makes me feel as though a great tear is forming in the country. They lay the blame squarely on ideological opponents with whom they feel they have less and less in common. People across the political spectrum believe the country is headed in the wrong direction. Talking heads refer to Rome and the Third Reich. We face a world that feels increasingly uncertain and dangerous. This optimism might be difficult for a modern American to identify with. ![]() James Cagney’s supercharged performance serves as the dynamo that draws everything together. It’s a quintessentially American movie that takes the ideas of American exceptionalism and the American dream and fuses them into the story of an American icon. Cohan’s life improves so quickly that he doesn’t have time to notice the bumps along the way. Instead Cohan is on an uninterrupted upward trajectory that any American might emulate with enough elbow grease and ingenuity. It doesn’t even mention the Great Depression. It skips right over the booms and busts of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Even the unusually tension free plot mirrors these sentiments. Like George Cohan, it is propelled forward by a belief that it is a force for good. Like George Cohan, the America of Yankee Doodle Dandy is endlessly optimistic and constantly striving for improvement through an explosive mix of creativity and diligence. In the world of Yankee Doodle Dandy, America is Winthrop’s city on a hill with limitless possibilities spread before it and the moral authority to pursue them. It expresses the aspirations of an entire country more succinctly than any other. More than a good movie, it’s an important movie. His mother and sister die off screen with nary a mention, and even his father’s death, where we see Cohan upset for the first and only time in the movie, is forgotten by the next scene.ĭespite these flaws, the movie deserves its praise. When he fails to impress critics with his only attempt at a dramatic play, the movie simply moves on as if nothing happened. All of Cohan’s difficulties are brushed aside by a rising tide of optimism and sense of inevitable progress. Where most traditional movies build and release tension as a way to hold attention, Yankee Doodle Dandy simply rockets Cohan from his early years as a hot head in a family vaudeville act, though his unbridled success as a multi-talented Broadway show-runner and star. Furthermore, the movie lacks any significant conflict. Cohan narrates his entire life to FDR in 1942, as if the president doesn’t have more pressing matters to attend to. Abusing an already cliched plot device, the entire film is told as a flashback. More problematically, the story is trite. ![]() In particular, one memorable number featuring a mob of dancers marching on an jumbo conveyor belt vividly illustrates the magnitude of Cohan productions. There’s nothing remarkable about the cinematography or the camera-work, although some of the reproductions of his musicals are impressive. Beside the electric James Cagney, the supporting cast looks like the undead. Other than Cagney’s performance, one might be forgiven for thinking the film quite ordinary. Still, can a film be considered one of the best on the merits of one performance? He dances in a hail of taps so energetic that it’s a wonder that his feet don’t burst into flame. In every musical scene, Cagney delights as he emulates Cohan’s half-speaking style of song. With every line uttered, he practically leaps off the screen. Why is this movie so highly regarded? The simple answer might be James Cagney’s performance. It also grabbed the 98th spot in the American Film Institute’s 2007 list of the greatest American films of all time. James Cagney, previously known for his gangster roles, won a best actor Oscar for his portrayal of George Cohan. His legacy includes toe-tapping patriotic favorites like "Over There" and "You’re a Grand Old Flag." Undoubtedly Cohan stands in the top tier of individuals who have shaped American self-identity. The name itself has been washed away by the passage of time, but Cohan’s work is immortal. Yankee Doodle Dandy traces the life of famed entertainer George M. The 1942 film Yankee Doodle Dandy may not carry the same weight as its namesake, but it’s no less successful at burnishing the American narrative and reminding viewers of what America has always wanted to stand for. It reminds Americans today of the aspirations they share with the men that fought in the Battle of Lexington. The song evokes the national origin story hammered into every American since kindergarten. The sound of those flutes and drums conjure up images of a group of scruffy soldiers fighting against incalculable odds in the Revolutionary War.
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