Robert Greenwald's move from television drama to documentaries suits his interest in personal stories. We are less persuaded by his musical direction: Xanadu has good songs and appealing performers, but he cannot get it moving.
Fi1m perspective
In Xanadu (1980), good songs keep arriving in a film that has trouble getting its musical numbers started. Robert Greenwald wants romance, living muses and roller disco to feel as easy together as the ingredients of an old-fashioned song-and-dance film. There is nothing unreasonable about that ambition: a musical need not make much sense if it moves well. This one does not, and its slack scenes leave the romance barely registering.
Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly provide moments of pleasure, and we would not dismiss what they bring to it. We were irritated because the music was good enough to make the weak staging feel like a waste. Greenwald gives the performers too little help in turning those songs into an evening that holds together. That is a directing failure, not a reason to sneer at roller disco or at the attempt to recapture an older musical's ease. We would listen to the songs again sooner than sit through the scenes joining them.
Xanadu was only one part of a career spent largely elsewhere: Greenwald directed and produced television films through the 1980s and 1990s. The Burning Bed (1984) gives a better indication of his continuing interest in using individual experiences to address a wider audience. The change to documentaries in the early 2000s was substantial, but personal stories remained central. Uncovered (2003) and Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism (2004) belong to that turn.
Working with the Brave New Films team, he uses interviews and rapid cutting of existing footage to put his case before the viewer. Those are practical tools for a director interested in explaining how institutions affect people. The criticism that the documentaries are one-sided matters, since their persuasiveness depends on what has been selected and what has been left out. His preference for personal testimony gives us a clearer sense of what he wants from a film than the strained romance in Xanadu does. We would start with The Burning Bed; roller disco can wait.
Biography
Robert Greenwald is an American film and television director, producer and political activist. He directed the 1980 musical fantasy film Xanadu.
Greenwald began his career directing theatre before moving into television movies and miniseries in the 1970s. His credits include directing The Burning Bed (1984) and producing or directing numerous other television films. In the 2000s he founded Brave New Films and directed political documentaries including Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism (2004) and Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price (2005). He is the nephew of choreographer Michael Kidd and has received multiple Emmy Award nominations.
