“It’s the bomb”: the timeless 1942 movie John Travolta could watch forever
John Travolta is such an undeniable movie star that it’s no wonder that he keeps getting chances to show his talent, defining Americana with his breakthrough performance in Saturday Night Fever, a film that crystallised the disco movement and created an all-time hit soundtrack.
Between playing an archetypal 1950s greaser in the hit musical Grease and exploring the dark side of political conspiracies in Blow Out, Travolta used his reputation as an American icon to make interesting and thought-provoking choices.
Despite a brief period in which he no longer seemed like a sustainable star, he earned the comeback of a lifetime when he starred in Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarantino’s homage to the crime stories dominant in ’70s America, while also hopping on the train of the American action cinema renaissance in the ‘90s when he appeared in Face/Off, Broken Arrow, and Mad City.
This would indicate that Travolta is seemingly a fairly patriotic actor, which is why it makes sense that he’s cited the Michael Curtiz-directed Yankee Doodle Dandy as one of his favourite films ever, which is the story of the composer George Cohan, who is portrayed by James Cagney.
Travolta claimed the film is completely timeless, gushing, “How often does a movie really evoke that level of emotion, you know?, and continually, throughout the piece, unabashedly so. I just love it. It’s the bomb. Especially at this time, especially now. There were a couple of moments, especially toward the end of the movie, where it really reflected the kinds of emotions I’m feeling about the current situation. I mean, you could sing that song, ‘Over There’, and it would still hold up. It sounds like it could have been written today, doesn’t it? It’s eerie.”
The actor made these comments in November 2001, just two months after the nation was reeling from the devastating attacks on the World Trade Centre, and while many artists had complicated feelings about the relationship between their patriotism and their art, Travolta seemed to indicate that they were one and the same.
It shouldn’t be surprising that he has such a romantic idea of Hollywood history, and Yankee Doodle Dandy isn’t just a biopic of a “great American man” but the origin story for a work of music that has withstood the test of time and brought joy to countless people.
Music and movies often go hand in hand, which is something the actor knows better than anyone, for beyond his singing on the Grease soundtrack and dancing to the Bee Gees songs in Saturday Night Fever, he has been involved with many iconic needledrops in film history, most notably the iconic Pulp Fiction dance scene set to ‘You Can Never Tell’, by Chuck Berry.
Although he has become easy to mock because of poorly-received films like Gotti and Battlefield Earth, Travolta is a far more thoughtful and introspective storyteller than he is given credit for, so it will be interesting to see what he brings to the screen as a director, as his debut film Propeller One-Way Night Coach is set to debut at the Cannes Film Festival.
