Movie Description
Xanadu is a 1980 American musical and fantasy film written by Richard Christian Danus and Marc Reid Rubel and directed by Robert Greenwald. The title is a reference to the nightclub in the film, which takes its name from Xanadu, the summer capital of Kublai Khan's Yuan Dynasty in China. This city appears in Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a poem that is quoted in the film. The film is a remake of the film Down to Earth (1947), the sequel to Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941).
Xanadu stars Olivia Newton-John, Gene Kelly (in his final film role) and Michael Beck, and features music by Newton-John, Electric Light Orchestra, Cliff Richard and The Tubes. The film also features animation by Don Bluth.
A box office flop, Xanadu earned mixed to negative critical reviews and was an inspiration for the creation of the Golden Raspberry Awards to recognize the worst films of the year. Despite the lackluster performance of the film, the soundtrack album became a huge commercial success around the world, and was certified double platinum in the United States. The song "Magic" was a U.S. number one hit for Newton-John, and the title track (by Newton-John and Electric Light Orchestra) reached number one in the United Kingdom and several other countries around the world. The film has since become a cult classic for the way it mixes the storyline from an old-fashioned 1940s fantasy with modern aesthetics featuring late 1970s & early 1980s rock and pop music on the soundtrack as well as for fans of Newton-John.