The human survivors, most notably Olivia, Gene and Jeff, each had their own take on the Xanadu debacle.
In his autobiography, Gene would genteelly complained about the production. "I have to admit, it is a terrible movie", he writes, "The film coasts too much simply because they didn't know how to proceed along the economic lines. It could have been made in a third of the cost. But I must say it was fun working with Olivia, for that reason alone, I don't regret the experience....and it's the last time you'll se me dancing in a movie. So in that respect, I guess Xanadu occupies a special place in my career. But only in that respect I hasten to add."
His resentment would still remain. In 1990, Lynne agreed to serve as an adviser for the first ELO box set, Afterglow, only on the condition that none of the Xanadu tracks are used. This attitude might possibly explain why the whole soundtrack was not reissued on CD for many years. Japan was the first country to release Xanadu on CD in 1991 with eloquent packaging and separate liner notes, followed a year later by Australia with a lesser quality in packaging and sound. It would be until 1998 for the UK and Europe and 1999 for the US to see their digital copy.
Olivia would later summarize the film as a "character building experience" and added that she would have been upset if the music had failed. "I thought that the musical numbers were great, but the dialogue left something to be desired", she commented to the Associated Press in 1982. "I knew that while we were shooting, but there wasn't much I could do. Then they changed the whole story midway through the production and that didn't help. I understand that the backers got their money back." She would receive a much bigger "benefit" from Xanadu as she dated and, a few years later, end up marrying the actor who played the 'Young Danny McGuire' role, Matt Lattanzi.
A book entitled The Hollywood Hall Of Shame (written by the same team behind the original classic bad flick book, The Golden Turkey Awards) devoted a few pages to Xanadu. The L.A. Times decided to ask the producers in subject to respond to the book. "It didn't cost $20 million dollars, that's not accurate." denounced Lawrence Gordon. "Xanadu had a giant album, it went platinum, big foreign grosses. There's a lot more to a movie's grosses than it's US (and Canadian) rentals. I'll never seen a penny, but by the time the picture is sold to cable and other ancillary markets, it's not much of a disaster for the studio. Let's put it this way: Xanadu will make a hell of a lot more money then their book." One of those ancillary outlets was the first and only major network television broadcast of Xanadu on the CBS television network on May 26, 1984. The film would later bounce around in late night and early afternoon film syndication and on USA Network and, most recently, American Movie Classics cable channels.
A few more behind-the-scenes trivia were revealed in a UK/Channel 4 interview series called Is This Your Life? in 1995. After a pre-recorded and rare telephone interview with Michael Beck talking about the film, Olivia explained the script problems in detail (which got to the point that the production was halted for a full day while the script was worked on, sometimes with the director touching it up himself), the directors dissatisfaction with the musical material as well as his claim that he personally doesn't like musicals and that Kelly ended up co-directing and co-choreographing the 'Whenever' sequence. Despite these negative aspects behind the film, Olivia herself expressed her joy working with the legendary Gene Kelly.
More facts were reveled during a screening of Xanadu on May 24, 2003, as part of American Cinematheque's two weeklong program of 70's and 80's musicals. Gene Kelly's last wife and the cinematographer, Victor J. Kemper, were part of the Q&A session after the screening. After the first question was volleyed, "What went wrong?!", Kemper mentioned that Kelly was upset that large scenes was cut from the final number that featured him in a more expanded skating dance number and the general mood on the set was "every man for himself".
With all the negative press, critical onslaughts, neglect from the participants and many other people trying to erase their memory from the clutches of it, Xanadu, for it's many faults and flaws, still lives in the hearts, minds and fantasies of those who are still attracted to the film's basic utopian outlook. The possibilities, the fun, the mere notion of a beautiful muse to appear out of the blue and another notion of not taking life too seriously-these qualities did not attract many to it's heart, some even seriously detest it.
In the gay community, the film's utopian theme and, especially, the theme song is taken to heart and has been a theme of some parades. In Australia, a dance version of Xanadu was an underground dance hit. It was performed by 'Paula Featuring Olivia' (though there's NO Olivia anywhere); since then 'Paula' has made a small career of singing Olivia tunes in gay bars in London. Another version of Xanadu was done as part of a DJ dance compilation CD called Direct Hits #15. Unlike Paula's rather weak performance and production, this new version not only used the actual original recording but also snippets of dialogue and the final production and chunks of Drum Dreams. All set to a rave drum machine.
Outside of the gay's circles, Xanadu has maintained the same level of appeal over the years. In LA, there was a dance club than had a 'Xanadu Night' that featured music from the early eighties (the current marketable nostalgia trend). They even go as far to use the movie's logo for their ads and interior.
For film buffs, especially those who are interested in bad and/or campy titles, Xanadu has been compared to The Apple, Sgt. Pepper and Can't Stop The Music. It is also commonly noted that Xanadu is "better" then these films-not excruciatingly bad like the others...just boringly bad.
For whatever arguments over Xanadu are, whether more serious questions of it's existence on the surface of the Earth or joking jabs at what was more wooden-a 2 x 4 or Michael Beck's acting, the film did managed to reach out with it's basic premise of utopia and hope despite it's problems and attackers. The few who where taken by it's 'magic' when it was first released somehow understood what the film was trying to achieve and had managed to take it's weakness with a grain of salt. These are the people who managed to find the magic buried in the muck. Over the years, the number of "Xanaduians" has steadily grown. The passage of time has allowed for some to re-examine Xanadu more objectively; some are reminded of their after taste and dispose if it, while others end up liking it and are willing to cut it some slack. The bottom line? For those who still have a hopeful heart (and stomach) for Xanadu and it's fantasy, music, style and it's hoorky cornball happy ending, the film still delivers it's message of hope optimism and, for good or ill, camp.