Grease (1978)

Grease is definitely the word! ...

When my family (my mother, my brother, and I) went out on our traditional weekly "Movie Date Night" (as we so lovingly named it during that time) to see Grease at the Chicago Theater, "Thank God It's Friday" had been playing at the old State and Lake Theater right across the street from the CT. And me being a hopeless Donna Summer fanatic, naturally I'd wanted to see "TGIF" too, but it had to be Grease, first, because our tix were purchased in advance ... And also because we were only committed to one movie at a time...sometimes. 😊

I was glad, however, that we got to see Grease, because I was in love with this film by the time it ended. It was one of my most cherished childhood experiences/memories. And I still hold it dear today.

This Randal Kleiser directed musical was one of the greatest cinematic oeuvres of its time - even today, undergoing readaptations for the stage, and entertaining both past and present generations. In Grease, the film, John Travolta (my guy) and Olivia Newton-John (my girl) star as Danny and Sandy, who meet one summer at the beach and fall madly in love. However, there's one problem: Danny is a local fella (and a 'T-birds greaser gang member'), while Sandy (pure and clean-cut from Australia) is only in town vacationing for the summer. When the summer ends, their newfound (and passionate) relationship may also have to. But will it?...

Set in 1950s California, Grease is a motion picture for the Hollywood history books. It is tremendously directed, with a beautifully-composed soundtrack. And the cast? Well, what can you say when you have a gifted supporting ensemble of some of the best in their respective crafts: Stockard Channing, Frankie Avalon, Eve Arden, Joan Blondell, Sha-Na-Na, Sid Ceasar, and Alice Ghostley, among a talented bundle of others.

Grease is one of my all-time favorites. The story is grade A, and so are the legendary performances, as is the equally fabled soundtrack to which it is set. I love this movie, and highly recommend it to everyone ... Especially those of you, who like me, harbor a passion for musicals.

You're a fake and a phony and I wish I never laid eyes on you!

Grease is directed by Randal Kleiser and stars John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Stockard Channing & Jeff Conaway. It's co-written by Jim Jacobs, Warren Casey (Musical), Bronte Woodard & Allan Carr.

1958 and Danny (Travolta) has a holiday romance with the pretty and virginal Sandy (Newton-John). She ends up going to the same high school as he, but he's under peer pressure to stay cool and uphold a tough guy image. They fall out, argue, make up, their friends are equally unstable. Oh and there's the small matter of some truly memorable songs and dances too.

As full of gusto as it is cheese, Grease is the musical that's hard to dislike. The acting is so-so, the direction one dimensional and the plot could have been written on a 50s beer mat. Yet we love it because of its faults, the kooky charm that sidles up alongside those roaring tunes. We care not that these actors are too old to play high schoolers, the fun is watching them have fun being teens again. Hell there's even innuendo unbound and cheeky lyrics for those of an adult mind. A truly great fun movie that's longevity shows no time of ending any time soon. Watch it, enjoy, sing along, pick a favourite tune and character, and then salute it; for Grease is the word baby. 9/10

Click here for a video version of this review: https://youtu.be/gvGcY-PMazg

I don’t even know when I added it to my watchlist, but working through my backlog, the musical _Grease_ suddenly became the next movie to watch. This is of course a classic and I cannot name one person who does know at least one song from it.

So, deep in your brain somewhere, you’re probably aware generally of what this is about, but here is the official description:

_Good girl Sandy Olsson and greaser Danny Zuko fell in love over the summer. When they unexpectedly discover they're now in the same high school, will they be able to rekindle their romance?_

Made in 1978 but set in 1958 this is a whole lot of toe tapping fun. Almost all of the songs are instantly recognisable, and although I will never admit it, I may or may not have slid across our kitchen tiles on my knees after watching it, yelling “it’s ELECTRIFYING”.

What’s interesting watching this now is how lewd this is. So much of this went way over my head when watching this as a kid. Condoms breaking, calling cars pussy wagons, singing about chicks creaming and swimsuits getting damp, I forgot how much double entendre and innuendo there is in the song lyrics and the movie as a whole.

What’s even more interesting is the theory of how Sandy in fact died on the beach in the opening scene and that the rest of the film is the dying, oxygen starved fantasy of her brain. Think about it - in the song “Summer Nights” from Sandy’s point of view, Danny says that when he met Sandy, “I saved her life; she nearly drowned.” What if I told you that, in reality, she _did_ drown hence why on the beach Sandy, as she enters the alternate plane asks him “Is this the end?” He replies, “Of course not. It’s only the beginning.” She then has the dying brain fantasy of a year of high school romance with Danny, the visions get more and more outlandish as the time passes, before, at the climax of the movie she and Danny drive off in a car that leaves the ground and drives off into heaven, in what we can only speculate are her final moments.

Anyway that’s something to think about next time you watch it. Either way it’s a good fun movie and always worth a watch.

This oddly enough is the one and only Musical I like. I like a couple of the songs too. It's a classic, everyone in the world knows this movie.

"Sandy" (Olivia Newton John) is a well brought up young girl who meets and falls in love with "Danny" (John Travolta) during summer break in late 1950's California. When they both start high school, though, we discover she to be the archetypical preppie-type who hangs about with Stockard Channing's "Pink Ladies" and he the leader of the "T-Birds" - the school's leather and white T-shirt clad greasers. Their obvious attraction to each other is hemmed in by their respective roles at school and they've got to find a way to sort it out! Channing is the star for me in this film. She's great as "Rizzo" - loads of attitude, earthy wisdom and "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee" - that helps "Sandy" to hook her man. Along with some entertainingly well choreographed dance routines, the other songs are superb too - a mixture of toe tappers and sloppy ballads from the likes of Frankie Valli, Frankie Avalon and of course, the two stars with "You're the One That I Want" and "Summer Nights" that frequently outdo the rather banal script. It's a gently engaging, slightly competitive love story that, though a bit dated now, was certainly an important film as I grew up!