Grease
Grease
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This film has been preserved in the National Film Registry in 2020.
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 🎵We go together
Like rama lama lama ka dinga da dinga dong Remembered forever As shoo-bop sha wadda wadda yippity boom de boom Chang chang changitty chang sha-bop That's the way it should be Wah-oooh, yeah!🎵 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Grease is a 1978 American teen musical romantic comedy-drama movie based on the 1971 musical of the same name by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. Written by Bronte Woodard and directed by Randal Kleiser in his theatrical feature film debut.
Plot
Sandy Olsen is a goody-two-shoes from Australia, Danny Zuko is the head T-Bird from Rydell High. However, when the two meet up during the summer, they fall in love. But when the summer ends, the two think they'll never see each other again. However they're both wrong, Sandy and her parents have moved to America and she is now attending Danny's school. When the two discover that they attend the same school, there is a lot of debate over whether they can still be together since it's uncool for Danny to be in love with a goody goody like Sandy. However, the two, against all odds, manage to stay together. Then graduation comes and Sandy is about to change in a way no one expected.
Why Sandy and Danny Go Together
- While most teen movies try to convince the viewers that all high school students are, deep down, basically the same (i.e.: The Breakfast Club), this film's unafraid to show that there are different groups. Here, they're represented as bad boys who drag race on Thunder Road, Australians who get on to the cheerleading squad without trying out, nerds who have weirdly strong pitching arms, girls who drop out of high school to go to beauty school, etc.
- These groups are all seen in action via the T-Birds, leather-jacketed boys/rebels without causes, and the Pink Ladies, pink-coated girls who sugarcoat nothing. These two groups sing dramatic, impeccably choreographed songs about teen love, fast cars, hormones, heartbreak, and hair dye.
- Top-notch acting from all the major actors in the film. Especially the leads with John Travolta as Danny, Olivia Newton-John as Sandy, and Stockard Channing as bad girl Rizzo.
- John Travolta was still hot and well-known after Saturday Night Fever and is role in Grease just enhanced his popularity and stardom making him a household name.
- While Travolta was already famous, Olivia Newton-John and Stockard Channing on the other hand had jumped to stardom with this film. Newton-John went on to record pop hit "Physical" (1981) and a few other steamy songs, which may or may not have been inspired by her own character Sandy's makeover from goody-goody to sexpot. Channing continued acting, including roles on The West Wing and The Good Wife. She plays the good wife's mother.
- Very likable and well-written characters.
- Sandy Olsen is an Australian immigrant and a member of the pink ladies. She is sweet, wholesome, naïve and cute, but she ends up changing from a ingenue to female greaser when graduation arrived. Which signified that she had finally gained the confidence she needed after changing her "pure" image into a rebel-like appearance and attitude to be with Danny.
- Danny Zuko is a greaser who lives a double life as the leader of the T-Birds gang and Sandy's boyfriend. He is well-built, good-looking, strong and confident, with an air of cool easy-going charm. And while Sandy changed to become tougher and more independent by the end of the school year, Danny on the other hand lettered in track in order to soften his image for her.
- Betty Rizzo is Kenickie's girlfriend and the leader of the Pink Ladies. She's a skinny Italian with unconventional good looks, and a tough, sarcastic, cynical and outspoken but vulnerable personality. She had a good heart in spite of her abrasive nature and especially strong hostility towards Sandy.
- Kenickie is the second in command of the greaser boys as well as Rizzo's boyfriend. He is tough-looking, tattooed, surly and tries (rather unsuccessfully) to avoid any show of softness. He has an offbeat sense of humour.
- Frenchy is the classic dreamer - a good-natured but dim-witted and scatter-brained girl. She is heavily made up, fussy about her appearance (particularly when it comes to her hair). She can't wait to finish high school so she can be a beautician and serves as Sandy's closest friend.
- Doody is the youngest of the T-Birds. He is small, boyish and open, with a disarming smile and a hero-worshipping attitude towards the other guys. Doody also plays the guitar and pairs with Frenchy at the school dance.
- Jan is a quirky and chubby, compulsive eater, especially when it comes to sweets. She is loud and pushy with the girls, but shy when it comes to the boys.
- Sonny (real name Dominic) LaTierri is a T-Bird with shiny black hair and dark, oily skin. He is a trouble-making braggart and wheeler-dealer who thinks he's a real lady-killer, and ends up courting with Marty with little success over the course of the film.
- Marty Maraschino the 'beauty' of the Pink Ladies. She is pretty girl who looks older than the other girls, but betrays her real age when she opens her mouth. Marty tries to act sophisticated. Her attractiveness regularly draws the attention of older men all around the world, including Vince Fontaine.
- Putzie is the anything-for-a-laugh stocky type of boy. A clown who enjoys winding people up, he is full of mischief and is always dreaming up half-baked schemes and ideas. His relationship with Jan also builds over the course of the film.
- In the between the impeccably choreographed songs, the film tells the story of Sandy Olsen and Danny Zuko. Sandy's a wholesome girl from Australia, and Danny is a rough-and-tumble greaser, a young man who spends half his time thinking of his car engine and the other half thinking of girls.
- As the film was released in 1978, but set in the 1950s, it's supposedly a nostalgic look at a supposed pleasant era, but it's definitely not all that pleasant (if at all). Even though the film's a bright, colorful musical, it also tackles rather serious scenarios such as identity issues, sexual awakening, car trouble, pregnancy, drag racing and others. It's full of risqué double entendres and unashamed to address the aforementioned risky issues. This movie pretty much shattered the idea—still kind of prevalent in 1978, when the movie was made—that the 1950s were a decade of long poodle skirts, tidy crew cuts, and nothing but a shared malted milkshake before marriage. Hidden behind fear of nuclear Armageddon and whether or not Jell-O counted as a vegetable, the 1950s were full of sexuality.
- Grease remains a multi-part time capsule—a handy way to reference how sexuality is portrayed and understood throughout the ages. The original movie portrayed the 1950s with a liberated, post-Pill 1970s attitude (and 70s aesthetic: Take the opening credits sequence).
- The soundtrack is the greatest part of the film and became one of the best-selling albums of all time. Director Randal Kleiser and screenwriters Alan Carr and Bronte Woodard adapted the original musical Grease for the screen. The stage show, written by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey, was first performed in 1971 in Chicago. The film's most memorable songs, like "Summer Nights" and "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee," were in the original production. The film's title song, "Grease," was added for the movie. Wherever the songs originated, fans have been singing these tunes for around forty years, proving that Grease is one (of the musicals) that they want.
- The dance numbers are amazing as well as they provide amazing visuals for the viewers to balance some of the song lyrics' and their heavy themes.
- Danny and Sandy's chemistry was done quite decently. They're relationship is tested many times over the course of the film due to their different social statuses, as well as some other complications. And even through all the hardships, they still found that they genuinely cared for each other, which makes them becoming an official couple in the end feel all the more deserved.
Bad Qualities
- Some of the characters seem way too old to play their part. Too be specific: Travolta was 24; Newton-John was 29; Channing was 34, etc.
- It can get cheesy at times.
- The movie's theatrical release poster as well as on home media covers is rather a spoiler for those whom have never seen the movie yet, as Sandy doesn't have curls in her hair until near the end of the movie when she joins the T-Birds as the first (and so far only) female member of it, and in the movie's final two musical numbers "You're the One That I Want" and "We Go Together".
Trivia
- Henry Winkler turned down the role of Danny, as he didn't want to be typecast in roles similar to that of his Happy Days character Fonzie.
- Carrie Fisher was considered for Rizzo.
Reception
Grease received mostly positive reviews from film critics and viewers and is considered by many as one of the best films of 1978. The film holds a 75% approval rating on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on 71 reviews with an average rating of 6.7/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Grease is a pleasing, energetic musical with infectiously catchy songs and an ode to young love that never gets old." Metacritic give the film a 70/100 based on 15 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Box Office
Grease was originally released to North American theaters as the same day as Jaws 2 and was an immediate box office success. In its opening weekend, the film grossed $8,941,717 in 862 theaters in the United States and Canada, ranking at No. 2 at the box office for the weekend and with the all-time opening weekend records. Despite losing the weekend, it set a record gross in its first 19 days with $40,272,000.
In the United States and globally, it became the highest-grossing musical ever at the time, eclipsing the 13-year-old record held by The Sound of Music with a worldwide gross of $341 million despite it's $6 million budget.
Videos
External Links
Grease at the Internet Movie Database
Grease on Rotten Tomatoes
Comments
- Films preserved in the National Film Registry
- Films
- American films
- Good media
- Good films
- Important media
- Important films
- 1970s films
- Comedy films
- Romance films
- Musical films
- Drama films
- Teen films
- Live-action films
- Box office hits
- Blockbusters
- Classics
- Paramount films
- Films featured in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
- Based on musicals
- PG-rated films
- Films reviewed by Nosteriou's