THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
In some cases, love can change us for better or worse. It can also be worth a journey once the answer is set.
PLOT
Based on the musical production by Jim Jacobs & Warren Casey, 1978’s Grease takes place in 1958 and follows star crossed lovers that have their relationship to the test. Greaser Danny Zuko and Australian exchange student Sandy Olsson fall for each other during the summer and while the latter worries they’ll never meet again once summer is over, the former assures her their love has just begun. When school is back in session, Danny returns to Russell High with his clique the T Birds. As for Sandy, she has been able to remain in America with her parents and enrolls in the same school. There, she befriends a female clique called the Pink Ladies, led by Betty Rizzo. Within the group, she becomes close to Frenchy Facciano who aspires to be a beautician. As they catch up with their inner circles, they recount their flings but each discuss it differently. Sandy recalls it being romantic, but Danny implies it was also physical. Once the former says his name, Rizzo arranges a reunion at a pep rally where Zuko’s best friend, fellow T Bird Kenickie, unveils his new car ‘Greased Lightning’. The reunion doesn’t go well when Danny chooses to snub her in front of everyone to maintain his bad boy reputation, which predictably upsets Sandy. She tries to get her mind off of it by attending a pajama with the Pink Ladies until she fails ill from the combo of drinking & smoking, as well as getting an earring from Frenchy. She doesn’t get as comfortable as she hopes due to Rizzo mocking her and when she leaves, she goes to hook up with Kenickie and o before they have intercourse does he admit his only condom he has is effective, risking the possibility of being pregnant. They then both get harassed by the rival gang Scorpio their leader Leo (Dennis Cleveland Stewart) and his girlfriend Cha Cha (Annette Charles). This fuels the T Bird to repair the car and face him in a race. After a slumber party concludes, Sandra realizes she still loves Danny. The next day, she’d be relieved to get an apology from him. After school where he joins track & field, he is able to go out with her again at a diner, but it gets awkward when both of their friend groups crash the date. Rizzo breaks up with Kenickie over being dismissive towards her and in the midst of all this, Frenchy chooses to drop out of beauty school to resume getting her diploma. During a school dance broadcasted by National Bandstand, they spite each other by bringing Leo & Cha Cha as their dates. Danny & Sandra dance well together, but the joy is interrupted when Cha Cha cuts to win with Danny. Zuko does try to make it up to Olsson by taking her to a drive in theater, but he messes that up by making pushy advances towards her which she rejects and walks away from. At that same night, Kenickie finds out a rumor Rizzo missed her period and could be pregnant with his baby, but she chooses to deny it to him. On race day, Kenickie gets struck in the head by his own car door, resulting in Danny to take his place and beat Leo in his behalf. With Sandy watching from afar, she asks for Frenchy’s help to change her look and attitude to impress him since she still loves him. On the last day of school, the teens celebrate graduation at a carnvial. There, Rizzo rekindles with Kenickie when finding out she’s not pregnant at all. With Danny becoming a letterman, he would be positively stunned to see Sandy embrace the greaser life in her new makeover. The film ends with the couple driving into the sky.
THOUGHTS
I was really getting used to musicals in my childhood thanks to The Wizard of Oz and Mary Poppins, so it was easy to get into the vibe. Once it opens with the titular track by Frankie Valli, you know you’re in for something differently good and by the time it ends with ‘We Go Together’, you’ll end up saying the trip was worth it. I think the reason it has been such a feeling is because Director Randall Kleiser and writer Bronté Woodard are able to adapt a relatable tale in how wild it can be growing up. Whatever the generation, we all got our challenges and the majority of them involve on how we can change for the better and remain who we are simultaneously, embracing self expression being exact. This is the case that every character goes through because they all want to have a good time as they get older but still know they gotta find maturity in order to get by. And when being in a teenage relationship, it can be a driving force to capture said maturity which is what’s shown between a dynamic couple. John Travolta & Olivia Newton John were able to make Danny & Sandy a match made in heaven. Despite being polar opposites whereas Danny is aloof in his efforts to be charming, which is natural when bonding with the T Birds over mechanics in the song “Greased Lightning”, Sandy is innocent and far more considerate, they find compatibility with one another because the latter saw how big the heart is from the latter. Their duet ‘Summer Nights’ expresses how much they appreciate what they had and her solo ‘Hopelessly Devoted to You’ emphasizes how much she wants to keep it. Danny even chooses to change for her because he doesn’t want her to misinterpret he’s a bad guy, but just grew up in a different environment compared to her. There were moments where past instincts get the best of him, but it doesn’t stop him wanting to do better which he expresses in his own solo ‘Sandy’ because his morals are tested like crazy. By the time he changes, she chooses to do the same because she never wanted to pressure him to be something he wasn’t, hence expressing their desire through the definitive song “You’re the One That I Want”. By the time they drive into the sky, you can say their future was quite bright. While this pair is what defines this movie, they weren’t the only thing that made it interesting. Another pair that arguably shook it up was Rizzo and Kenickie. They were a dynamic pair of their own because Stockard Channing made the former quite bolshy and direct which she expresses through ‘Look at Me I’m Sandra Dee’, whereas Jeff Conaway shows the latter to be one who completely eschews kindness to the point where it don’t exist until serious matters kick in. Since he’s got his own independence, I believe him in wanting to help Rizzo out should they have a baby, but she cut him from it because she wasn’t pressure him to turn his life around. And her other solo ‘There Are Worse Things I Could Do’ expresses she’ll remain independent in her own way by avoiding to show vulnerability since it won’t undo what bothers her. Since it was only a false alarm though, I’m sure she’ll still stand by it as time goes by. In the background, there were a fair share of characters that were just being the life of the party because that is part of being young (Doody [Barry Pearl], Sonny [Michael Tucci], Putzie [Kelly Ward], Jan [Jamie Donnelly], & Marty [Dinah Manoff]), but the only one who truly thought outside the box was Frenchy because although Didi Conn made her the kindest of Pink Ladies, her passion was so flighty she didn’t realize how essential it was to organize priorities. She had motivation with beauty school, but pursuing it before finishing high school was not good on her end because it was a workload she wasn’t prepared for. Thankfully, the guardian angel that was Frankie Avalon motivated her to take a step back in the hysterical song ‘Beauty School Dropout’. With everyone finding a resolution by graduation, which ain’t easy for everyone, it’s safe to say they’ll all still live it to the fullest after learning from their mistakes. If that wasn’t the case, the sequel would’ve been about them. This movie will always have a soft spot in my heart, but even fun stuff like this have moments that don’t make sense for a musical. From the top, it is one thing to say Kenickie is a dick to put a frog in the girl’s bag, but she also had a clear view of him before he did it so she should’ve seen it coming. And honestly, Frenchy means well with her statement that a daddy is the only guy a girl can depend on, but that ain’t true since she was willing to hang out with Tom before Danny won her back. Call it comedic all you want with both T Birds and the Pink Ladies snooping over Danny & Sandy’s date, but they could’ve spread out for themselves especially since most of them purchased something and could’ve sat down. Had they done that, Danny & Sandy likely would’ve not ditched the table because that looked like they wasted a real good lunch. And if we gotta talk about continuity errors, it would be how there’s a swap between Kenickie and Sonny when it came to lifting up a girl’s skirt during the dance. I’m more annoyed of that than the crime. Also, how come no one rats on the T Birds mooning the camera? They have no connection with them and are not dangerous thugs, so there’s no reason to withhold a secret like that. And let’s be honest, how did the T Birds spend the whole semester not noticing Danny became a jock when they hang out almost all the time? If they were willing to crash one of his dates with Sandy, this would’ve not been hard for them to figure out. Other than that, this movie still makes a good time. In short, Grease is a classic musical for having a new form of energy that the genre would embrace as time went on. If you like musicals and seek said energy, see this now.
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