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| Grease (1978) |
Alright, let me start out with my least controversial opinion: the music is by far the best thing about this movie. This is the one aspect of the movie that I find has held up extraordinarily well. As I mentioned, I've seen this movie multiple times, but before watching it for the purposes of this review, it had been many years since I'd seen it. And, yet, I knew basically every word of every song. They're catchy, memorable, perfectly placed in the context of the movie, and the songs are good enough on their own that they work outside of that context as well. 'Grease is the Word', 'Summer Lovin', 'Hopelessly Devoted to You', 'Greased Lightning', 'You're the One That I Want', 'We Go Together', all of them are great. 'Born To Hand Jive' is clearly the best, and it's the one that I find myself humming the most when the movie's not on.
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| Stockard Channing as Rizzo |
The songs are also sung well, and all the actors are very talented singers. Olivia Newton-John probably has the best voice, but that might just be because Sandy has the biggest vocal range. It also really helps that everyone in the cast has great chemistry with each other. The T-Birds act like a tight-knit group of friends, as do the Pink Ladies. The way they all interact with each other is great to watch; it comes across like they really have known each other for years and years. Each of them has a specific role in their individual friend circles, which is something a lot of other friendship groups like this in movies don't get right. John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John also have really good chemistry with each other, especially by the end, and their voices sound great together, both of which are elements of the romance that help save it in the end, though I'll get back to that shortly. The cast also do a great job with the more humourous moments overall, and I'd forgotten how funny this movie could be at times. The T-Birds in particular are great comedic foils, and the Principal/Secretary dynamic is always hilarious.
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| Olivia Newton-John as Sandy |
Sadly, this is where the praise stops, as I now have to address my problems with this movie. One of the big issues is that film has dated significantly in the last 40 years. A lot of the elements of the story just don't hold up anymore. Call it 'a product of the times', and the fact that it's set in the 50s is certainly contributes to that, but it doesn't make some of this stuff not bad. Things like lifting girls' dresses being played for laughs, the general attitudes of a lot of the main cast, and, my main problem: Danny Zuko himself. I'm sorry, this character would not be the hero figure in a story made today. His aggression, his spineless nature, the way he treats Sandy; he did not deserve the happy ending in this story. Exhibit A: he comes on too strong with his date, ignores her protests, then once she runs off on him, sings a song about how he's not sure why she did it. Maybe, if his character was the one with the main arc by the end, it might be fine, but Sandy's the one who ends up changing for him, not the other way around. Whether or not the initial intention was 'This is how far I'm willing to go for you, Danny, now shape up and do the same for me' or not, it just doesn't come across.
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| John Travolta as Danny Zuko |
In fact, the story itself is the weakest element of this story by far. I find the main story incredibly boring, to the point where several times I'd forgotten about key plot elements in the story before they happened, and, remember, I've seen this movie several times before. Until the lead in, I'd completely forgotten 'Beauty School Dropout' was even a thing at all. The entire 'Danny plays sports' plot thread ultimately led to nothing. Even the school dance scene, which is great, is marred by the plot. The whole reason for Sonny and Cha-Cha interrupting Danny and Sandy seems very half-baked, and Sandy being as mad as she was didn't make sense, especially considering how clearly not on board Danny was with the whole thing. Honestly, this is the main reason I don't hold this movie in such a high regard. In my opinion, the entire movie is just a great song, then a bunch of noise while waiting for the next song to come on. In that sense, just listening to the soundtrack is much better, and takes up less of your time. That said, there is juuuuuust enough to the movie that I would justify taking the time out to watch it occasionally. Maybe not religiously, like a lot of people do, but every now and then, it's fine for a watch.
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| Jeff Conaway as Kenickie |
Grease (1978) is another one of those classics that I just don't think is as good as people say it is, although I do find it entertaining enough overall to say the positives outweigh the negatives. Only a little bit, though. Like it if you want, it's just not for me. 6.5/10.
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