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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ClassyCo" data-source="post: 436938" data-attributes="member: 7">I watched GREASE yesterday for the first time in ages. Many years ago, I used to watch it regularly when I owned a special edition DVD copy of the film and when ABC Family (now Freeform) would air it, which was quite often, as I remember. The movie is just as fun and bright as I recall, with catchy songs, good dancing, and lots of laughs along the way. John Travolta is the perfect Danny Zuko, a greaser and resident bad boy whose fallen in love with a girl from the opposite side of the tracks. Olivia Newton-John is charming and pretty as Sandy Olsson, and despite her sweetness, she never comes across as fake or too goody-goody that it's off-putting. Travolta and John (who wasn't nearly as experienced as an actress) are very appealing leads. They look great together, and they have great on-screen chemistry. I could totally see the two of them finding summer love on a beach and being totally excited when their paths cross again at Rydell High School. Danny is the leader of a gang known as the T-Birds, and his greaser image doesn't automatically put him as a suitable suitor for someone well-read like Sandy. It's a classic star-crossed lovers tale. The remainder of the T-Birds gang includes Jeff Conaway (who played Danny on the stage) as Kenickie, Danny's closest friend since childhood, and a trio of Three Stooges-like buffoons -- Doody (Barry Pearl), Sonny (Michael Tucci), and Putzie (Kelly Ward) -- who provide some laughs, but are perhaps best-known for mooning the TV audience when their high school takes part in a televised "National Bandstand" dance competition. In counterpart to the T-Birds are the Pink Ladies, a group of fast-moving, fast-talking, hip-swinging young women, led by Stockard Channing as Rizzo, perhaps the funniest and "realest" character in the entire movie. The remainder of the group is ironed out with Frenchy (Didi Conn), who is Sandy's closest friend (although it's never explained how they know each other, considering Sandy was from Australia), Marty (Dinah Manoff), and Jan (Jamie Donnelly). I think the Pink Ladies might be more memorable than the T-Birds overall. Then, of course, there's the adults, many of them played by well-known TV personalities from the 1950s. Eve Arden is Principal McGee; Dody Goodman as her secretary, Blanche; Sid Caesar as Coach Calhoun; Alice Ghostley as shop teacher Mrs. Murdock; Joan Blondell as waitress Vi; and Ellen Travolta as another nameless waitress from the group's favorite hangout, the Frosty Palace. Being a musical, GREASE has a lot of music for you to sample. Some of it I like, and some of it, I don't. I've always really liked the opening song, "Grease", that the Bee Gees sing over the opening credits. Danny and Sandy's duet of "Summer Nights" is a standout, although I could probably do without their respective solos -- "Sandy" and "Hopelessly Devoted to You". The latter, in particular, just seems to come out of nowhere, and I just can't get with it and enjoy it, John's strong vocals aside. Two of my favorite songs in the entire movie are Rizzo's "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee" and Frankie Avalon's rendition of "Beauty School Dropout". Of course, the two final numbers, "You're the One That I Want" and "We Go Together" are two highlights. Those are the positives, now let's tackle some of the negatives.   None of the core cast look like actual teenagers. I know teenagers in the late 1970s (when the movie was filmed) and in the late 1950s (when the movie was set) looked quite different from teenagers in 2026, but none of these actors "look" like teenagers. Which, as we know, none of them actually were. For example, John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John were, at the time of the movie's release in June 1978, were twenty-four and twenty-nine, respectively. Personally, I can get over the fact that the teenagers aren't played by teenagers. It's a movie, after all, and movies are supposed to echo some form of fantasy, especially musicals like GREASE that don't really reach for realism. The biggest negative for me is the message the film sends towards women, teenage girls in particular. Sandy is sweet, wholesome, and innocent, who throws all of that away to paint up, dress provocatively, and shake her hips to be the kind of girl Danny would feel comfortable being seen with around his friends. Danny, on the other hand, had gone in the opposite direction and taken up track to impress Sandy. The message promoted for Danny and young guys, I'd argue, is "better" than the one used to make Sandy into Danny's idea of a "hot girl". I know this conclusion doesn't bother many, but it's one I've had an issue with for a very long time. Anyway, I like GREASE, the issues aside. [ATTACH=full]58510[/ATTACH]</blockquote>

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