1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die- Grease

#663- Grease (1978)
Starring: John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Stockard Channing
Directed by: Randal Kleiser


Plot Summary: Sandy Olsson is the new girl at Rydell High School and is taken under the wings of The Pink Ladies, a popular clique of girls led by Betty Rizzo. Sandy tells of her summer romance with a handsome and sweet boy that is later revealed to the Pink Ladies as Danny Zuko, the leader of a group of greasers known as the T-Birds. After giving Sandy the cold shoulder in front of his friends, Danny realizes he will have to change his ways if he wants Sandy in his life. Likewise, Sandy contemplates what she will have to do to make things work with Danny.


Since my days in high school, Grease has been one of those movies that I can honestly say I don't "get." I don't get why people say it's one of the greatest musicals of all time, I don't get why people love the songs as much as they do, and I don't get why people have so much fun watching it. Are the characters really that identifiable? Are the songs that catchy? Is there a nostalgic factor towards it? After recently re-watching it, I can safely say that there were some things that I thought were good, but I STILL don't get why Grease is so beloved. I'll just get this out of the way and say that I'm not a big fan of the doo-wop music. I'm more or less confused while listening to it and trying to make heads or tails of what the heck they are saying. Are there some songs that I enjoy? Sure there are, but the fact that most of the music annoyed me was a sure sign that this musical was going to be exhausting to get through.

Grease was one of the films that served as a launching pad for John Travolta's career in Hollywood, as he plays T-Bird leader, Danny Zuko. Travolta's got a natural charisma in his performance, but for most of the film, Danny seemed unlikable. A lot of what he did in order to protect his reputation, including being rude to Sandy and bragging that he went all the way with her (which is VERY different from Sandy's version of the story), seemed like things an antagonist would do in a movie, and he's the leading man? Something about that doesn't feel quite right. It's also clear that Travolta should stick to acting, since I found most of his musical numbers, complete with an obvious and butchered Elvis impression, painful to listen to.

Sandy Olsson is played by Olivia Newton-John and isn't a very compelling character to follow. It's bad enough that Danny is an unlikable male lead, but does Sandy really need to be an uninteresting female lead? There isn't much to her character to follow for most of the film. Throughout the movie, Sandy's goodie good reputation is on display, but doesn't lead to a whole lot of interesting moments for her. The only things I can remember Sandy doing for most of the film is getting upset and storming off. It doesn't help that Olivia Newton-John is the exact opposite of John Travolta in being a good singer and a so-so actress.

Despite a deplorable lead and a boring lead, Grease has some fun characters. The most engaging to watch are Betty Rizzo, played by Stockard Channing, and Kenickie, played by Jeff Conaway. Their attitudes in their relationship are put to the test when Rizzo believes she is pregnant and doesn't want Kenickie's help through it. There's an actual struggle and conflict that feels relatable for both characters thanks to the performances of Channing and Conaway. The other T-Birds, Sonny, Putzie and Doody, played by Michael Tucci, Kelly Ward, and Barry Pearl respectively, are pretty one-dimensional with interchangeable personalities. All three are loud, obnoxious and not too bright, but have a friendly charm with each other which is kind of nice. The Pink Ladies have a bit more depth, or at least have distinguishable personalities. Marty, played by Dinah Manoff, is the gossip, Jan, played by Jamie Donnelly, is the "fat" one (she's shown eating a lot, but still doesn't look fat, so I don't know), and Frenchy, played by Didi Conn is the one who is the nicest to Sandy (and has a REALLY annoying voice).

One of the film's bigger appeals is in its time capsule like environment for the '50s. While it has its charm for a lot of people, it's a bit over the top for my taste. One of the reasons Back to the Future is my favorite movie is because it was made and set during the '80s, then goes into the '50s, and offers a time capsule environment for both and feels completely genuine. Grease feels like a cardboard cutout of what modern people would think the '50s were like. A show like Happy Days even knows when to draw the line between homage and parody, and I think Grease crossed that line and made their '50s world laughable. Whether that was intentional or not, it's a bit off-putting for me because I like environments from history that I can believe actually happened, and in the case of Grease, the illusion is lost.

My biggest problem with the movie has to do with the ending, so this paragraph contains *SPOILERS* (if you care). So Danny becomes a jock to impress Sandy, even to the point where he is willing to ditch his T-Bird friends. At the same time, Sandy dresses in leather and begins to smoke to impress Danny. Then they start singing and dancing and are happy together and they drive off into the sunset in a flying car (WHAT!?!?!?!). First off, it seems like Danny has not given up as much as Sandy has. He has become an accomplished athlete at school, and while it doesn't fit the traditions of the T-Birds, it's certainly not as bad as selling out your personal health and reputation to become this chain smoking greaser babe. And since both of them switched, where's the compromise? The film deals in too much black and white extremes, not creating a grey area where both could compromise and accept both lifestyles in each other (instead of completely switching to the other side). Heck, HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL does a better job at this idea by giving characters from two different lifestyles a mutual third lifestyle to test their comfort zones (and yes, I WENT THERE). This is the type of ending to a film that makes me want to tear my hair out, because the whole film was built up on nothing but annoyance and this is the payoff for the climax? It's easy to see how I can't understand the appeal to this film, when I know so many people love the ending.


Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Grease has a few memorable characters and moments, but also is a poor representation of the '50s and also has a HUGE moral dilemma with the ending, making it a film that I could only recommend as a rental to die-hard musical fans only.

Comment below to share your thoughts on the movie or to discuss a topic that I left out of my review

Grease and movie images are copyrighted by Paramount Pictures