Grease (1978)
Director: Randal Kleiser
Had I seen this before: You know it
I didn't originally have Grease on my list for this theme because I was trying to stick with movies that were primarily about school and not dominated by a specific genre (i.e., musical or sports or horror or teen sex comedy). But last week we lost Dame Olivia Newton-John, who was, for me, a formative Australian. And so I felt it was only right to revisit Grease, as it is certainly a back to school movie as well as, perhaps unfortunately, a formative movie musical in my life. I first saw it when I was too young to understand several lyrics (The chicks will do what for Greased Lightning? Is...is he saying "scream"?) and wholly ignorant of its flaws. And I was fully braced, at this point in time, for it to be bad in a way that I would have to apologize to the 13-year-old for but on the whole I found it more odd in a way that I had to try to explain to the 13-year-old with only a lightly apologetic shrug. "The 70s were weird" is one lesson that I will absolutely impart to my daughters before they leave the nest.
The actual bad things are lurking in there, I'm not denying it: this is basically Boys Will Be Boys: The Musical, it's somehow slut-shaming and prude-shaming, the lesson at the end seems to be that women should contort themselves into whatever shape they need to for the benefit of the male gaze (more on that), one of the characters is entirely defined by being the "fat" girl (made weirder by the fact that the actress playing her is thin but wearing a kind of lumpy sweater), Rydell High is uhhhhh...definitely still segregated and you know they made the one Black guy in Sha-Na-Na come in through the back door. These are problems.
But most of what's wrong with this movie is goofy stuff that just endears it to me more. The fact that, in order to set the stage for this tale of the 1950s, to really get into a retro, throwback feel, the opening credits are the most 70s things I've ever seen in my entire life? Perfect. It's a Barry Gibb song accompanied by animation that I'm almost certain is full of Scooby Doo villains in the background. I could feel my insides turning Avocado Green and Harvest Gold by the end. The fact that all the teenagers look like 40-year-olds? Hilarious. They're actually in their 20s for the most part (Stockard Channing, fully in her mid-30s, is the exception, also the recipient of the rudest caricature in the credits, I was incensed on her behalf), but they have 70s faces, which as we all know adds 15 years. To me, this only gives authenticity to the characters because you do get the sense that these actors were genuinely in high school in the 1950s. The fact that the poster for this movie is a picture of Danny and end-of-movie Sandy and is therefore technically a huge spoiler? Tremendous. The fact that one guy at the dance contest is way, way too excited about the hand jive? Incorrect. No one else is excited enough. The fact that in the stage show Sandy is an all-American gal but they decided to cast Olivia Newton-John and were just like "eh, Sandy is Australian now"? A clear improvement! Make more characters Australian! Every movie should have one!
So I don't really believe Olivia Newton-John is a teenager but I do believe she is maybe a college student who wants to kiss John Travolta, which in 1978 was pretty relatable. I also find her highly charismatic and I think she pulls off Sandy being naively nice then lightly scheming then--look, I'm gonna make the argument here--at least somewhat empowered by deciding that she wants to look unbelievably hot in black leather and red lipstick and a cloud of cigarette smoke. I don't find the ending as much of a problem as a lot of people do, mostly because the conflict with Danny was never that he was embarrassed to like her because she was a good girl--he was just embarrassed to like her as opposed to writing her off as a summer fling. And he spends half the movie trying to change for her! He joins the track team and wears a Letterman jacket! So it's not at all one-sided, it's just that Olivia Newton-John's transformation at the end is so iconic that it's the thing people (correctly) remember. It's just a movie about two teenagers who are into each other but are equally bad at expressing their emotions. It's also a movie that ends with people singing at a carnival. Multiple carnival songs. It's like 25% happy ending, this thing. Let Sandy be hot! She's so happy! We're at a carnival!
The point is, Sandy is a tricky character to make appealing all the way through but ONJ did that and she also belted out "Hopelessly Devoted to You," which I can tell you, as someone who has car-sung it many times, is not the most forgiving tune. And that's why we're here today, to remember a legend and to lightly defend her character's agency in her own aesthetic experimentation.
One aspect I don't feel defensive about praising is the impeccable casting of the school faculty and staff--Sid Caesar as the coach? Come on. Eve Arden as the principal? Forget about it. Joan Blondell dishing out advice as a diner waitress, Alice Ghostley holding down shop class, Dody Goodman bringing a charming incompetence to the front office? I can't get enough. All of the older generation actors seem to be having such a good, silly time and their sections still really work for me. I love that everyone in the administration is generally good-natured, they're just understandably exasperated with having to corral all these middle-aged greasers.
As for the Gen Z take, Anna was confused about the car culture stuff and I tried explaining that the boys thought having a cool car would cause girls to want to have sex with them, which is basically the entire plot of this film as expressed through lyrics that are mildly incomprehensible in early adolescence, and she rightfully gave that whole idea a side-eye. "The car could be cool and you still could be bad at sex or whatever," she noted skeptically and accurately. So I guess standards for teen status symbols have changed over the past 45 years, and are probably more focused on the numbers your Soundcloud is doing or whatever.
Line I repeated quietly to myself because that part is good, Actually: "Tell me about it, stud."
Is it under two hours: Yes, which is impressive for a musical! I don't know why I'm still out here defending it this late in the game but here we are!
In conclusion: I'm sorry there were so many exclamation points in this, does anyone know if that's a side effect of COVID?
Cherry Soda with Best Homemade Chocolate Ice Cream from Joy Food Sunshine
Up next: Oh who knows, I'm sick and can't be trusted to make these decisions
