go greased lightning
Last night I watched the movie “Grease” under the stars - projected on an outdoor screen and surrounded by the folks who live in my small town. The director Randal Kleiser was in attendance and gave us some interesting insight into the movie including the fact that he disliked the lyrics to the main song but Barry Gibb refused to change them.
Mostly, I was struck by how much the movie, well, sucks. It’s overly loud and in your face - the adolescent boy jokes and sexual innuendos are simply over the top and Olivia Newton John is boring as all hell. Kleiser implied that the rest of the cast and crew tended to ignore Olivia during the filming - until she showed up in the tight leather pants.
The only thing that really comes through is Travolta’s inherent charisma at that point in his career. Saturday Night Fever was already a big hit and in a few scenes (the first shot at Rydell High, “Tell Me More”, “Greased Lighting” and the High School Dance Contest specifically) he’s a joy to watch - even within a crappy movie.
“Grease MegaMix”
“Pulp Fiction”
“Grease” would have been absolutely nothing without Travolta…true.
But don’t overlook the absolute deliciousness of Stockard Channing.
The movie may be one huge cheesefest…but consider that you are watching it now with nearly 30 years more movie-going experience behind you. That puts even some of the classics under the gun. For what this movie was…a teen movie with a great soundtrack and a guy with incredible charisma…it was pretty fantastic.
Even back then, when it was new and I had very few years of movie going experience behind me, I refused to see this movie. For JT to go from Carrie, ‘76, to Saturday Night Fever, ‘77, to the schlock that is Grease, ‘78, was unforgivable. As a matter of fact, with the end of Welcome Back Kotter in ‘79 and Grease, JT’s career was all but over. The one lone exception in the next 10 years was Urban Cowboy in ‘80. Not until Look Who’s Talking in ‘89 was JT able to recover from the horror that is Grease / WBK.
One of the contributing factors to the crappiness of this movie is that most of all of the principle characters were old enough to be a parent of the kids they were supposed to be portraying. It may translate on Broadway, but not so much in movies.
Now, that being said, if you want to see a really fun teenage / angst / love / highschool / musical check out Bye, Bye Birdie. Now THAT is a great movie!
Bye, Bye Birdie…good times, good times!
“In six years, I never sold one lousy song. Maybe they weren’t lousy enough.”
Grease has the honor of being one of only two movies that I have walked out of in my lifetime, the other being The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the original). And I didn’t walk out of the film recently (I’m thinking it was around 1980) - it was a big ol’ stinkbomb then, as now.
Geez at the “Grease” hate.
Can’t anyone just see it as a fun movie? I don’t think it ever professed to be “Citizen Kane.”
Yes to “Bye, Bye Birdie.” The original anyhow — many good actors in it. Ann Margaret and Bobby Rydell were so cute together. There was a tv remake with Jason Alexander that I taped, but never watched.
The songs in “Citizen Kane” are better than the ones in Grease.
Ah, yes, “The Ballad of Rosebud”…I remember it well
sleds a single tear
Shelley, how could we forget Orson Wells singing;
“Now my life is rosy, when I’m with my Rosebud,
With a sled like Rosebud,
How could I be blue?
Hand in blade we’ll mosey
Me and little Rosebud,
We will be so cozy
By a fire built for two.”
John Travolta is a dicky dancer, always was.
Diner kicks Grease’s ass as a musical. I would also take any guy at that table over JT. Yes even Daniel Stern.
Eddie & The Cruisers is another favorite. Freakin’ Diane Lane in the rain…”I can dream about youuuu” Awesome.
How can anyone hate “Grease”? You are all mean, mean people.
Personally I can hate “Grease” becasuse
Yes, there are some good bits but overall - sucks.
I will say, however, that I’m floored by the knowledge that Frances Ford Coppola was so taken by the image of Sandy turning “bad” in order to win Danny that he used the same imagery in “Apocalypse Now” to communicate the need for Benjamin Willard to turn to the dark side in order to overcome Kurtz.
If you watch the documentary about the making of Apocalypse Now you’ll see a scene left on the cutting room floor in which Willard says to Kurtz “you’d better shape up”.
Powerful stuff indeed.
I was just going to say the same thing.
rolls eyes
In fact the entire “Journey Up The River” from “Apocalypse Now” closely mirrors Danny and Sandy’s journey towards the eventual “Consummation In The Clouds” ending.
GooseBumps
Gross. The horror…the horror.
Francis wears saddle shoes, not Crocs. Stay the course.
Shelley,
Forgive them for they know not what they do.
I suppose Grease wasn’t esoteric and obtuse enough for all you brainiacs. Peshaw. Grease was the hit of the Summer of ‘78…the summer before my Freshman year in high school. ALL of my friends loved it and we all knew the Soundtrack by heart.
Shelley is right…it was fun! Like Tallageda Nights and Something About Mary are fun. Just because there’s not a scene of Danny sticking a needle of adrendalin into Sandy’s heart, doesn’t mean it wasn’t good. Eye of the beholder, remember?
After all, not every movie can be Moulin Rouge or Prairie Home Companion.
Grease wasn’t good enough for this brainiac. It would have been vastly improved if something was shoved deep into Olivia’s heart. Just because it was popular doesn’t make it good.
Now “Hair” I can get behind as a musical. Even though the idiots left “Frank Mills” out of the movie. Now sing with me . . .
It’s the Eye of the beholder
It’s the thrill of the fight . . .
Prairie Home Companion? Yawn
Hair
Plus Hair
I mean really, how can you watch “Cool” and even stand to think about “Grease”?
double d, your bravery encourages me to submit the following: “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg,” with Catherine Deneuve. All the dialogue is sung in French (Michel Legrand - beautiful music), and is subtitled. But you forget that very soon into the movie. It’s not a high school musical, but it is about young love.
West Side Story = COOL = Bernstein, Sondheim, Robbins, Rita Moreno
Jerome Robbins - fucking brilliant artist
Rita on Jerome
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWjgTgfgUvI
My mother belonged to every gang on every street, so that she could travel her neighborhood. No violent initiation rights for the girls to speak of, just makeup and rolled up skirts.
West Side Story got it right.
Now I can leave this post alone, I’ve been thinking of WSS for two days.
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At least Kenny Ortega can dance and apparently loved WSS.
You guys must have had some sad ass high school experience….mine was more like this.
Proudly cheesy, thank you very much. So sue me if I like this Scrubs better….for the cheesy late 70s value, as well.