Just watched it yesterday for the first time. Fun, lighthearted, silly, colorful. It’s clearly not taking itself too seriously. Please don’t judge the film for what it’s not.
I was a kid of the 70s… it was a relatable musical… Beauty school dropout, Sandy D lousy with virginity, Greased Lightning, Travolta, Rizzo, and Olivia Newton John sewed into spandex… it’s just fun. Like Bye Bye Birdie meets American Graffiti meets a S. E. Hinton novel (Outsiders, Rumblefish). Take those in a darker direction and you get Streets of Fire. Grease doesn’t have serious dramatic conflicts or serious consequences… it’s kind of cartoony. We were saturated with 50’s nostalgia at the time, and John Travolta was all over tween magazines like Dynamite… the 50’s was part of so many shows and movies: Peggy Sue Got Married, Back to the Future, Porky’s, Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley… what I remember about Grease was it took elements of 70s culture and blended it in with the 50’s nostalgia… like the T shirts they wore with the lettering were very 70’s. It kind of made parents more relatable as kids that went to high school too… not all Leave It To Beaver but kids with cliques and stereotypical roles and dress, which was a still a big thing in the 70s and 80s (Breakfast Club)
Here's my take: We were not so fractured as a nation back then, and some cultural touchstones we made were as a group. Grease was one of them. Nearly everybody went to see it in its first run--young AND old. Grease, the movie, was the final shot of nostalgia for that era of the 1950s. There was a revival of interest in this period of time, stretching from Sha Na Na performing at Woodstock in 1969 to the opening of Grease, the film, across the country in 1978. I saw the original musical (I still have the ticket stub) at the Royale Theatre on Broadway back in the 70s. I was thirteen and I loved it. Some of the songs from the original show were cut, including my favorite, Those Magic Changes. At the time, I preferred 50s rock'n' roll to the easy listening and hard rock sound prevalent in the early to mid 1970s. I saw Grease (twice) on a big screen--not on a television--in that long ago summer of 1978. I think maybe you had to be there (at the time) to understand it. It's just one of those things.
The original Grease was a play that came out in 1971 that wasn't just about Danny and Sandy but the lives of working class teenagers in the 1950s trying to find their ways in life. The reason I like Grease is because of the characters. Rizzo has a lot of character depth to her. She was complex and even though she presented as tough, she had vulnerability and a soft side. Marty was multi dimensional, a teenage girl trying to pass as an older woman and yet when with an older man, ends up not being ready. Jan with her secret insecurity over her lack of beauty and yet still finding love and acceptance. I can relate to these characters. Grease is not without it's flaws though. Some of the messages are bad (Change yourself for a man,etc) But the characters make it worthwhile. Fun fact: my late pet toad would sit and watch Grease with me. Only movie he would ever watch.
Maggie this film worked because of the visual style and in addition to the fact that it's celebrating a bygone era. The film just naturally works whether you get it or not. But that goes for any movie honestly.
I was on a transatlantic flight in 1978 for the first time in my life. I had no idea how these things worked. They announced the movie for the day, that we all had to watch, a film I thought was called Greece. I thought 'Oh a documentary on Greece could be good.' I was wrong. It was indeed Grease. I am still waiting to see the documentary called Greece. I'm sure it would have been better. Thanks Maggie!
I think the appeal of GREASE is that many of us first saw it as children. When you're in grade school, this feels like an idealized depiction of what high school will be like, and John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John are such larger-than-life presences. It was a movie that everyone just knows and songs from, but is usually never analytical of. I think most people look back on the movie again later in adulthood and realize how dopey it is. Sure, the plot is stupid. But it's not a movie worthy of getting angry over.
I absolutely love grease, mainly because of my mom, it’s one of her favourite movies and growing up it always felt like a big deal watching it. It definitely has its flaws but for what I love about it, it’s just a fun watch. The nostalgia, not even just for my childhood but also for the 50s, i just find it really immersive. I love all of the songs, except for one. It’s got good humour and The charchters are pretty good too.
If it wasn't a musical,I would agree,the meat in a musical are the songs,plot and character development is secondary,it's like watching "Debbie does Dallas" and being upset that Debbie is a one-dimensional character,the reason why people remember this film is for its catchy songs,heck even the people who never watched the film know them for the most part.
The movie is a master piece. I don't understand how you can't like it. The music, is cool. All the characters are great and they all work of each other so well. Plus the movie has a lot of wisdom thrown in, if you are open to it. Stunned 😯 that you don't like one of best movies ever made
As a kid at summer camp a million years ago, my age group put on a production of Grease for the Parents' Day. I refused to have anything to do with it, so I sat backstage and read Tolkien. My family fully supported that decision.
I hated Grease the first time I saw it because I was having the worst time in High School *school teasing, bullying - and all the characters and bad situations in the film were the exact embodiment of all those things and things I was dealing with. *And they were being glorified as well. - maybe if I gave it a rewatch my opinion might change since I'm older and have been out of high school for quite some time.
@@cinema_recall Sorry, but, yeah, right. I remember all the hit songs it had so fondly. Not that I thought the songs in the first one were all that great, at least they were hits. But if this helps, as I recall Grease 2, it did have a more coherent storyline. But that's it. Not a high bar compared to the original. Grease 2 still lacks everything else the stupid original had that gave it such impact. No hits, no stars, no nostalgia. It has absolutely zero 1950s vibe. It evokes no era whatsoever in America that I am aware of. Please just listen to the review again, and whenever she says..... wait a minute. What I am doing? I am sorry. You're right. Grease 2 is much better than the original. Just one thing. I am not going for the theory that Grease 2 would have done any better with a different title. No, it wouldn't. It would not have even been made if not for the horrible original.
Michael was way hotter & more of a gentlemen than Danny & Stephanie was was tougher & smarter she knew what she wanted & didn't put up with bullshit that's why she broke up with Johnny. Johnny kept trying to get back with Stephanie but she shot him down every time which is something I wish Sandy did I mean she already started to date another guy but she went back to trying to get back with Danny. She was dating Lorenzo Lamas who went on to play "Renegade" down the road she had a hot guy right there.
ha!...ok, for once we disagree. 'twas inevitable. and, you are probably correct-because it's part of my culture and my childhood, as is "wizard of oz" and "sound of music", which were all on rotation on network TV back in the 70s and 80s, it still resonates with me-and-it is sooo offensive upon rewatching it nowadays. but, i must say, it still holds a soft spot in my heart.
The original stage musical was, I believe, mounted as a critique of 1950s nostalgia - but the movie became a celebration of it. This change of perspective changes the context of every moment in the story. My guess is the writers of the stage play would agree with your assessment of the movie in a large part.
Another reason to see Pablo Larrain's film Tony Manero. There's a key scene where the anti-hero goes to a theater expecting to see Saturday Night Fever and they're playing Grease instead and he flies into a murderous rage.
I like it because it doesnt take it self seriously and its fun to watch theres great music in it and i get it its not everyones cup of tea and thats coming from a 16 year old british kid from Manchester 😂😂😂
Funny it rubbed me the wrong way immediately also. I always said my worst nightmare would be forcing me to watch this forever. Glad I'm not the only one 🤣
The original Chicago stage version that opened in '71 was much raunchier; more honest basically. The movie tried to have it both ways: being a squeaky clean and fun teen musical and sneaking in sex jokes.
It's one of those things you had to experience in the 70's and grow up with it, I think. I did... but I'm still not overly fond of the film. A lot of my friends are, though. It's kind of like E.T. A lot of people love it 'cuz it's part of their childhood. I can't stand the damn thing...
Grease is the apogee of unselfconscious kitsch. It goes far beyond The Rocky Horror Picture Show as supreme 70s kitsch because the grotesquerie (super-annuated teenagers, bizarre sexual mores etc), and vaudeville 1950s anachronism are all matter of fact and surface, apparently entirely unconscious of the obvious subtext in the film: our obsession with arcadian distortions of the past, even of our own childhood and adolescence. Specifically the American teen rite of passage myth. The past is a dream. . . It is maybe the only example of an unintentionally Lynchean film. In fact both Grease and Eraserhead are summer romances and were released the same year. The two stars are memorable as archetypes in this weird vapid universe and it has LOTS of great songs! I love it and I loved hearing you slag it off!
I can just add my own love of the film. I'm in no way nostalgic about the fifties. I'm nostalgic about Grease. I was taken by the camp counselors one Saturday night. Money from my mom, I guess. And I literally bounced out of that theater. Watching it do its thing was electrifying to my young brain. I was at the perfect age to get it and fall for its "magic". Now, its ridiculousness makes me laugh. Multiple students are in their thirties; they have a school year with no actual school year; they spend that year wrapped in self-absorption; they have a full carnival take place outside their school last day of classes. I love rewatching it and it makes me happy. I also think everyone misrepresents the final scene that all they remember is her changing.
Agree with this critique. One thing to keep in mind is just how *big* the soundtrack was and how massive the three main (original to the movie) songs from the soundtrack were. '50s nostalgia had been floating around for years in the '70s since American Graffiti, but Grease, like Happy Days before it, was popular with young kids and teens not just their parents. Grease was made fast and cheap with no real expectations for great critical or commercial success (Vanity Fair has a great article on this). First choices for Danny and Sandy were Henry Winkler (The Fonz) and Carrie Fisher (hot off Star Wars). Then Marie Osmond almost got Sandy. Then Travolta and ONJ were cast, the new, original songs clicked into place... et voila. When a pop meteor like that lands it has reverberations for decades. So here we are. Grease is still a cheap and nasty, slap-dash affair sold by a casting coup, a few killer pop tunes, and a few more OK-ish songs and scenes from the stage show. Never has the fast-forward function been so valuable.
Being Australian, Olivia Newton John is considered one of our darlings. Grease as a result, despite being vapid nostalgia bait, I believe has just been continuously filtered through our culture ever since the late 70s. Original viewers of the film would have been watching for the 50s nostalgia, then the children of the 70s who would have seen the film as a child would then show it to their eventual kids - much like me. So when I watch the film I associate it with my childhood where I enjoy it for its silliness and the songs. Much of the same can be said for Xanadu. If I’m looking for a much deeper film with better filmmaking, I’d watch Saturday Night Fever instead. Grease is just one of those films where being objective isn’t a priority for me, although, I totally agree with your analysis :)
Bitter people see ugliness and darkness, so I believe they will never like joy or fun, so they wallow in their dark basement and ponder their favorite movie, Texas Chainsaw Massacre. This movie is about a place and time, and a take on that, in a cartoonish way, not serious pontificating on the social status of the times. You really are looking to find social relevancy in things that are not made for that contemplative reason.
They're all saying goodbye to their youth but every one of the actors (except Travolta) in this movie is 30 years old. LOL. It sends a subliminal message that Boomers never grew up. They just kept larping as teenagers.
As a movie nerd, the thing that bothered me most was during "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee," when Rizzo mentions Troy Donahue I was like, "Wait a minute, if this is 1950's high school the latest the year could be is 1959, and by June of that year Troy Donahue wasn't really famous, as "A Summer Place" came out later that year, so he'd only be a blip to the public as the boyfriend who beat up Susan Kohner in "Imitation of Life" released earlier in the year, and that role hardly would prove endearing enough for Rizzo to want to put him on her bedroom wall- this movie sucks!"
its called nostalgia and its a powerful thing , for example i see hocus pocus as a really bad film however i loved it and feel a connection because i remember watching it when i was a kid with my family
The feel-good factor, coupled with catchy tunes and a dose of nostalgia...we live in a different time nowadays, where sentiment has become less and less tolerable...God help us.😕☺️
@9:20: "Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta, they really sizzle there." Just that alone really could be what "Grease" fans are holding on to: the shallow suburban teenager's fantasies of simply "how they look together". If they were otherwise an inter-class or interracial couple, everyone would just easily hate on them, and see how they "obviously don't belong together". In other words, *bad couples get away with staying together just because they "look the part".*
I've never been into musicals except for Little Shop of Horrors but I actually love Grease and it's not because I think it's a great movie or musical. What the hell do I know about musicals? Danny Zuko still cracks me up 'til this day. Watching him trying to look cool while learning how to play baseball or adding some extra swag while he's running on the track trying to impress Sandy. I still think it's hilarious.
That makes two of us. I saw this in the theatre when it came out, I didn't think much of it. The 70s was filled with 50's stuff ever since "American Graffiti" and then "Happy Days". (Plus a string of American Graffiti knockoffs, "Lords of Flatbush", "Cooley High"). "Animal House" was the same year as "Grease". Sha-Na-Na was on TV. I didn't think much of "Saturday Night Fever" the year before, although I love parts of it now. (The one-dimensional friends are insufferable). So between those two movies we used to call him John Revolta, lol. It wasn't until Pulp Fiction that I thought Travolta was cool.
Check out Grease 2, seriously. It’s my favorite movie of all time, and only somewhat ironically. It’s definitely largely due to nostalgia, but I think anyone who dislikes the original will approve of Grease 2 much more. It’s my ultimate comfort movie. Definitely give it a shot if you’ve never seen it, even tho it’s still universally considered a shitty sequel, you may be surprised.
I vaguely remember the film-except for being in love with Olivia Newton-John (gimme a break. I was 5). Anyhow, the soundtrack is some of the best music ever written. It has 5 eternal pieces. 5! That alone should make you understand. Also, this was a time when actors HAD REAL CHARISMA. They, alone, make it worthy of a watch. Nowadays charisma doesn't exist. There literally are zero great modern actors. Which is good if an actor out there has charisma and knows it. It's grace, basically. And grace basically boils down to refinement- which is the removal of impurities. And what are the impurities people are not removing? Propaganda, and the willingness to make propaganda. It doesn't get more impure than that. So you if this is you, you need to start researching how the controllers have cranked up the propaganda machine, so you can spot it, and reject those roles.
I agree with everything that you mentioned. As far as not understanding Why a certain feel most popular when it was released this is the thing. Cinephile culture as it is today did not exist in the late 70s or 80s. Film critics had to be searched out in newspaper and television. In the 90s DVDs educated the masses and how films are made. A new appreciation for film in general came into the collective consciousness now with RU-vid everybody is a film critic. More movies are released today than in previous decades therefore we have more to do a AB comparison if it is genre or a side-by-side comparison of a like-minded film. So what I’m saying is that people enjoy the film on a basic level of what the film made them feel versus all the nuances that we appreciate today. Today we have high definition televisions with MuchBetter Physical media where is back with these films are made you were watching it on a 4 x 3 limited resolution medium like VHS on a limited resolution TV
I heard that Grease was written by people who hated folk music, and missed the rock music that they grew up with. If that is the case that surely explains a lot.
Simple answer: It's literally cheap nostalgia-bait. It's not a coincidence that the film is set in the 50s, considering adults in the 70s would have been children in the 50s.
I always thought the "greaser" thing was an invention of Hollywood. The Brando thing, Grease, etc. Sure there were gangs, and juvenile delinquents, but the way that Hollywood makes it look is pure caricature.
Listening to this review,I just thought it was over analyzed and scrutinized through the lens of today’s mentality. In that time from the 50s to the 80s that’s pretty much the mentality of dating. That’s why is it had much appeal because that was so relatable to people pre 90s . The songs are very catchy and I disagree I think they work perfectly well in the order of the movie. When people are young kids there’s always the popular guy or girl and the people that aren’t as popular look up to those characters. That’s the same reason boys liked James Bond because they couldn’t be James Bond . in grease that was the typical mentality of high schoolers . The same way people liked clueless in the time that movie came out . It was in many ways a less complicated time and of course much art shows a more rose tint glasses nostalgia of a time that was . The TV show happy days is the same exact thing as grease ,it portrays a hyper innocents and American graffiti too . They all tie in . And John travolta was getting very popular in this time people thought he was goofy but had charisma in his time and Olivia Newton John there’s nothing not to like about her ,she’s a gem till this day . I think we have to have some misery in our life not to enjoy grease at just face value.
It's going to be wild when we're in our 50s and 60s and they start making nostalgia musicals about dudes sliding in Twitter DMs talking about eating ass.
I never knew ANYONE from the 50s who liked "Grease". It was a Broadway show that was cashing in on the 50s craze that had been going since 1973 and then made into a movie. It's audience was mostly the generations that hadn't been there. For those who HAD been there, they had "American Graffiti" and the more realistic movies. But "Grease" had nothing to do with cashing in on people's genuine nostalgia for their own past, it was about cashing in on a trend for the 1950s and marketed to those who hadn't been there. (The John Waters "Hairspray" is good, by the way; I'm assuming you're talking about the second version, with Travolta).
Like many actors who made many movies I feel that John Travolta has his ups and downs. Some of his most famous movies are the "dancing"-movies: Saturday Night Fever Grease Staying Alive I must admit. I like Saturday Night Fever quite much. That is a movie worth watching. Grease? Some good tunes and high nostalgia factor but little substance. I don't hate it like you do but watching it with "review"-glasses on... I have no idea why it has become such a famous movie. It is far more famous than it is good. If someone never seen it? Don't have too high expectations. Staying Alive? That one I hate. The soundtrack by the Bee-Gees is a classic but the movie? It's moody, goes nowhere and have no charm. I wouldn't say it's the worst movie I've ever seen but even including B-movies, modern sort of "Netflix"-movies and such I'd still rank it very low. Probably one of the 100 worst movies I've ever seen. Buy the soundtrack if you want - Skip the movie.
I never saw the film all the way through, but I've had the soundtrack on CD since I was 11 and THAT takes me back to a time. Not the 50s, but 2006, when I was playing N: The Game (N++'s origin game), Icy Tower and a bunch of other webgames that I found on the Lego website, Stickpage, Albinoblacksheep, Newgrounds, the whole lot. To me the soundtrack trumps the movie because it makes all the songs a main character
two of the songs from Grease weren't in the original musical but were basically pop songs added to the film, one being the biggest single of 1978 world-wide. The movie was a hit back in the day because of 50s nostalgia and with the songs being so popular, it kind of endured, the original stage version was much more edgy than the film but the subsequent stage performances of Grease have been based on the film and not the original musical.
Haha! I love ya, Maggie, but you're absolutely wrong about Grease. The songs are so catchy and the dancing is so vibrant and the story is so silly, fluffy and light and nostalgic (even if the '50s were never like that). Born to hand jive, BABY!
I appreciate your honest takes on movies so much. Who cares about popular opinion?! My personal hot-take on Grease is that I legitimately prefer the sequel. Not ironically, either. I think Grease 2 is a more entertaining and re-watchable experience for the fact that it embraces the dumb high school melodrama in a cheeky way, has a more fun, upbeat tone and is full of songs that are entirely euphemisms for sex, or just bluntly about boning. I love that it revels in the cheese! I've been a fan since I was 7. My VHS copy was almost worn out. Grease 2 for life!
I like "Summer Nights" and "You're The One That I Want" and Olivia Newton John in those skin tight trousers and that's about all but I prefer "The Rocky Horror Picture Show."
I also hate (hate, hate, hate) Grease. I saw it in a cinema with a really good friend, when it was released here in Australia, who hated it from beginning to end. She gave a great running commentary during its screen time, all of it scandalous and relevant. I didn't really feel the same at that time but came to really hate the movie. I was born in 1959 but really hate the music from the 50s and early 60s (apart from The Beatles, Rolling Stones, the Who, and other British artists - but NOT Cliff Richard). Loved this review, you covered everything that (I think) needs to be said.
Today the song came on the radio and I told the person next to me how bad it is. All I could remember is "a promising academic girl ruins her life, completely changes her personality and dresses up like a hooker, to be with a loser who doesn't care much about her." I'm glad I'm not the only one who hates it.
I can appreciate movies before my time. For those they ideally should age well and not depend on nostalgia. The plot is kind of ridiculous. Am not into musicals generally, so I chuck it to, movie is made for a different audience segment. It's refreshing to hear someone who like some musicals that do not like Grease.
As a Brazilian English teacher, we're kind of pushed to like this movie (such as Friends TV show that you guys don't have an idea, but Friends here is a sort of religion - which I'm part by the way). But I completely understand if you don't like (both).
It's cheesy as hell, but that's part of the charm. It's really about the songs, though. It's elite pop songwriting, and one of the few instances where you I've seen top 40 lovers, rockers, and metalheads belt tunes out. Only ABBA has a higher cross-genre approval rating, probably.
I didn’t watch Grease until 1990 or so. I had no interest in it at all. I had a Goth friend in the late 80’s and Grease was his favorite movie. I just didn’t get it. I finally watched it and I thought it was pretty good.
Oh thank you so much for this! I thought I was the only one who detests this movie. As a child, my family had a vhs tape of this and it got played too often. Later, I worked in a group home and Grease was one of the few movies they had, so once again I was forced to listen to it continually. It makes me nauseous now.
Nostalgia plays a big part in this argument… But I’d much rather go to Dazed & Confused for that 😉 And for Teen Films, I do admit that John Hughes is awesome. Shout out to Some Kind of Wonderful. For some reason, I appreciate this film more than a lot of his more popular ones, like Breakfast Club, Weird Science, and (definitely) Pretty in Pink.
I thought i was the only one unsettled by Grease. I always thought it was too happy and sunny in a creepy way. That's why when I saw Blue Velvet I Loved it Immediately cuz it was to me Creepy Version of Grease.
My issue is the characters are completely shallow and spineless, have no personality whatsoever, and the scenes just meander one after another, with no real rhyme or reason to them. I did like the animated intro with Frank Valli singing over it, though.
Totally agree on Grease, although I don’t think the same nostalgia bait is fully what American Grafitti relies on. It has a similar existential dread to it, especially with the girl in the car. I also agree on Ferris, but The Breakfast Club is the perfection of the teenage existential crisis. It’s one of those films that I thought I would grow out of, but I didn’t. It’s a genuinely great film that I still love. I realized how intelligent it actually is, how it uses symbols and composition. Would really like to hear your thoughts on that film.
Personally, I actually find most of the songs in Grease to be quite pleasing and memorable.. perhaps even timeless. So I don't mind the film, 'cause I find the music to be quite alluring. That said, watching this review made me realize (or at least consider), something : As you've stated, this film isn't particularly well directed, or paced.. at least not for a film. However, if you see it as a prolonged MTV music video, or as a televised endorsement for an album (which, in this case, would be the soundtrack for ''Grease''), then I think it kind of makes a little more sense. Anyways, those were my two cents. Cheers ! :)
I have several movies that I hate that others love -- One of them is The Big Chill... Although I do like the energy of Grease -- And it's fun to watch 30 y.o actors trying to act like they're 17 - I preferred the play, though
