Grease may be the word, but have you ever noticed that when you sit down to watch it these days, that word suddenly starts to feel very suss?
When looked at through 2014 goggles, a whole lot of the ‘family-favourite’ movie musical begins to take on a very different meaning.
Take a look at these examples and see if you agree:
1. All the teenagers smoke all the time, because all the cool kids know that smoking is cool.
The very first shot we see of sexier-than-the-rest Danny Zuko, is of him turning around with a fag hanging out of his mouth:
And the smoke-cloud just gets bigger from that moment. It even gets to Sandy in the end:
2. The song ‘Summer Nights’ kind of jokes about date rape.
There’s this from the girls: Tell me more, tell me more! Was it love at first sight?
And then this from the boys: Tell me more, tell more! Did she put up a fight?
Hmmmm…..
3. Pretty much every ‘teenager’ in the film is well into adulthood.
Today, you can barely turn on the television without seeing a 24-year-old playing a 16-year-old’s mother. Not so in Grease, where most of the actors were in their 20s, and some even in their 30s.
John Travolta (Danny Zuko) was 23
Olivia Newton-John (Sandy) was 28
From left: Didi Conn (Frenchy) was 25, Jaimie Donnelly (Jan) was 30, Stockard Channing (Rizzo) was 33, and of all the Pink Ladies and T-Birds, only one Dinah Manoff, who played Marty, was a teenager. She was 19.
From Left: Jeff Conaway (Kinikie) was 26, Kelly Ward (Putzie) was 20, Barry Pearl (Doody) was 27 and Michael Tucci (Sonny) was 31.
4. Jan is portrayed as the fattest pig of all the fat pigs in the fatty fat universe.
There is rarely a moment that Jan, the ‘fat’ one, isn’t pictured without food. When everyone else is being super cool smoking, she usually has a cookie and/or twinkie sticking out of her mouth.
At one point, Putzie even pays Jan a ‘compliment’ that is meant to be her most romantic moment in the film: “I think there is more to you than just fat,” he says. BE STILL MY BEATING, CHUBBY HEART.
5. Danny actually tries to sexually assault Sandy at the drive-in.
Hey, Danny Zuko, when a girl is screaming ‘NO’ and struggling to get away from you, you don’t then pin her down in the front seat of your car and tell her that ‘nobody’s watching’. That’s f*cked up:
6. What the hell is going on with creepy (and much older) DJ Vince Fontaine taking advantage of Marty like it’s no big deal?
7. Rizzo admits that she has sex because girls shouldn’t ‘tease’ guys.
In the song ‘There Are Worse Things I Could Do’, Rizzo basically argues that it’s better to be the girl who has sex with all the guys than the one who teases them sexually without ‘following through’ (then you’d just end up with Danny attacking you at a drive-in, right?): “There are worse things I could do, than go with a boy or two…. I could flirt with all the guys, smile at them and bat my eyes. Press against them when we dance, make them think they stand a chance, then refuse to see it through. That’s a thing I’d never do.”
8. Sandy’s whole depressing transformation.
To little girls watching everywhere: Being yourself is definitely NOT the way to go. If you want a man, you need to morph your identity to meet his needs.
Top Comments
Can't agree with hardly ANY of your assumptions:
1. Kids nowadays smoke............smoke dope. And one he!! of a lot more than kids used to smoke cigarettes!
2. The date rape reference is quite a stretch of the imagination. My kids used to "put up a fight" at bedtime. Hardly a reference to violence.
3.Back in the fifties, kids didn't always start school at six years old, didn't attend school every year, repeated some grades, and dropped out frequently then went back to school later to graduate because of hardships. Twenty something high school kids were not uncommon.
4. Jan the "fat" kid is a pretty normal kid in today's society, eating junk food constantly and being overweight.
5. Nowadays, frequently the girls initiate the fondling, and nobody sexually assaults someone in the wide open view of movie goers.
6.All girls nowadays date older guys because they have a LOT more money!
7. That's how girls grow up today. To be aggressive and "find their sexuality" because there are numerous methods of contraception and disease protection.
8. Transformations such as Sandy's are encouraged nowadays because of equality and equal opportunities and the trend of independence for women of all ages in today's society.
A shallow, accessible studio concoction which had the right songs, the right stars and the right 'feel good' vibe AT THE TIME for the comfortable, uncritical (mainly) white, middle-class audience that it was expressly made for in the late 70's.
As a light, frothy, inconsequential film which thoroughly entertained its demographic audience, trading on the vibe & success of Happy Days and Saturday Night Fever in particular, it was a marketer's dream. The film does not stand up to any sort of critical scrutiny, but we must remember it was never meant to. Phony situations, lazy plotting, forced tension and most of all a naive and ignorant knowledge of teenage culture at the time combine to make this the perfect 'false nostalgia' film (ie. a clever lie) - we are drawn in to pining for a guilt-free innocent past that never existed. 'Grease' treats its characters and 'story line' in a camp, jokey way without ever taking the leap into satire, which would have made for a much better film. Rizzo's persona & worldly cynicism is what a better film might have explored; this is why she feels like the most authentic character here.
The filmmakers treat the story's participants as silly, which undercuts any kind of believable tenderness and tension between the main characters, so any attempt at meaningfully exploring what 'real' teenagers actually go through (peer group pressure, finding identity, discovering romance, breaking up, making up) is lost. Sandy's final makeover into a slut is very likely all that impressionable young girls would take from the film, reinforced as it is by the film's key song. This is what I have to turn myself into to get a man, so he can 'keep me satisfied....'. Could ONJ have sung this duet as the innocent Sandy she was for 99% of the film? NO, which is another reason why 'Grease' is a cultural lie we choose to believe. It trades heavily on a time & place (50's USA culture) that we all assume was real & authentic (Elvis, Buddy Holly, drive-ins & diners, post-war American consumer society) but its players are shallow & contrived. The tone is all wrong.
What's left? 'Grease' is primarily a catchy soundtrack over which pretty, innocent, meaningless pictures and story are laid - you are in effect 'watching' the soundtrack, like an extended MTV-style music clip, which this film help usher in via 80's TV music culture.
Do you want something better, still entertaining and with songs, but also with believable drama? Watch 'American Graffiti', or even better, find "American Hot Wax' and marvel at what a good filmmaker did with similar material. AMH was my 'Grease' of 1978....see why !!!
You're trying to go deep in a move that you insist is shallow. Seems kind of silly. And does race have to find its way into EVERY topic OF OUR TIME? I mean EVERY! GOD! DAMNED! TIME!