Grease (film)

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For the original stage musical of the same name, see Grease (musical).
Grease

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Randal Kleiser
Produced by Allan Carr, Robert Stigwood
Neil A. Machlis (Associate Producer)
Written by Bronte Woodard (screenplay)
Allan Carr (adaptation)
(based on the musical by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey)
Starring John Travolta
Olivia Newton-John
Stockard Channing
Jeff Conaway
Didi Conn
Eve Arden
Music by Michael Forystek
Barry Gibb
Louis St. Louis & others
Cinematography Bill Butler, ASC
Editing by John F. Burnett
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date(s) June 16, 1978 (original release)
November 19, 1989 (re-release)
March 27, 1998 (re-release)
Running time 110 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget USD $6,000,000 (estimated)
Followed by Grease 2
Official website
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Grease is a film directed by Randal Kleiser and based on Jim Jacobs' and Warren Casey's musical, Grease. The film stars John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Stockard Channing, Jeff Conaway and Eve Arden. It was originally released to theatres on June 16, 1978. It was filmed at Venice High School in Venice, California. It was released in the U.S. on VHS during the 1980s; the latest VHS release was June 23, 1998 as 20th Anniversary Edition following a theatrical re-release that March. On September 24, 2002, it was released on DVD for the first time. On September 19, 2006, it was re-released on DVD as the Rockin' Rydell Edition, which includes a black Rydell High T-Bird jacket cover or the Target-exclusive Pink Ladies cover.

Tagline: Grease is the word
Tagline: Grease is still the word. (1998 re-release)

Contents

[edit] Plot

The film opens with the theme song, "Grease", added for the movie and written by Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees and performed by Frankie Valli.

In 1958, during their summer vacation, and before the title credits, Danny Zuko (John Travolta) and Sandy Olsson (Olivia Newton John) meet at a beach. Scenes from their holiday are shown, but then the summer ends, and Sandy is due to return to Australia. She worries that this is the end for her and Danny and they may never see each other again.

However, Sandy's family has a change of plans and she does not return to Australia. Instead, she attends Rydell High School as a foreign-exchange student, where Danny Zuko is a student, as is Sandy's new friend Frenchy (Didi Conn), a member of the schoolgirl clique "The Pink Ladies". Danny is the leader of the boys' gang, "The T-Birds". Kenickie, second-in-command of the T-Birds, encourages Danny to tell them about his holiday experiences, while the Pink Ladies likewise persuade Sandy. This results in "Summer Nights"- Sandy and Danny describe their holidays, and it is made clear that Danny is exaggerating; at the time, however, neither is aware of the other's presence at the school.

Encouraged by the preppy school spirit girl, Patty Simcox (Susan Buckner), Sandy joins the Rydell cheerleaders. The Pink Ladies decide to reunite Danny and Sandy, but Danny wants to protect his cool image, and his behavior towards Sandy causes her to storm off in tears. Danny stares after her for a moment, but then quickly turns back into a cool guy and goes off with his friends.

Frenchy attempts to cheer Sandy up by inviting her to a sleepover at her house with the rest of the gang; Sandy comes along, but Rizzo soon gets fed up with Sandy's goody-two-shoes behavior: Sandy chokes on a cigarette, cannot stand the taste of wine, and is horrified at the idea of having her ears pierced. Frenchy is insistent, and takes her into the bathroom, but Sandy vomits at the first sight of blood. Frenchy announces to Jan (Jamie Donnelly) and Marty (Dinah Manoff) that she is dropping out of Rydell and going to beauty school, which she calls a very strategic career move. Rizzo (Stockard Channing) has had enough and lampoons Sandy, even having Frenchy joining in, singing the sarcastic "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee".

The T-Birds arrive outside Frenchy's house. Rizzo leaves the sleepover and she and Kenickie (Jeff Conaway) flirt, then Kenickie invites her into the car, and dumps the other T-Birds. Danny leaves of his own accord while Rizzo and Kenickie drive off together and the other T-Birds go for pizza. Marty, the flirtatious member of The Pink Ladies, decides to write to one of her (numerous) pen pals, while Sandy goes outside, and decides that in spite of everything, she still loves Danny, singing "Hopelessly Devoted to You", a poignant love song that was added for the movie and was a big hit as a single.

The scene shifts to Rizzo and Kenickie making out passionately in the back seat of his new car. They plan to take things a step further, but Kenickie's condom breaks. Rizzo, however, is unable to resist Kenickie, and they decide to have sex anyway. They are soon interrupted by Leo (Dennis Cleveland Stewart), leader of rival gang The Scorpions, who damages Kenickie's car.

Whilst at work repairing the car, the T-Birds fantasize about what it will look like when it has had a paint job, singing "Greased Lightning". Soon Danny gets the other T-Birds convinced that the rickety old car could actually be a "major piece of machinery". Danny meets Sandy at the Frosty Palace, and tries to apologize for his actions. He sees that Sandy is sharing a soda with Tom Chisum (Lorenzo Lamas), a jock, and decides that if that's the sort of man she likes, he's going to join the jocks to impress her.

We next see Danny's disastrous performances in basketball, wrestling, and baseball, where he keeps losing his temper when he loses. He finally finds his ideal sport in running, until the sight of Sandy distracts him, and he falls. Sandy leaves Tom Chisum to see if Danny is alright, and they are seemingly reconciled.

Danny attempts to go to the Frosty Palace with Sandy so that they can be alone and not worry about ruining his image in front of his friends. They end up discovering the T-Birds and Pink Ladies are already there and Danny finds it hard to charm Sandy without looking like a sissy in front of his friends. After everyone leaves the malt shop, Frenchy, who has been hiding her pink hair under a scarf, imagines a guardian angel to tell her what to do with her life, who turns out to be Frankie Avalon singing "Beauty School Dropout".

Later, Danny takes Sandy to the school's dance, where the TV show National Bandstand plans to broadcast live from the school. Rizzo, now mad at Kenickie, takes the rival gang's leader, Leo, to the dance, thus enticing Kenickie to take the rival gangleader's girlfriend, Cha Cha DiGregorio (Annette Charles) — Danny's ex-girlfriend. The disc jockey Vince Fontaine (Edd Byrnes) develops a sordid crush on Pink Lady Marty. The dance features several well-known songs from the '50s covered by Sha Na Na. During the dance-off, Rizzo leaves in a huff, seeing Kenickie dancing with Cha Cha, and Danny and Sandy are one of the few still in the dance-off. But soon, Sonny pulls Sandy away from Danny, and Cha Cha starts dancing with Danny. Sandy realizes that Cha Cha was one of Danny's past girlfriends — and a much better dancer. Sandy leaves the gym upset, and Danny and Cha Cha end up winning the contest. When they share their spotlight dance, three of the T-Birds run in front of the camera and moon the crowd.

Later, Danny takes Sandy to a drive-in movie and apologizes for leaving her. The apology means nothing to Sandy. Danny tries to remove the class ring he is wearing to give it to her, but in doing so he accidentally elbows Sandy in the chest. Danny gives Sandy the ring and she kisses him on the cheek, saying she realizes now he respects her. The scene cuts to Marty and Rizzo in the drive-in toilets. Rizzo's unprotected sex with Kenickie has come back to haunt her--she tells Marty she missed a period. One of the T-Birds, Sonny (Michael Tucci), overhears Marty accidentally proclaiming to couples making out outside the toilets to make way for the "lady with a baby", and asks Marty what she meant so she tells him the story, which leads him to tell others until the chain effect makes it common knowledge. When Kenickie asks Rizzo why she didn't tell him about it, she lies and tells him it isn't his out of anger. He sarcastically thanks her, and leaves her standing by herself. Marty has also suffered as a result of her crush on Vince Fontaine--she reveals to Rizzo that she caught him trying to put "aspirin" in her coke.

Back in the car Danny has his arm around Sandy. His hand lingers above her chest and she sees it and he starts trying to make out with her. She screams, gets out of the car ("sin wagon", as she calls it), slams the door on Danny's genital area, throws back his ring (which she calls a "piece of tin"), and leaves the drive-in. Danny laments losing Sandy again, and reveals the true extent of his feelings for her in the song "Sandy" — he is helpless without her.

The next scene is the race between Leo and Kenickie in the Los Angeles River. Kenickie asks Danny to be his right hand man, and Marty gives Kenickie a lucky penny. She drops it, and as Kenickie bends down to pick it up, he gets knocked out when one of the T-Birds opens the car door. As a result, Danny has to race in Kenickie's place. Sandy sits on the hill watching the neck-and-neck race, which Danny manages to win. While she is happy to see Danny win, she has misgivings about her own image, reflected in the song "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee (Reprise)". As the T-Birds and Pink Ladies celebrate with Danny, Frenchy spots Sandy and goes over to her. Sandy thinks that Frenchy can help her win Danny's heart, and asks to go over to her house to take advantage of Frenchy's suspect fashion skills.

Later, on the last day of school carnival, Danny arrives, having followed through on his track jock plans, in a preppy letter sweater. However, Sandy arrives wearing a black leather jacket, red peep-toe high heeled sandals, skintight black off-the-shoulder top, curled hair, and smoking a cigarette — no more goody-two-shoes. Danny finds her extremely attractive, falling at her feet, and then the two reunite, singing the upbeat "You're the One That I Want" (another song added for the movie, and a hit single before the movie even came out). Kenickie and Rizzo get together after Rizzo has screamed from the Ferris wheel that she is not pregnant after all, and everyone sings the big finale, "We Go Together", and Danny and Sandy fly off in the "Greased Lightning" car and disappear into the sky.

[edit] Production

[edit] Casting

Singer Olivia Newton-John had done little acting before this film. She appeared in the 1970 film Toomorrow - a science fiction musical that pre-dated her initial chart success with 1971's If Not For You. Cast with Newton-John and three male leads in an attempt by Don Kirshner to create another Monkees, the film failed miserably; this led Newton-John to demand a screen test for Grease to avoid another career setback. The screen test was done with the drive-in movie scene.

Two actors who were seen for the film were Henry Winkler and Marie Osmond. Winkler, who was playing Fonzie on Happy Days, was originally chosen to play Danny, but, having twice already played similarly leather-clad 1950s hoods in 1974's The Lords Of Flatbush as well as Happy Days, turned down the role for fear of being typecast. Osmond turned down the role of Sandy because she did not like the fact that Sandy had to "turn bad" to get the boy. Adult film star Harry Reems was originally signed to play Coach Calhoun; however, producers got cold feet weeks before filming and replaced him with Sid Caesar.

Dinah Manoff passed her audition without being given a singing or dancing tryout. Her skills in those areas proved limited, so she was moved into the background during the song numbers.

[edit] Costumes

  • Danny's blue windbreaker at the beginning of the film was intended as a nod to Rebel Without a Cause (1955).
  • Because of a zipper breaking, Olivia Newton-John had to be sewn into the pants she wears in the last sequence (the carnival at Rydell), and was unable to remove the trousers until the filming of that scene was over.
  • Stockard Channing's original costume was going to be a purple blouse and green skirt. Unfortunately, it was a bad fit and she had to wear black.
  • Didi Conn was originally to dye her hair golden, but refused. She also refused to have her hair dyed green at the Carnival ending, stating in the DVD that she was supposed to explain to the group that she got into a pool that contained too much chlorine (referencing a joke from the original play) and colored her hair into a bright green color. She refused, stating in the interview "Don't turn me into a joke."

[edit] Personal

[edit] Reception

2002 DVD cover of Grease
2002 DVD cover of Grease

Although Travolta was already famous from the movie Saturday Night Fever and the television sitcom Welcome Back Kotter, Grease reconfirmed his status as a superstar. Newton-John's fame also reached new heights after the movie released. The movie received five Golden Globe Award nominations in 1979 and was the highest grossing (US) movie of 1978.

The movie's soundtrack was a number one album in many different countries. The song "You're The One That I Want" was released as a single prior to the film's release and became an immediate chart-topper, despite not being in the stage show or having been seen in the film at that time.[1] In the United Kingdom, the two Travolta/Newton-John duets, "You're The One That I Want" and "Summer Nights", were both number one hits and appear 6th and 21st respectively in the official all-time UK best-selling singles list issued in 2002. The song "Hopelessly Devoted to You" was nominated for an Academy Award (1979) for Best Music - Original Song. The movie's title song was also a number one smash hit single for Frankie Valli.

Grease spawned a sequel, Grease 2 (1982) (with the only cast members from the original movie being Blanche, Coach Calhoun, Eugene, Frenchy, Leo (the Scorpions' gang leader), and Principal Miss McGee) that was much less successful. Patricia Birch, the original movie's choreographer, directed the ill-fated sequel. It would be the only movie that she would direct. After the success of the original, Paramount intended to turn Grease into a multi-picture franchise with at least three sequels planned and a TV series in the pipeline. When Grease 2 flopped at the box office, all the plans were scrapped.

This movie was re-released to theaters in 1998 to mark the 20th anniversary. It also ranked number 21 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies.

Voted the best musical ever on Channel 4's 100 greatest musicals.[2]

[edit] Soundtrack album details

Main article: Grease (soundtrack)
  • The song "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee" references Sal Mineo in the original stage version. Mineo was stabbed to death a year before filming, so the line was changed to refer to Elvis Presley instead. The Troy Donahue reference is in the original stage version.

(The song order on the soundtrack album does not match the order in the movie. The number in brackets below indicates the order from the movie. Some of the songs were not present in the movie.[3])

  1. [02] Grease — Frankie Valli (3:23) (a)
  2. [03] Summer Nights — Danny, Sandy, Pink Ladies and the T-Birds (3:36) (b) (d)
  3. [04] Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee - Rizzo and the Pink Ladies (1:38)
  4. [05] Hopelessly Devoted to You — Sandy (3:00) (c) (e)
  5. [19] You're the One That I Want — Danny and Sandy (2:47) (c) (e)
  6. [16] Sandy (Music by Louis St. Louis, Lyrics by Scott J. Simon) — Danny (2:30) (e)
  7. [08] Beauty School Dropout — Frankie Avalon / Angels (4:02) (b) (e)
  8. [06] Greased Lightnin' — Danny and the T-Birds (3:12) (b) (e)
  9. [07] It's Raining on Prom Night — Radio (2:57) (b) (e)
  10. [08] Alone at the Drive-in Movie (instrumental, see below for details) (2:22) (b) (d) (w)
  11. [15] Blue Moon (Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart) — Johnny (4:02) (e)
  12. [10] Rock n' Roll is Here to Stay (D. White) — Johnny (2:00) (e)
  13. [11] Those Magic Changes — Johnny and Danny (2:15) (b) (e)
  14. [13] Hound Dog (Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller) — Johnny (1:23) (e)
  15. [14] Born to Hand Jive — Johnny and Cast (4:39) (b) (e)
  16. [12] Tears on My Pillow (S. Bradford and A. Lewis) — Johnny (2:06) (d)
  17. [15] Mooning — Jan and Roger (2:12) (b) (e)
  18. [17] Freddy, My Love — Marty (2:40) (b) (e)
  19. [09] Rock n' Roll Party Queen — Radio (2:08) (b) (e)
  20. [17] There Are Worse Things I Could Do — Rizzo (2:18) (b) (e) (w)
  21. [18] Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee (Reprise) — Sandy (1:20) (b) (d)
  22. [20] We Go Together — Danny, Sandy, Kenickie, Rizzo, Marty, Sonny, Jan, Putzie, Doody, Frenchy, Eugene, Patty, Miss Mcgee, Mr Lynch and Coach
  23. [01] Love is a Many Splendoured Thing (Instrumental) (1:22)
  24. [21] Grease (Reprise) — Frankie Valli (3:23) (a)

[edit] References

  1. ^ VH1's "Behind the Music: Grease"
  2. ^ http://www.channel4.com/film/newsfeatures/microsites/M/musicals/results_5to1.html
  3. ^ Amazon.com comment by Daniel J. Hamlow for Grease (Original 1978 Motion Picture Soundtrack).

[edit] External links

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