Grease Various Music by Warren Casey, John Farrar, Barry Gibb, Sylvester Bradford, Sammy Fain, Jim Jacobs, Al Lewis, Richard Rodgers, Louis St. Louis, Mike Stoller, Ritchie Valens, David White Grease Paramount Home Entertainment 1978 / Color / 2:35 anamorphic 16:9 (also available Pan'n Scan flat) / 110 min. / Street Date September 17, 2002 / $26.99 Starring John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Stockard Channing, Jeff Conaway, Barry Pearl, Michael Tucci, Kelly Ward, Didi Conn, Jamie Donnelly, Dinah Manoff, Eve Arden, Frankie Avalon, Joan Blondell, Edd Byrnes, Sid Caesar, Alice Ghostley, Lorenzo Lamas, Fannie Flagg, Eddie Deezen, Darrell Zwerling Cinematography Bill Butler Production Designer Phil Jefferies Film Editor John F. Burnett Written by Bronte Woodard, adapted by Allan Carr from the play by Jim Jacobs & Warren Casey Produced by Allan Carr, Robert Stigwood Directed by Randal Kleiser
	Reviewed by Glenn Erickson The Hollywood musical was mostly dead by the late 1970s, with only adaptations of successful stage shows trying to make a dent in the void. Grease was a stage hit inspired by a 50s nostalgia craze that soon peaked in American Grafitti, and a subsequent wave of rip-offs. Then came this mega-production from Mister Disco, Allan Carr. Whatever qualities the play had have been coarsened in the adaptation. The teaming of John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John proved a boxoffice home run, and the show's commercial savvy cannot be faulted, but as a movie, it's no gem. Its biggest effect was to prove that tasteless raunch and tacky artlessness were qualities perfectly suitable for the mass audience. Synopsis: After a chaste summer romance with Danny Zuko (John Travolta), Australian teen Sandy Olsen (Olivia Newton-John) shows up at Rydell High, to find Danny's personality changed around his hood friends. Their romance grows in fits, while the rest of the gang go in for crude jokes and cynical attitudes about sex and relationships. Although tough girl Betty Rizzo (Stockard Channing) maintains a 'no prisoners' outlook on life, even she shows a tender spot. Basically, Grease is not a parody or a spoof on the 50s, it's a comedy on 50s kitch culture at least 3 steps removed from its subject. Its jokes have lost their point of reference, imposing 70s vulgarity onto the past, and piling in cultural schtick from as far back as 1930s rah-rah campus comedies. The glitzy retro look of the picture refers to nothing except the 1978 Disco scene, and its grab bag of cultural touchstones is so off base as to pull in things as irrelevant to its era as Alice's Restaurant, a sign seen in the opening credits. As a result, Grease stands or falls on the merits of its jokes, characters, and music. For humor, we have unrelieved crudity that's supposed to be some kind of retro hip. The script is so hyped with trashy sex talk, that the film is a good example of a big studio's ability to snooker the ratings board. There's nothing clever about the innuendo, which has lovable hero Travolta tell Stockard Channing, "Bite my weenie." Sure, it's all in fun, but there's a distinct absence of wit. The smutty attitude is consistent throughout. The virginal exchange student finally wins her man by transforming herself into a slut goddess - in a leather getup that looks more like S&M than 50s retro. The hot rod culture of the late 50s is distorted into a fashion show of leather and pompadours, with moronic characters that are genetic hybrids between the Dead End Kids and animated Disney animals. The point is not that Grease doesn't follow reality - it doesn't follow anything except its own trashy tastes. 50s kids who attended 'nice' high schools certainly varied in backgrounds and manners, but the all-pervasive smut talk and randy rowdiness seen here was mostly sublimated back then. Grease is almost as perversely skewed as Porky's. Again, if the exaggeration had some point other than cheap raunch, I'd buy it. I'd like to watch Grease with Robert Crumb, to see his reaction. Savant realizes that his arguments about Grease not having anything to do with the real fifties is going to strike a lot of readers as irrelevant. If the movie had much else to offer, things would be different. The teen casting should have been prosecuted as actor abuse. All the cartoonish teen characters are very ably played by an arresting group of faces - whose earnestness only points up the coarseness. We like all the actors - the Jackie Joseph sound-alike Didi Conn is downright lovable. Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta are a fine couple; Travolta does wonders with his part, making his leers and snide mannerisms charming as only he can do. The adults are icons from older comedy styles, mostly 50s sitcoms. Eve Arden and Sid Caesar's schtick is lost amid all the raunch; they're good comedians playing patsies to bad comedy. More apt is the casting of Edd 'Kookie' Byrnes as an ersatz Dick Clark. Byrnes has the correct tawdriness to fit in. The biggest victim is Stockard Channing, who brings moments of real pain and depth to 'bad girl' Betty Rizzo, and is by far the best thing here. Her segues from emotional sincerity to her tough persona are so good they belong in a different picture. There are only a couple of seconds of humanity in the movie, like a moment of honest contact between Betty and Sandy, but even that is thrown away. It's embarrassing the way the Betty Rizzo character is moving towards tragedy, and then after a flip, 'the rabbit didn't die' line, is back dancing like an idiot alongside everyone else. But, then again, Bad Betty is white, and the movie reserves its nastiest jeers for the real slut who emerges at the big dance, Cha Cha. She turns out to be a rabid Latin stereotype that destroys any good memories from West Side Story. The real message of Grease, as pointed out to me by Gary Teetzel, is that there are 'cool' people and uncool people. The only hope for the uncool is to try to be cool, which everyone knows is impossible. All the petty ugliness enforces a giant social pecking order, where top dogs like Kinicke and Zuko keep the wanna-bees in line with constant reminders of who's boss and who's not. Squares and dorks like the Eddie Deezen character have no rights and are ignored because they don't officially exist. Grease celebrates this social tyranny as if it were a blessing. It couldn't be more conformist if it tried. In real life, hood celebrities like Danny Zuko were kings only when surrounded by their mob of sycophants. Everywhere else, they were total losers, and everyone knew it. Grease has a fun set of songs that combine original stage tunes with newer pop numbers. But the rest of the production is truly feeble, starting with direction that defeats any attempt to make something of the musical numbers. Although much of the choreography is rather good, non-talent Randal Kleiser shoots it in the most flat and ugly way imaginable. The two stars emerge unscathed most of the time, with the best number being the simple treatment of Olivia's handsomely warbled Hopelessly Devoted to You, but even they cannot survive the unimaginative camera blocking in the gym. The camera choreography is at its mediocre best in the Beauty School Dropout and Greased Lightning numbers. The finale, with its catchy pop song You're the One that I Want, is perhaps the worst designed, worst directed and worst photographed 'big musical' number ever done. The dancers do their stuff in broad daylight between the distracting machinery of cheaply rented modern carnival rides. They jump and sing their hearts out in shots that make their dancing look insignificant and stupid. Compositions are arbitrary or far too loose, and the considerable energy of the song is cinematically squandered. The big moments with Olivia and John just look cheap. Savant watches Grease with a combination of curiosity and hostility. Paramount's DVD of Grease has been awaited for a long time ... when it was expected in 1999, Savant wrote an article about some optical hijinks that take place in its malt shop scenes. The transfer is fine on this widescreen version (there's a pan'n scan version available for the less enlightened). The sound has been remixed for more dynamism. For extras there's an okay trailer, and a frankly terrible, unattributed docu that's listed as 'retrospective interviews.' It's worse than a new featurette, with the actors saying meaningless fluff about the production and its importance, mostly assuring us that it was really cool to shoot it. A bit of behind-the scenes footage sneaks in, but it's mostly embarrassing drek, with the actors seemingly pressured to come up with superlatives about Grease being a great American musical. Only Newton-John seems sincere, with honest talk about her fitful movie career - her only previous picture, she says, was an English flop from six years before - the ill-fated sci-fi musical Toomorrow, by Val Guest. The card stock package contains an extra, a booklet with the lyrics for all the songs: Here are a few sample lines: Keep your filthy paws off my silky drawers / Would you pull that crap with Annette? ... You know that ain't no shit / We'll be gettin' lots of tit / In Greased Lightning ... You know I ain't braggin' / She's a real pussy wagon ... Ah, now why couldn't I dream up great art like that? On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, Grease rates: Movie: Fair Video: Excellent Sound: Excellent Supplements: trailer, 'retrospective interviews' Packaging: folding card stock case Reviewed: September 20, 2002 [Savant Main Page] [Savant Links] [Article Index] [Review Index] [Savant 5 Year Report] DVD Savant Text © Copyright 2007 Glenn Erickson Advertise With Us Review Staff | About DVD Talk | Newsletter Subscribe | Join DVD Talk Forum Copyright © MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use