Review of Grease (1978) by Arikagan — 15 Jun 2018

In honor of the 40th anniversary of 'Grease', I'm gonna share my thoughts about the most popular movie musical of all time. For a movie musical, this film is pretty great. There's lot of humor that works well, and realistic issues that the characters face. For its time, it's a movie that works really well. Taking place in the '50s, T-Bird greaser Danny Zuko and good girl Sandy Olson fall in love over the summer and reconnect when they find out they're at the same school. It's kind of a pre-'High School Musical' film. This film started several tropes that films use today, most of them being high-school related.

Bronte Woodard wrote a great script that balances humor, drama, and comedy very well. 'Grease' is a very quotable film for this reason. I also think the period that the film takes place also helps the film become more quotable because of sayings that were popular in the '50s. Sure, the script isn't perfect. There are occasional bits of cheesy dialogue, but that's also sort of the point. The script very well sets the tone of the film and of its characters.

The cast performances are pretty good, the standouts being its main stars John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. The faculty members at the school also did a surprisingly good job even if they didn't get a whole lot of screen time. The T-Birds were hilarious. With the pranks they pulled on nerds or their bad attitudes, they were fun characters.

The score by Michael Gibson is decent, and the overall film soundtrack is great. It's classic and very memorable and arguably some of the best songs in a film to date. 'Sandy', sung by John Travolta, has always been my personal favorite song from the film. The songs match the story very well and don't just pop out of nowhere. It's not like your typical musical film or TV show where the characters randomly break out into song, which is an annoying thing to see. This film pre-dates that trope.

The costume design is very memorable. Right when you see the costumes, you instantly know what film they're from. The T-Birds and Pink Ladies outfits are iconic along with the 'You're the One That I Want' outfits.

'Grease' is a great film that has aged pretty well for 40 years. I think it's still relevant in some ways, but there are some things less than memorable about the film. For example, the bad guys that the greasers don't get along with aren't very intimidating, and the greasers take their antics too seriously. They're supposed to be tough guys, but they almost come across as weak when they're around them. Overall, 'Grease' is an unforgettable film.