Review of Grease (1978) by Paige V — 06 Oct 2014

Many people think all musicals are the same. They say it will end up being predictable or.

Cheesy and poorly done. However, there is one musical which is greatly written. This movie.

Would have to be Grease. Grease is not only a musical, but it has a great story line as well. The plot flows smoothly and there is both a comedic side and a dramatic side.

The movie opens up and we see Sandy Olssen (Olivia Newton-John), and Danny Zuko (John Travolta) on the beach being teenagers. You learn that Sandy is from Australia and is.

Leaving at the end of the summer never to see Danny after that. They are two star crossed lovers who are never going to see each other again, or so they think.

The school year starts and everyone goes back to being their normal selves. This is when.

You get introduced to the pink ladies; Betty Rizzo (Stockard Channing), Frenchy (Didi Conn),.

Marty Maraschino (Dinah Manoff) and Jan (Jamie Donnelly). These are the "it" girls in school who are only allowed to date a T-Bird. The T-Birds would include; Danny Zuko (John Travolta), Kenickie Murdoch (Jeff Conaway), Putzie (Kelly Ward), Doody (Barry Pearl) and Sonny (Michael Tucci). This group of teenagers are the cool kids on campus. So no one outside of this group is allowed to hang out with each other until Sandy is introduced to them.

Frenchy befriends Sandy and starts showing her around their high school, Rydell. Frenchy wants to drop out of high school to be a beautician and thinks that they should bring Sandy into the pink ladies. Rizzo thinks otherwise and wants to see if Sandy really is a goody two shoes or not. This is when you get your first musical number. Sandy and Danny do a duet on opposite sides of the campus. As they sing they describe their wonderful summer love and you quickly see each story is different. From this musical number the pink ladies find out the boy Sandy is in love with is their very own Danny Zuko. So they come up with a plan to get them to see each other.

At the first pep rally of the season Rizzo plans a little meet up and throws Danny and Sandy together. They were both excited to see each other so much Danny forgets about his cool guy façade and acts completely different. When he realizes his friends are looking at him strange he changes back to try to be cool. Which leaves Sandy heartbroken and never wanting to see him again. This upsets Danny greatly and vows to do anything to get her back.

The rest of the movie is all about Sandy trying to play hard to get so that Danny will work hard to show her he really does love her. There are many bumps in the road and you never know if they will end up together or not. It is a constant rollercoaster that makes you keep watching the movie until the very end. Each musical number is well thought out and runs smoothly with the plot. Along with Danny and Sandy not knowing what is in store for their love Rizzo has many heavy thoughts she has to deal with.

Grease is very funny throughout the movie but what Rizzo brings to the story line is heavy. In the beginning of the movie she sleeps with one of the T-Birds Kenickie and could potentially be pregnant. You see as people find out they start to shun her. She does not have anyone to turn to and wants everyone to think that she can deal with this by herself. So along with silently cheering for Danny and Sandy to be together you want to know if Rizzo truly is pregnant or not.

There are many factors in this movie that keeps you watching which is why it is a great musical. This movie is brilliantly put together and you can see that Randal Kleiser the director thought of everything. The cinematography by Bill Butler is almost flawlessly executed. However, if you watch closely there are a few things out of place. Like in the diner scene when Frenchy is helping Vi (Joan Blondell) clean up, Vi misses the light switch but the light goes out anyways. The music and dancing were perfectly done thanks to Michael Gibson, Jim Jacobs, and Warren Casey. Each number out does the last one performed and every song is so catchy that by the second time you watch Grease you will know all of the words. Which is how Grease is the top grossing musical to this day. I would suggest this class movie to anyone I know because who does not like a good musical?