Grease (1978)

Directed by: Randal Kleiser | 106 minutes | comedy, romance, musical | Actors: John Travolta, Olivia Newton John, Stockard Channing, Jeff Conaway, Didi Conn, Jamie Donnelly, Dinah Manoff, Barry Pearl, Michael Tucci

No musical is as memorable or influential as ‘Grease’. Based on a play (1972) by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey, this 1978 film was the must-see of the year. The music spectacle ‘Grease’ attracted massive numbers of people to the cinemas. The cast members became ’70s icons. John Travolta had already broken through before ‘Grease’ with ‘Saturday Night Fever’ (1977), but ‘Grease’ definitely put him on the map. Olivia Newton-John made her American film debut at the time, before that she was high in the pop charts worldwide. The chemistry between Newton-John and Travolta is fantastic. This was a good casting, but it’s a shame that some cast members are no longer believable in appearance because they are already well past the average age of a high school student. At twenty-five years old, Travolta was the youngest actor in the film. The star duo Newton-John and Travolta were reunited in ‘Two of a Kind’ (1983) but this romantic comedy was not very well received. It’s worth noting that none of the cast members except Travolta really made it big after ‘Grease’. Director Randal Kleiser has never been able to repeat the success, only ‘Blue Lagoon’ (1982) is worth mentioning.

The story begins in the summer of 1958 when Danny and Sandy fall head over heels in love with each other. They think they will never see each other again after their romantic summer, but things turn out differently than expected when Sandy ends up in Danny’s graduating class at Rydell High School. Although Danny is overjoyed to see Sandy, he doesn’t show it because he wants to appear tough to his friends. Sandy is quite a shy and dowdy girl, moreover, the T-Birds to which Danny belongs only associate with the Pink Ladies, their female counterparts. Sandy is disappointed and tries to hook up with these Pink Ladies. This is easier said than done. However, the leader of this group Betty Rizzo (Stockard Channing) wants to use Sandy to get back at Danny, who rejected Betty. There follows a dance between Sandy and Danny in which they try to get together through all the setbacks, with or without the help of friends.

Like many great musical films, ‘Grease’ contains the necessary ingredients: sympathetic stars, a simple plot, lots of catchy music and good choreography. ‘Grease’ revolves around childhood sentiment in many ways. Although everything is of course quite exaggerated, everyone remembers his or her own high school days when seeing the film. In addition, there is the popular soundtrack with 50s-esque songs that have stood the test of time. Who can’t sing along (partially) to classics like ‘Grease’, ‘Hopelessly Devoted to You’, ‘You’re the One that I Want’, ‘Greased Lightning’, and ‘Summer Nights’? Who does not know the accompanying dances? They are not high quality songs but the fun and energy of these songs is infectious. The soundtrack reached record sales of over 8 million copies and was awarded several times platinum. In 1982, the sequel ‘Grease 2’ (1982) starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Maxwell Caulfield was released. The sequel, with a reversed situation (tough girl, nice boy) is nice, but nothing more.

In 1998 the successful film returned to cinemas on its 20th anniversary. In America there is nostalgia for the 70’s and Travolta was in the process of making his (nth) comeback at the time, so the re-release of ‘Grease’ was a box office. In addition to Travolta’s breakthrough, ‘Grease’ marked the beginning of the career of Richard Gere who played Danny Zuko in the first London theater production. In 2003 ‘Grease’ the musical could be admired in Dutch theaters.

‘Grease’ is a feel-good musical spectacle that still resonates with the public years later. ‘Grease’ is not going to get boring. Grease is the word!