Movie Review # 538: Grease (1978)

Well everyone, welcome to another session of movie reviewing! Today, we are going back to even old, old school, even earlier than we did with the last film that I reviewed. This time, we will be going back to the late 1970s, when Paramount Pictures released a musical film that addressed high school characters, the whole deal with cliques, and other topics like those. Oh, and need I mention some rather fun music as well? This film, if I’m not mistaken, was one of John Travolta’s biggest debuts in his acting career, if not also Olivia Newton-John’s as well. So, without further ado, let’s discuss the 1978 musical, Grease.

Plot: When an American greaser named Danny Zuko (John Travolta), and an Australian named Sandy Olsson (Olivia Newton-John) meet at the beach in the summertime, they begin to fall for each other. But when Sandy’s family decides to stay in America, and enroll her at Rydell High School, where Danny also attends, the question remains, will Danny, and Sandy stay in love, or will their love for each other turn out to only be a summer fling?

I definitely remember having fond memories of this film, from seeing the Broadway version of this film at Country Dinner Playhouse as a teenager, to performing in a couple numbers like “Hand Jive,” and “We Go Together” in a couple musical theater classes in high school, and things like those. Now, years later, I decided to revisit the film, and see what I think of it now. Well, first of all, the words “people are complicated” can be applied to this film. I mean especially when it comes to the main characters of this film, you have them making really dumb choices, and acting a certain way because of being afraid of what others around them may think. As a result, you have people that are very complex more often than not, especially when it comes to characters like Danny Zuko, or even Sandy Olsson, for instance. In addition to all of this, most of the songs are really catchy. For one, the songs help develop most of the characters, even if there were a couple that may have sidetracked from the main plot of the film. I mean who wouldn’t want to sing along with, or even reenact songs like “Hand Jive,” “Grease Lightning,” “”You’re The One That I Want,” or songs like those in this film? And yes, the people in this film song really well, especially main leads John Travolta, and Olivia Newton-John. Definitely interesting how thirty years later, the former would voice a dog in the 2008 Disney film, Bolt, as well as sing a duet with Miley Cyrus for one of the songs for that film, eh? As for the choreography, man is it fantastic. I’m not sure how long it took for this cast to get their steps down. Man, did it pay off one way, or the other. Grease also does a great job of portraying real life in a really fun, and creative way. Honestly, had it not been for the songs in this film, would this film have been just as fun? Maybe not. But hopefully it would have still been good. Finally, Grease is great at teaching very good lessons like not being afraid of what others think, being willing to spread your wings no matter what that may mean, and being willing to think of others more than yourself.

Now, all of these things sound great, do they not? Still, I have to admit to you all, Grease could have maybe been a little better in a couple regards. First off, some of the side characters may seems. Little one note at times. This isn’t the case for all of them, but some of them seem to feel a little underdeveloped at times. Not only that, but there were times where this film tried to develop them, and it didn’t seem to work as well as they hoped. That being said, Grease did seem to have some side plots going on that seemed to work better in films like 2014’s God’s Not Dead, for example, but for some reason not as well here. Because of that, this musical film should have been a little longer than say one hour, and fifty minutes. Now, an U saying that Grease should have been three hours long like a film such as 1971’s Fiddler On The Roof, or some film like that? No! Still, Grease should have had a little bit longer of a running time just to help flesh out the side characters a little more than they did in the end, you know? Also, as most of you know, Grease is rated PG. Yeah, definitely a good thing this film was rated that, and not something lower like G. The reason being is because there are some moments that could potentially make this film a little too adult even for a PG-rated film. Yeah, I understand that some things will go over some kid’s heads, but how do we know that some kids might not ask questions about some moments in this film that they shouldn’t know about quite yet, you know?

And that’s my review for the 1978 musical film, Grease. Even though there were a couple areas that could have improved for this film, Grease still makes up for those with providing good lessons, having a lot of fun songs, great lead characters, despite some of the side ones feeling a little bland at times, and an overall fun, and creative story. If you haven’t seen Grease yet, I would highly recommend that you see it at least once, if not multiple times after that. You may yet be surprised by how enjoyable Grease is in the end with all the great things that I mentioned before. Again, definitely see it, and see what you think!

Final Grade: A-