Plot Summary
Grease is a musical about a bad boy (John Travolta as Danny) who falls for a good girl (Olivia Newton-John as Sandy).  They meet over the summer and see each other again at school during their senior year.  While they are there, they deal with their differences.  They try to make their relationship work despite their differences.  He is a bad boy who is in a gang (the T-Birds) and she is a good girl.  She befriends Frenchy and she is a member of the Pink Ladies.  The T-Birds and the Pink Ladies are considered the “greasers” of the school.  Grease is set in the 1950s and is based on the Broadway play of the same name.

Grease is one of my favorite musicals.  Grease is a musical as well as a love story.  I like how the writers wrote an opposites attract story for Danny and Sandy. The writers even found a way to add triangles in their story.  Danny showed off when he saw Sandy again and she ended up dating another guy (Tom Chisum played by Lorenzo Lamas).  Danny was really jealous about that.  Sandy also didn’t like the fact that Danny had a past and she was upset when he danced with one of his old flames (Cha Cha played by Annette Charles).  Grease was an ensemble movie.  The T-Birds (Danny friends) and the Pink Ladies (the girls Sandy hung around) had stories too.  The secondary couple (Rizzo and Kenickie) also had a “will they/won’t they relationship.  For those who may not know, most of the T-Birds and the Pink Ladies were couples too. Anyway, Rizzo and Kenickie are a couple who fight and break up. Do they get back together? I like how the writers added tension with this couple because Danny and Sandy weren’t the only one dealing with obstacles in the movie.  Frenchy is the first friend that Sandy makes at the school.  Frenchy decides whether or not to stay in high school or go to beauty school.  Frenchy is torn because she wants to pursue her dream.  One of the Pink Ladies deals with a possible pregnancy.  It almost ruined her reputation when it got around the school.  I don’t want to forget that the writers even included a big dance that all the teens attended. It was a chance to see their dance moves and that was an interesting touch. Some of the kids had some dancing ability (notably John Travolta) and it was a joy to see.  In addition to the love story, Grease has some action in it.  That half of the story involved Danny and Leo (Dennis Stewart) who is the leader of the Sorpions.  The Scorpions are a rival gang of the T-Birds.  What I like about the plot is it has something for everyone.

The chemistry in Grease was amazing.  The casting director did a great job with this cast.  They found the perfect people to play Danny and Sandy.  John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John sizzle onscreen.  It was as if they were made for each other.  The rest of the T-Birds and Pink Ladies had chemistry too.  All of the couples who were paired up looked good together.  It was very believable that the T-Birds and the Pink Ladies were friends with each other because it seemed like they knew each other forever.

The acting in Grease was pretty good.  Since Grease is a musical, it didn’t really require great acting, but I was pleasantly surprised.  Most of the time, the singing would be good, but the acting wouldn’t be.  With Grease, we got the best of both worlds.  In my opinion, John Travolta did the best job in the movie. I think he did a good job playing a bad boy with the heart of gold.  He was able to act, sing, and dance. I’m not surprised that he went on to be the biggest star from the movie.  I also thought that Olivia Newton-John did a good job too. Singers that appear in movies don’t always do a great job with acting, but Olivia Newton-John was pretty good in her role.

The soundtrack to Grease is really good.  You could sing and dance along with the songs.  The songs were practically made for this movie.  I liked the songs so much that I bought the soundtrack.  My favorite songs were Grease, Hopelessly Devoted To You, Summer Nights, We Go Together, and You’re The One That I Want.  The other songs were good too, but these were my particular favorites.

Although Grease was a good movie, it did have its flaws.  One of the flaws was you had to suspend disbelief with the actors and actresses ages.  They are all playing seniors in high school when none of them looked young enough to play high school students.  Here are the ages of the actors and actresses at the time of the movie: Stockard Channing (Rizzo) 33, Michael Tucci (Sonny) 31, Jamie Donnelly (Jan) 30, Annette Charles (Cha Cha) 29, Olivia Newton John (Sandy) 28, Barry Pearl (Doody) 27, Jeff Conaway (Kenickie) 26, Didi Cohn (Frenchy) 25, Susan Buckner (Patty) 24/25, John Travolta (Danny) 23, Kelly Ward (Putzie) 20, Dinah Manoff (Marty), Lorenzo Lamas (Tom Chisum), and Eddie Deezen (Eugene) were all 19.  Frankie Avalon, who also appears in the movie was only five years older than Stockard Channing.  They all looked as if they could have been teaching the class instead of attending class. Dinah Manoff, Kelly Ward, Lorenzo Lamas, and Eddie Deezen’s ages weren’t that bad, but they rest of them were. 

The other flaw with Grease was the fact that Sandy had to turn into a bad girl in order to get respect.  The Pink Ladies (especially Rizzo) made fun of Sandy because she didn’t smoke or drink.  She was too much of a good girl for their taste.  Danny seemed to be embarrassed by Sandy.  Danny and Sandy went to the malt shop for something to eat.  As soon as Danny saw his friends in there, he yanked her inside and tried to hide behind menus.  As soon as she put on tight leather pants and a leather jacket, she got respect.  It was a shame that she felt she had to change her clothes and personality in order to get what she wanted.  She even miraculously learned how to smoke when earlier in the movie she coughed after one puff.

Product description
I have the VHS version of the 20th anniversary of Grease and it does have a couple of features.  At the beginning of the tape, there are interviews with the cast members. They are talking about their time filming the movie.  They all loved filming Grease.  The tape also included a cd of some of the songs on the soundtrack.

Trivia
Here is some trivia about Grease:
Jeff Conaway (Kenickie) had to walk slightly stooped because he was taller than John Travolta (Danny). I guess the leader of the gang had to be the tallest one.

“Happy Days” Henry Winkler was considered for the role of Danny, but he turned it down.  He didn’t want to be typecast in the role of a greaser. I can’t really see Henry Winkler in the role of Danny Zuko.

Didi Cohn (Frenchy) originally auditioned for the role of Rizzo, but the part went to Stockard Channing. I think that the casting directors made the right choice because they are both perfect for the roles that they were given.

In the Broadway version of Grease, Sandy was supposed to be an American girl.  The writers changed her background to accommodate Olivia Newton-John’s accent.

Jeff Conaway played Danny in the Broadway version of Grease.
 
John Travolta was also in the Broadway version of Grease.  He had played Doody during some of the shows. 

In conclusion
Grease is a great musical despite the problems I had with it.  In my opinion, the problems don’t hurt the movie.  I think people will enjoy this movie because it has something for everyone.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS