Click here for a video version of this review: https://youtu.be/gvGcY-PMazg
I don’t even know when I added it to my watchlist, but working through my backlog, the musical Grease suddenly became the next movie to watch. This is of course a classic and I cannot name one person who does know at least one song from it.
So, deep in your brain somewhere, you’re probably aware generally of what this is about, but here is the official description:
Good girl Sandy Olsson and greaser Danny Zuko fell in love over the summer. When they unexpectedly discover they're now in the same high school, will they be able to rekindle their romance?
Made in 1978 but set in 1958 this is a whole lot of toe tapping fun. Almost all of the songs are instantly recognisable, and although I will never admit it, I may or may not have slid across our kitchen tiles on my knees after watching it, yelling “it’s ELECTRIFYING”.
What’s interesting watching this now is how lewd this is. So much of this went way over my head when watching this as a kid. Condoms breaking, calling cars pussy wagons, singing about chicks creaming and swimsuits getting damp, I forgot how much double entendre and innuendo there is in the song lyrics and the movie as a whole.
What’s even more interesting is the theory of how Sandy in fact died on the beach in the opening scene and that the rest of the film is the dying, oxygen starved fantasy of her brain. Think about it - in the song “Summer Nights” from Sandy’s point of view, Danny says that when he met Sandy, “I saved her life; she nearly drowned.” What if I told you that, in reality, she did drown hence why on the beach Sandy, as she enters the alternate plane asks him “Is this the end?” He replies, “Of course not. It’s only the beginning.” She then has the dying brain fantasy of a year of high school romance with Danny, the visions get more and more outlandish as the time passes, before, at the climax of the movie she and Danny drive off in a car that leaves the ground and drives off into heaven, in what we can only speculate are her final moments.
Anyway that’s something to think about next time you watch it. Either way it’s a good fun movie and always worth a watch.