Grease

Reviewer: Alyice Edrich

Movie

Grease, 1978

The Plot

Australian exchange student Sandy has a summer fling with Danny, a greaser, the head of the T-birds. When they end up in the same high school together, it should be love at first sight but pride on Danny’s part causes the romance to sour.

Starring

John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Jeff Conaway, Stockard Channing, Barry Pearl, Michael Tucci, Kelly Ward, Didi Conn, Jamie Donnelly, Dinah Manoff, and more.

The Review

Grease is an amazing musical with just the right balance of drama. The storyline is classic and transcends time as the underlying message hits the core of every teenager.

Danny Zuko puts his “tough boy” act behind him as he shares a wholesome summer romance with Australian, Sandy Olsen. When summer ends, the two believe they’re going their separate ways until Sandy’s parents decide to stay in America and she ends up in his high school.

As the two share their summer romance stories with their friends we see that Danny has reverted back to his old ways as he sensationalizes the romance by turning it into something sleazy and slutty. And Sandy over dramatizes the romance by making it appear to be a love-affair right out of the movies. Then bam, the two meet!

Sandy’s excited to see Danny again and believes their summer romance can continue where it has left off, but Danny—unwilling to show a softer side to his fellow greasers—discounts the romance as nothing more than a summer fling and treats Sandy badly.

Sandy, choosing to move on with her life, begins to date a more wholesome guy but her heart yearns for Danny. Danny, on the other hand, discovers that he cannot live without Sandy so he tries to break into her world while still trying to live in his own. In the end, it’s Sandy who breaks into Danny’s world and Danny who discovers that it’s okay to show a softer side—for the right reasons.

Aside from Danny and Sandy’s romance story, there are sub-plots that manage to mingle beautifully with the main storyline—teenagers trying to find their places in the world, girls looking for the men of their dreams, boys trying to get to third base, gossiping, and even a pregnancy scare.

There is, however, lots of raunchy sexual innuendos that probably wouldn’t make the cut in today’s PG-13 ratings so tread lighting with kids under 13—heck stick to kids 16 and above! In all honestly, this is not a wholesome family show but it is a family show. It’s funny. It’s lively. It’s energetic. And it’s a whole lot of fun.

Your Task

Watch Grease with your teenagers and simply have a good time. Don’t over analyze, don’t try to find a hidden message, don’t try to pry into the lives of your kids. Then a few days after you’ve watched the show, sit down with your kids and ask them how they feel about certain aspects of the film: Should girls “give it up” just to have a boyfriend? Should boys treat girls badly just to look good in front of their friends? What is gossip and what kind of damage can it really cause? What’s safe sex?

Order Grease today!