[go: nahoru, domu]
Jump to content

Grease (film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 110.32.226.141 (talk) at 12:23, 6 April 2010 (→Soundtrack: Fixed things.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

For the original stage musical of the same name, see Grease (musical).
Grease
Theatrical release poster
Directed byRandal Kleiser
Written byMusical:
Jim Jacobs
Warren Casey
Screenplay:
Bronte Woodard
Produced byRobert Stigwood
Allan Carr
StarringJohn Travolta
Olivia Newton-John
Stockard Channing
Jeff Conaway
CinematographyBill Butler
Edited byJohn F. Burnett
Music byJim Jacobs
Warren Casey
Michael Gibson
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release dates
June 16, 1978
20th Anniversary
March 27, 1998
Running time
110 minutes
CountryTemplate:FilmUS
LanguageEnglish
Budget$6,000,000
Box office$394,589,888

Grease is a 1978 American musical film directed by Randal Kleiser and based on Jim Jacobs' and Warren Casey's musical, of the same name. The film stars John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Stockard Channing, and Jeff Conaway.

Plot

In 1958, during their summer vacation, Danny Zuko and Sandy Olsson meet at a beach and begin to fall in love. At summer's end, Sandy tells Danny that she is returning to Australia where she lives but Danny is positive their relationship will continue. That is followed by an animated credits sequence accompanied by the theme song, "Grease", composed expressly for the film by Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees and performed by Frankie Valli. After summer, Danny returns for his final year at Rydell High School, while Sandy arrives as an exchange student. Danny is part of a group of leather-clad greasers called the T-Birds consisting of Kenickie, Sonny, Putzie, and Doody; while Sandy becomes part of a group of girls called the Pink Ladies, consisting of Frenchy who plans to quit high school to go to a beauticians school, Jan; Marty; and Betty Rizzo. Both groups learn about Danny and Sandy from the opposite, and Rizzo is surprised when Danny is revealed to be Sandy's love. At a celebratory bonfire for the school's football team, Danny and Sandy are reunited but Danny has to keep his cool exterior up, much to Sandy's sadness.

The Pink Ladies have a sleepover at Frenchy's house, but the T-Birds drive up outside. Rizzo leaves with Kenickie and they seemingly have sex. Kenickie is challenged to a car race by Leo, leader of troublemaking gang, the Scorpions. In an attempt to impress Sandy due to their broken relationship, Danny takes up sports under the guidance of Coach Calhoun, but all of his attempts failed. However, when wounded whilst jumping hurdles, Sandy agrees to go with him to the school's dance contest. Rizzo and Kenickie's relationship dissolves when it is revealed she may be pregnant, and Frenchy decides to stay in school when seemingly visited by a guardian angel. At the dance, Rizzo dates Leo, whilst Marty becomes infatuated with television host Vince Fontaine. Danny is reunited with his old flame Cha Cha DiGregorio, who ends up dancing with him to win the dance-off contest. At a drive-in movie, Sandy and Danny's relationship dissolves when the sexual tension from Danny sees him idiotically try to make a clumsy grab at Sandy's chest. Sandy is horrified and runs off - leaving him alone, stranded at the drive-in, branded a fool.

At the race, Kenickie is wounded when a door is slammed into his face, so Danny takes up the challenge, defeating Leo. Sandy resolves to become more flamboyant. On graduation day, Rizzo reveals she is not pregnant after all and reunites with Kenickie. Danny is reunited with Sandy, now a leather-clad woman, and the two become a couple, ending the film by literally flying away in Danny's car with the class of 1959 waving goodbye.

Cast

The T-Birds
The Pink Ladies
Special Guest Appearances

Production

Casting

Singer Olivia Newton-John had done little acting before this film. She appeared in the 1970 film Toomorrow - a science fiction musical that pre-dated her initial chart success with 1971's If Not For You. Cast with Newton-John and three male leads in an attempt by Don Kirshner to create another Monkees, the film failed miserably; this led Newton-John to demand a screen test for Grease to avoid another career setback. The screen test was done with the drive-in movie scene.

Randal Kleiser directed John Travolta in The Boy in the Plastic Bubble two years prior to Grease.

Two actors who were seen for the film were Henry Winkler and Marie Osmond. Winkler, who was playing Fonzie on Happy Days, was originally chosen to play Danny, but, having twice already played similarly leather-clad 1950s hoods in 1974's The Lords of Flatbush as well as Happy Days, turned down the role for fear of being typecast. Osmond turned down the role of Sandy because she did not like the fact that Sandy had to "turn bad" to get the boy. Adult film star Harry Reems was originally signed to play Coach Calhoun; however, producers got cold feet weeks before filming and replaced him with Sid Caesar.

Dinah Manoff was only 19 years old during the filming of Grease making her the youngest of all actresses in the film. She passed her audition without being given a singing or dancing tryout. Her skills in those areas proved limited, so she was moved into the background during the song numbers. Manoff sang only two lines in the movie: the Bamba Bamba line of "La Bamba" at the start of the lunch scene (with Stockard Channing singing along). Dinah would not sing in a movie again for over a decade in 1989's Staying Together in which she and Stockard Channing reunited. It was directed by Lee Grant, who is Dinah's mother. Not to be outdone, the two would also appear in two TV movies together within the next few years.

Jeff Conaway and Susan Buckner would be mob members in 2007 on 1 vs 100.

Edd Byrnes would meet up with Manoff again on a 1991 episode of the TV series Empty Nest.

Avalon, Blondell, Byrnes, and Manoff would later guest star on different episodes of $weepstake$. Tab Hunter, who would appear in Grease 2, would too.

Frost Palace Scenes

Scenes inside the Frosty Palace contain obvious 'blurring' of various signage. Prior to the film's release, the film's producers had not received permission to use any Coca-Cola trademarks. Furthermore, Coca-Cola refused to allow its signage to be shown due to the raunchy nature of the film[1]. The 'blurring' covered up trademarked menu signage and a large wall poster[2].

Controversy

In November 2002, Camille Paglia asserted in Interview magazine with Donna Mills that the character of Sandy in Grease was based on Mills' experiences as a Chicago-area teen, even though no interview questions covered the subject.

Release and reception

Grease was originally released to theatres on June 16, 1978. It was released in the U.S. on VHS during the 1980s; the latest VHS release was June 23, 1998 as 20th Anniversary Edition following a theatrical re-release that March. On September 24, 2002, it was released on DVD for the first time. On September 19, 2006, it was re-released on DVD as the Rockin' Rydell Edition, which includes a black Rydell High T-Bird jacket cover or the Target-exclusive Pink Ladies cover. It was released on Blu-Ray on May 5, 2009. The original release had Paramount's best known 1954 logo shown at the beginning and after the end credits. For the 20th anniversary and all releases since, the 75th Anniversary Paramount logo (1987-2001) was shown with the feature presentation fanfare.

Critical Reception

Grease received generally favorable reviews[3] and is considered by many as one of the best films of 1978.[4][5][6][7] It currently holds an 84% "Certified Fresh" rating on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes with a consensus that reads "Grease is a pleasing, energetic musical with infectiously catchy songs and an ode to young love that never gets old".[8] It holds a score of 70/100 on a similar website Metacritic.[9]

Although Travolta was already famous from the movie Saturday Night Fever and the television sitcom Welcome Back Kotter, Grease reaffirmed his status as a superstar. Newton-John's fame also reached new heights after the movie released. The movie received five Golden Globe Award nominations in 1979 and the highest grossing movie of 1978 and the highest grossing movie musical at the time, surpassing 1965's The Sound of Music.

The movie's soundtrack was a number one album in many different countries. The song "You're The One That I Want" was released as a single prior to the film's release and became an immediate chart-topper, despite not being in the stage show or having been seen in the film at that time.[10] In the United Kingdom, the two Travolta–Newton-John duets, "You're The One That I Want" and "Summer Nights", were both number one hits and appear 6th and 21st respectively in the official all-time UK best-selling singles list issued in 2002. The song "Hopelessly Devoted to You" was nominated for an Academy Award (1979) for Best Music - Original Song. The movie's title song was also a number-one smash hit single for Frankie Valli.

Sequels and spin-offs

Grease spawned a sequel, Grease 2 (1982) (with the only cast members from the original movie being Blanche, Coach Calhoun, Eugene, Frenchy, Leo (the Scorpions' gang leader) and Principal McGee, that was much less successful. Patricia Birch, the original movie's choreographer, directed the ill-fated sequel. It would be the only movie that she would direct. After the success of the original, Paramount intended to turn Grease into a multi-picture franchise with at least three sequels planned and a TV series in the pipeline. When Grease 2 flopped at the box office, all the plans were scrapped.[11]

In 2008 it was revealed that Paramount are currently planning a new sequel to Grease that will debut straight to DVD [12]

This movie was re-released to theaters in 1998 to mark the 20th anniversary. It also ranked number 21 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies.

Lists

Voted the best musical ever on Channel 4's 100 greatest musicals.[13]

In 2008, Grease was selected by Empire magazine as one of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time.[14]

Soundtrack

Main article: Grease (soundtrack)

The song "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee" references Sal Mineo in the original stage version. Mineo was stabbed to death a year before filming, so the line was changed to refer to Elvis Presley instead. The Troy Donahue reference is in the original stage version. Coincidentally, this scene was filmed on August 16, 1977 - the date of Elvis Presley's death.

The song order on the soundtrack album does not match the order in the film (common practice in those days for soundtrack records). The number in brackets below indicates the order from the film. Some of the songs were not present in the film.

  1. [02] Grease — Frankie Valli
  2. [03] Summer Nights — Danny, Sandy, Pink Ladies and the T-Birds
  3. [04] Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee — Rizzo and the Pink Ladies
  4. [05] Hopelessly Devoted to You — Sandy
  5. [06] Greased Lightning — Danny and the T-Birds
  6. [22] You're the One That I Want — Danny and Sandy
  7. [18] Sandy (Music by Louis St. Louis, Lyrics by Scott J. Simon) — Danny
  8. [09] Beauty School Dropout — Frankie Avalon / Angels
  9. [07] It's Raining on Prom Night — Radio
  10. [08] Alone at the Drive-in Movie (instrumental)
  11. [17] Blue Moon (Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart) — Johnny
  12. [11] Rock n' Roll is Here to Stay (D. White) — Johnny
  13. [12] Those Magic Changes — Johnny and Danny
  14. [14] Hound Dog (Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller) — Johnny
  15. [15] Born to Hand Jive — Johnny and Cast
  16. [13] Tears on My Pillow (S. Bradford and A. Lewis) — Johnny
  17. [16] Mooning — Jan and Roger
  18. [19] Freddy, My Love — Marty
  19. [10] Rock n' Roll Party Queen — Radio
  20. [20] There Are Worse Things I Could Do — Rizzo
  21. [21] Look at Me I'm Sandra Dee (reprise) — Sandy
  22. [23] We Go Together — Danny, Sandy, Rizzo, Kenickie, Marty, Sonny, Jan, Putzie, Doody, Frenchy, Eugene, Patty, Miss Mcgee, Mr Lynch and Coach
  23. [01] Love is a Many Splendored Thing (instrumental)
  24. [24] Grease (Reprise) — Frankie Valli

Other songs that appear in the film but not in the soundtrack are Richie Valens' "La Bamba", "Whole Lotta Shaking Going On" by Jerry Lee Lewis and Alma Mater (it was played during the first day announcements, the bonfire, the T-Birds sang the version with funny lyrics, the announcements when McGee warns the seniors that they are to be prepared for their futures, and finally at the carnival).

On Dancing with the Stars in 2007, Joey Fatone and his partner Kym Johnson performed the Jive, with Kym wearing the dress modeled after the one Rizzo wore to the school dance.

References

  1. ^ http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s70grease.html
  2. ^ http://scenesteal.com/html/grease
  3. ^ http://www.metacritic.com/video/titles/grease
  4. ^ http://www.filmsite.org/1978.html
  5. ^ http://www.film.com/features/story/10-best-movies-of-1978/14955431
  6. ^ http://www.imdb.com/year/1978
  7. ^ http://www.films101.com/y1978r.htm
  8. ^ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/grease/
  9. ^ http://www.metacritic.com/video/titles/grease
  10. ^ VH1's "Behind the Music: Grease"
  11. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084021/trivia
  12. ^ http://www.slashfilm.com/2008/08/21/mean-girls-2-naked-gun-4-road-trip-2-grease-3/
  13. ^ 100 Greatest Musicals: Channel 4 Film
  14. ^ http://www.empireonline.com/500/31.asp
Wikiquote has quotations related to Grease (film).
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Grease_(film)&oldid=354303265"