Grease Analysis

Grease

The other film I decided to analyse is Grease, made in 1978, directed by Randal Kleiser and produced by Allan Carr. The film was predominantly recorded at an American high school but also branched off into some additional locations such a diner and viaduct. The movie rates as a Pg-13 due to sexual references, drug and alcohol use and profanity. The film was targeted to those who grew up in the age of rock and roll however it came to appeal to teenagers. In addition is would have also attracted those who were a fan of the original musical. I will be looking at the conventions of musicals and how grease conformed to them.

Synopsis

Grease is a musical about Sandy Olsson and Danny Zuko who fell in love over the summer and then meet again in the new school year. The story follows the ups and downs of their relationships with Sandy clashing with Danny upon them meeting again due to him holding up an act in front of his friends. They resolve their conflicts and Danny makes efforts to change for Sandy, who also makes efforts to change herself for him. In the end Sandy matches the more rebellious greaser look and she and Danny go off happily together at the end of year graduation funfair. Alongside the main couple with film also explores the conflicts of both the lover’s friend groups. Those of the ‘Pink Ladies’ include Frenchy having insecurities surrounding her academic aspirations and Rizzo with relationship troubles and pregnancy scares. Within the ‘T-Birds’ (Danny’s group) they get involved in a car race against another group known as ‘The Scorpions’ and predominantly are working to make their car come up to shape. Accompanying all of the plot points there are many songs, some of the most well-known being ‘Greased Lightning’ and ‘Summer Nights.’

Genre Analysis

In musical films a key characteristic is that songs will be sung to advance the plot and have the characters actively involved and expressing their feelings. In ‘Summer Nights’ Sandy, Danny and their groups break into song when recalling their memories and feelings about the summer. Additionally, in musicals the world is somewhat a fantasy setting with characters spontaneously breaking into song with extras becoming back-up dancers which you see in many of the songs. A great example is in ‘We Go together’ where many of the high school students join in with the dancing and singing. The narrative is usually very happy and has the protagonist prevail over their problems. In Grease we see this in Danny and Sandys love overcoming the differences in their social groups and other conflicts that arose throughout the film.

Narrative Analysis

Grease has a linear story line, all of the events happen in order with jumps of time between many sections, the film happening over the space of a year. The protagonist roles are held by Sandy and Danny, Danny being the typical dashing male lead and Sandy being the female love interest to be won over. Both of them have a sidekick, Sandy’s being Frenchy who helps her with advice surrounding Danny and assists her with the final change of appearance to win over Danny in the final scene. Danny’s is Kenickie who is his closest friend and they remain by each other’s side, with Danny being trusted in the driving race when Kenickie gets injured. There is no real antagonist within Grease but social differences and the occasional character such as Cha Cha acted as barriers to the love between the protagonists being achieved. Most of the film is set within a high school as all of the characters are school students and the movies focus is the teen romance so the setting is typical to that. The film is from a third person point of view and everything is seen from the onlooker’s perspective. The inside feelings of characters are not expressed through narration however the songs throughout act as a way for internal feelings to be expressed such as Rizzo’s song ‘there are worse things’ where she contemplates her choices regarding sleeping around. The main themes in Grease are love and change, love being obviously apparent as the main narrative revolves around Danny and Sandy’s relationship as well as all of side characters pairing up with each other. Change is also very relevant as both Danny and Sandy find it necessary to change themselves for each other’s love, Danny doing P.E in school despite it contradicting his Greaser persona. Sandy completely changed the way she acted and dressed at the very end to win over Danny and leave behind the goody two-shoes appearance she had.

Film Content

The biggest aspect of the film’s content is the songs, within every scene there was a song to express what was happening or the feelings of the characters involved. Predominantly up beat and happy songs to fit the young teen image as well as more slow and serious songs used for individual reflection of a character e.g. ‘Beauty school drop-out’. In many of the songs and scenes, wide camera shots were used to capture the choreography of dancers and with many scenes being in school settings, there were always lots of characters involved.

Conclusion

In general, grease is a great example of a Musical that fits the conventions and does it very well. It has a 77% rating on rotten tomatoes with a review saying ‘Grease is a pleasing, energetic musical with infectiously catchy songs and an ode to young love that never gets old.’ To me the film is an extremely fun and entertaining musical. The songs are all catchy and the never get old. I would recommend it as a classic musical to anyone, but its views of love are somewhat outdated however I would overlook this as it’s a quality musical and film for its time and still today.