GREASE
(1998 re-release)
Lisa Marie Tan
Original Release: 1978 / Re-release: 1998
Directed by Randal Kleiser
Produced by Paramount Pictures
Main Cast: John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Stockard Channing, Jeff Conaway, Barry Pearl, Michael Tucci, Kelly Ward, Didi Conn, Jamie Donnelly, Dinah Manoff.
Rating: * out of *****
Official Web Site:Greasemovie.com
This Review Filed: 23 June, 1998.
Lisa Marie Tan is a full-time writer of the forever-griping arts scene.GREASE STAINS AFTER 20 YEARS
"THERE are worse things I could do ..." So sings Stockard Channing (Rizzo) in GREASE, and there are worse things that lazy, profiteering studios can do than rehash 20-year-old stuff on their audiences.I must clarify, there isn't much of a need for spoiler warnings in this review. Most of us have seen GREASE at least once in a lifetime. Others have heard the story told to them, while some have memorised every single line of song in the movie.
So for the really exceptional ones, the thin plot (and original stage play) is more or less about how life in American High Schools in the 50s centre around belonging to cliques, trying to get a boyfriend, trying to lose your virginity, learning to smoke, learning to dress like a badly-dressed slut and graduate (in about that order). Central characters are Danny, leader of boy band, the T-Birds and Sandy, newcomer to the school and girl group, the Pink Ladies' trainee. When trouble mounts, sing. When you need to think - don't; sing. When you want to give an opinion, sing.
GREASE looks every bit more natural on a stage than on the screen. Or maybe it's more that 20 years later, my instinctive childhood ability to suspend my disbelief has dissipated. Or maybe, I'm now just a jaded, anxious, neurotic cynic - who can tell when bad acting and bad timing happens.
My axe to grind is with in the stylistics of the film, which would have been discussed to death for the past 20 years. My axe is with the decision to digitally re-master the soundtrack and re-release the film now. The 90s is a politically-correct, hyper-sensitive age where even a science-fiction film has to be rated Restricted for violence and for promulgating other "incorrect" values to an informationally-overcharged, impressionable generation.
In the light of such a global climate, GREASE, with its pro-smoking, sexually promiscuous, women-disparaging values, comes as a sore entry into the 90s. Could anyone else not see the inopportune air about it all? Feminism, a new puritan streak and other humanistic, liberal values have left their mark on our consciousness between the time GREASE first made its screen premiere and now, when screen premieres are likely to be tied to some AIDS or environmental causes. In the light of such a global climate, GREASE, with its pro-smoking, sexually promiscuous, women-disparaging values, comes as a sore entry into the 90s. Could anyone else not see the inopportune air about it all?
Issues aside, GREASE remains a well-made musical, perhaps not the most imaginative, to have a good production off the stage, but nonetheless possessing all the right timing, dance and song numbers, and cheeriness enough to blind one for a moment or two.
The Flying Inkpot's Rating System
* Wait for the TV2 broadcast.
** A little creaky, but still better than staying at home with Tonight With Gurmit.
*** Pretty good, bring a friend.
**** Amazing, potent stuff.
***** Perfection. See it twice.
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![[ Pic from GREASE ]](/film/images/grease.gif)
