My obsession with old movies began when I was about six years old. It was a school night, and my mom, younger sister and I were curled up on the couch watching television. Instead of dodging the array of inappropriate sitcoms that were too adult for her daughters’ young eyes, my mom flipped to TCM channel. There, in distorted pastels and singing along to ridiculously catchy beats, was the moment that changed my young mind to old movies. Sure, Grease is a musical (and a classic one at that) but that was just the beginning of my love affair. Before I knew how to dot my i’s I could recite every lyric to every song. Every day after school, I would come home, pop the Grease VHS into the tape player and dance around for hours, making my little sister sit and watch as I acted out each scene with the precision of a paid actress (or so I like to believe).Maybe it was the attractiveness of the simpler time, when a teenager’s biggest worries were being home by 9 p.m or having the boy of your dreams give you his letterman jacket to drape over your shoulders, but regardless...Grease captured my heart. Of course, I had no idea what the movie was about, it was till years later that I began understanding the subject content of sex, drugs, and gang violence. Instead, I thought it was just about the best movie that had ever existed.
Grease began its road to infamy as a broadway musical in 1971 and in 1978 was remediated into a film starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. The movie follows the most simple of plots, two lovers brought back together by fate in a 1950s high school setting. Throw in about a dozen intricate dance numbers, some badass leather jackets, and a few gorgeous automobiles, and you got yourself the one of the most iconic musical adaptations of all time.
The two lovers (Newton-John and Travolta) re-meet at Rydell High after meeting that summer falling in love. When Sandy (Newton-John) gets enrolled at Rydell and her and Danny (Travolta) realize they've been reunited, their friends step in to make their situation difficult and, in the audience’s opinion, entertaining. Sandy is welcomed into “The Pink Ladies”, a group of pretty, popular girls at school who drive a cool pink car and wear awesome pink jackets. They stand for everything a girl wants to be at that age. Danny is the king pin of Rydell High, and practically the leader of “The T-Birds”
, a group of hair-slicked boys that these days would be considered a gang. The two groups run on the same circles and love, comedy, and singing ensues. Through the movie, Sandy learns to lose her wound-up, old fashion inhibitions, and Danny learns to become more in-touch with his sensitive side as they fall more and more in love with one another.
Some people would go see The Rocky Horror Picture Show every night and participate in the same cult-classic activities, and thats how Grease is for me. Up until the age of 14, I wore saddle shoes because The
Pink Ladies did, and had a customized poodle skirt that my mom made with elastic and pink felt. Even at twenty, I have every song on my ipod, still think that the high note at the end of “Summer Lovin’” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpJUrt0O7uY) iconic, and believe that Grease is the word.
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