Grease is the word, baby. One of the most celebrated movie musicals ever, Grease has managed to find an audience across all gender race and age boundaries and maintain its tremendous popularity some thirty years after the film premiered in the United States on June 16, 1978. The enduring popularity of Grease is fairly easy to understand. The story is straightforward and simple, the music is catch and easy to sing along with and John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John had an undeniable on screen chemistry that made their romance believable. Credit also has to be given to producer Robert Stigwood, who had brought Saturday Night Fever to the screen the year before. He had signed John Travolta to a three picture deal and had the foresight to cast Travolta as Danny Zuko and bring along Bee Gees front man Barry Gibb to compose the title song.
Directed by Randal Kleiser (The Blue Lagoon, Summer Lovers), Grease was based on Jim Jacobs’ and Warren Casey’s musical of the same name. For those of you not familiar with the story, in 1958, during their summer vacation, Danny Zuko (John Travolta) and Sandy Olsson (Olivia Newton-John) meet at a beach. Sandy is to return to Australia with her family. She is upset, thinking that this is the end of their romance and that they will never see each other again. Danny tries to comfort her by telling her that “it’s not the end, it’s just the beginning”.
Predictably, Sandy ends up staying and attending Rydell High, the same school Danny goes to. To Sandy’s disappointment, Danny has embraced his high school persona–greaser and leader of The T-Birds; Which of course means he has no time for the white bread, squeaky clean Sandy. But alas, even Danny Zuko can’t hide his real feelings for too long and the two eventually find a way to get together; once again proving the theory: opposites attract.
While the Danny/Sandy romance is the main plot of Grease, the story also has several interesting subplots. While a group of boys make up the T-Birds, there’s a group of girls that make up their female counterparts, The Pink Ladies, led by Betty Rizzo (Stockard Channing) who deals with a pregnancy scare because of her relationship with T-Bird Kenickie (Jeff Conaway). Pink Lady Frenchie (Didi Conn) has to deal with the consequences of leaving high school for beauty school and flunking out. While none of these subplots offer the excitement of the Danny/Sandy affair, they help the audience get a real feel for 1958 America–Frenchie’s problems even allow for a singing cameo from 1950’s star, Frankie Avalon which fits in nicely with the story.
It’s the undeniably catchy songs that score the musical numbers that have made the film an American classic. Numbers like “You’re the One that I Want,” “Beauty School Dropout,” “Greased Lightnin'” and “There are Worse Things I Could Do” jump all over the music-genre map, and manage to tell the film’s tale with more energy and more ’50s feel than any scene of dialogue ever could. It is certainly no mistake that Grease: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack has long been one of the best selling soundtracks of all time. The music was simply addictive and easy to sing along to.
I have watched Grease countless times over the years and it never seems to get old. That can probably be attributed to a number of things: it’s a simple story that doesn’t require a lot of pondering, John Travolta and Olivia Newton John have great chemistry and the songs are first rate. Really what it comes down to is, Grease is a feel good movie you can put on anytime, anyplace and it’s bound to bring a smile to your face. If you have one of the recent DVD releases but have gotten into Blu-ray, this is definitely the one that you want.
Grease comes to Blu-ray with a nice-looking 1080p, 2.35:1-framed transfer. The movie shows its age but is generally nice to look at, neither excelling nor faltering in any one spot. A bit of grain is present but it shouldn’t interfere with the viewing experience. Colors are strong and vibrant throughout, the black leather jackets worn by the T-Birds and the pink satin jackets worn by the Pink ladies as well as their respective cars, are as vibrant as ever. Flesh tones sometimes look a bit pink at times but I really wasn’t sure if that was makeup or not, because the issue showed up mostly on the actresses. Overall, Greaseisn’t the best looking Blu-ray in existence the film has never looked better.
Grease comes to Blu-ray with a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack. This lossless presentation offers far more clarity, definition, small details, and a sense of space that seemed lacking on previous home video editions of the film. The numerous musical numbers and songs film, beginning almost immediately with the title cut and throughout the film, play with a clarity and presence that brings the film to new sonic life. All songs feature crisp highs, a solid midrange, and positive, sufficient lows. The subwoofer never rumbles, but it doesn’t have to in the context of the movie. The low end is presented with just the right amount of heft to support the track rather than dominate it. The track also reveals subtle sound effects that may have been lost in the shuffle on previous releases – the cars as they pull into the drive-in and school and ambient crowd noise during the early pep rally scene — engulf the listener quite effectively. Dialogue, too, is delivered clearly and at an adequate volume. It’s a very good overall experience considering the age of the film, and Paramount has done a fine job in bringing this soundtrack to Blu-ray.
The Grease: Rockin’ Rydell Edition has a few special features. Most of these features were released on the 2008 DVD edition and are shown in standard definition, unless otherwise noted.
• Short Video Introduction by Director Randal Kleiser (:24) – He gives a brief summary of what the film is about.
• Audio Commentary – Randal Kleiser and choreographer Patricia Birch provide feature length commentary. Kleiser gives a lot of information about how the film came together–how scenes were shot, some actors selected etc., while Birch talks about the dance sequences. While I wouldn’t call this one of the best commentaries I’ve heard, if you’re a Grease fan, you’ll pick up some interesting tidbits.
• Rydell Sing-Along – Lets you play 11 songs from the movie with a karaoke-style display that walks you through the pace of the lyrics. These can be viewed individually or all together, or you can watch the film with the feature activated, so it appears when the songs begin.
• The Time, The Place, The Motion: Remembering Grease (22 Minutes) – Mixing in some old interview material (and noting it as such) with new sit-downs. The big names, like Travolta, Newton-John and Channing are heard from in older clips.
• The Moves Behind the Music (8 Minutes) – A segment about the dancing in the film.
• Thunder Roadsters (5 Minutes) – Takes a look at car enthusiasts who specialize in the kinds of cars featured in the film.
• Grease Memories from John and Olivia (3 Minutes) – An interview with the pair (This accompanied the first DVD release, back in 2002.)
• Grease on DVD Launch Party (15 Minutes) – The launch party is an entertaining compilation of footage from the shin-dig, including songs the cast sang live on stage at the party. (This accompanied the first DVD release, back in 2002.)
• 11 alternate takes and deleted scenes with an introduction by Kleiser. For whatever reason, these are in black & white.
- T-Birds Harass Eugene – EXT
- Classroom Announcements – EXT
- Pink Ladies and Sandy at Lunch – EXT
- She’s too Pure to be Pink – EXT
- Intro to Summer Nights – DEL
- Rydell Pep Rally – EXT
- Kenickie and Danny Outside Frosty’s – DEL
- The Stroll – EXT
- National Bandstand – ALT
- At the Dance – ALT/EXT
- Thunder Road – DEL
• Four Photo Galleries.
• Clips from the Grease Day, U.S.A. TV special from the time of the film’s premiere, with Travolta, Newton-John and producers Robert Stigwood and Allan Carr.
• Theatrical Trailer (HD)
