Holy shit I love that movie. It was just randomly on VH1 and I watched the whole thing. I knew every word.
I mean, look, I know it has a terrible end message- girlz, change yourself and you will indeed get the hot guy- but it's just so massively enjoyable. It poos all over High School Musical et al, the lameo remake from the early aughts. You know why?
- It has tons of actual sex. Not *actual* Brown Bunny style sex, but teenagers having sex without dire consequences or lecturing.
- Rizzo and Marty have sexual desires to match the boys, and aren't deemed sluts. In fact, they are both respected and desired themselves, and seem genuinue friends with guys they aren't interested in.
- No, none of the "teenagers" look like teenagers, but they do look exactly like the 30 year olds they were. Normal hair, normal teeth, and yes, thin figures, but not the unattainable huge-boobs-skinny-legs dealio of today. They had little boobs to go with their little hips. Some of them aren't even good singers and their voices aren't auto-tuned.
- Smoking. Drinking. Stealing. Swearing. Illegal road racing. On the regular. None of these feature in a movie for 12 year olds today.
- Title song by Barry Gibbs.
- Best. Costumes. Ever. (I made myself a copy of the dress Rizzo wears to the school dance. I never got to wear it because I left it in Canberra after one weekend and then a friend mailed it to me and the package was STOLEN FROM MY APARTMENT MAILROOM. Enjoy that dress, theives.)
- Above all it was all so goofy. The dance sequence for the final song, We Go Together, is positively ridiculous. Possibly the unsexiest dancing of all time. And it looks so fun. I can't imagine Zac Efron being such a dork.
Maybe I'm making excuses for all the weight harassment (teasing Jan about being fat truly baffled me as a kid) and sexual harassment (Danny coping an unwanted feel of Sandy in the '"pussy wagon") because this movie plays such a huge part of my childhood. When I was in primary school the cool thing to do was to have a slumber party and show Grease and Grease 2 back to back. I must have seen it 50 times. I still love it.
Grease 2 is on now. Must go.
The condom scene 'I got it in the seventh grade'... could probably have recited that line well before I understood it. Rizzo may still be one of my favourite characters ever, and I am still bemused by Kenickie's descent into drugs as an ageing out of work actor. See 'Celebrity Rehab With Dr Drew' - so fucked up, he appeared in the first AND the second series, thought Stephen Adler kind of outshone him in the second one.
ReplyDeletePoor old Kenickie. He deserved better.
ReplyDeleteAnd I cosign on Rizzo. She is one of the best movie women of all time.