Post by No Personality on Mar 3, 2010 16:13:37 GMT -5
For the: I-don't-really-have-time-to-go-in-depth kinda review(s) I do best ;D 
Oy-freaking-vay! If this thing isn't the saddest, most delusional, and overproduced turkey to ever find bigtime success with movie-goers... what is? History may be kind to it, but watching it now is an utterly embarrassing experience from front to back.
This movie has, overall, a pretty good music soundtrack. No big secret. But has anyone ever noticed before that the filmmakers have added a chorus of like backup singers to overdramatize it even more? Take "Love is a Many Splendored Thing" for example. I don't know if that's on the record/cassette/CD, but "Hopelessly Devoted to You" is. And this movie destroys the power of that song. Even though Olivia Newton-John is doing a great job with the scene, the entire scene is completely ruined by these backup singers. SHUT UP! And God, if it's not them ruining everything- how about the actual singing?
Okay, that's a bad segue into a heavy criticism of "Greased Lightnin'," but I'll allow it. What a sick, perverted piece of trash. But it's nice to know that bad gay dancers like cars and want to pretend they want "tit" and "pussy." I know I'm going too far, but- otherwise, I'm speechless. That scene is one of the most shocking things I've seen in film history. Instead of being a rousing, jumping musical number- it's disturbing, ghastly, not at all for children, and in incredibly poor taste. What director, studio head, producer, or executive in the whole of Hollywood thought this was appropriate for families?! Or - in fact - anyone... And I don't even know what's creepier, the dancing or the lyrics.
Another quick observation: those 3 dildos hanging off the side of the screen (guys with really bad greasy haircuts making jerking gestures) during the "You're the One That I Want" number (when Danny and Sandy are standing in the spinning tunnel and holding each other. Pure tastelessness. Couldn't be more out of place.
This movie is one big perv fest. And I don't mean to seem like a prude. I'm not. But God I've seen sleazier movies with more tact and class than this. Or that were more inspired. This movie is meant to feel liberating. But instead, it's just cheap and lame. With bad cheap shots spilling out of its' ears throughout. It's practically oppressive. Not to mention how much of it centers on the double standard between men and women- where the girls will be punished for getting around but the guys can live it up with anyone they want to and not be bogged down by serious commitments. This movie almost favors that.
Which brings me to the movie's best quality: Stockard Channing. Her "There Are Worse Things I Could Do" is the one spot of honest to goodness intelligence in the entire film. It's just a summary of the whole thing her character is going through, but hits all the right points anyway. It's a very serious song and every line makes a big statement. All of them true, sharp, wise, and important. Almost a total paradox coming out of a movie like this. Rizzo becomes the movie's only brave character. She doesn't let the pressure get to her but she reveals that she's also human.
All the greaser characters in the movie, including the girls, have a really "Mtv" oriented idea about sexuality - irresponsible, cheap, and fast. Talking a lot about getting it and possibly giving it away, sex without condoms. Making them nothing but irritating (though I did like the Doody and Frenchie characters, I admit). But the nice girl Sandy won't make a little kissy-face at the drive-in and calls Danny's car a "sin wagon" because she thinks he doesn't respect her. That's an awful big leap for this movie to make about something innocent like that (and- since his friends weren't around, what's the excuse for him doing something he clearly wouldn't have done during the summer they spent together?).
Quickly, Sandy's observant and nice (and sometimes sassy) character becomes judgmental, irrational, and impossible to relate to. Danny's supposed to be the mess (and he is- none too respectful toward women, especially Rizzo; his "sloppy seconds" line was nasty even for a movie like this). First the sleaze, now the movie's reverse puritanical streak (trying to earn moral points by chastising the behavior after glorifying it). It's all overwhelmingly foul.
Oh, and the guy with glasses and bow-tie is a real square, man (or whatever they called it back then). Not cool at all. But just because he does well in school and isn't popular... he's involved in the dance committee. HUH? Valley Girl corrected this mistake 5 years later as Carrie did 2 years earlier - the popular kids are always on the dance committee! Is this actually authentic at all? It's also alluded to that just because he dresses this way, he's gay. Though the movie doesn't exactly finish that off by saying it's a bad thing. Gee- thanks for small favors... 'Course, he also gets picked on and his last scene involves him getting a pie in the face.
Did anyone making this movie know what they were doing at all? (Or, was there a lot of drug use going on on the set?)
Does THAT^ answer my question?
Oy-freaking-vay! If this thing isn't the saddest, most delusional, and overproduced turkey to ever find bigtime success with movie-goers... what is? History may be kind to it, but watching it now is an utterly embarrassing experience from front to back.
This movie has, overall, a pretty good music soundtrack. No big secret. But has anyone ever noticed before that the filmmakers have added a chorus of like backup singers to overdramatize it even more? Take "Love is a Many Splendored Thing" for example. I don't know if that's on the record/cassette/CD, but "Hopelessly Devoted to You" is. And this movie destroys the power of that song. Even though Olivia Newton-John is doing a great job with the scene, the entire scene is completely ruined by these backup singers. SHUT UP! And God, if it's not them ruining everything- how about the actual singing?
Okay, that's a bad segue into a heavy criticism of "Greased Lightnin'," but I'll allow it. What a sick, perverted piece of trash. But it's nice to know that bad gay dancers like cars and want to pretend they want "tit" and "pussy." I know I'm going too far, but- otherwise, I'm speechless. That scene is one of the most shocking things I've seen in film history. Instead of being a rousing, jumping musical number- it's disturbing, ghastly, not at all for children, and in incredibly poor taste. What director, studio head, producer, or executive in the whole of Hollywood thought this was appropriate for families?! Or - in fact - anyone... And I don't even know what's creepier, the dancing or the lyrics.
Another quick observation: those 3 dildos hanging off the side of the screen (guys with really bad greasy haircuts making jerking gestures) during the "You're the One That I Want" number (when Danny and Sandy are standing in the spinning tunnel and holding each other. Pure tastelessness. Couldn't be more out of place.
This movie is one big perv fest. And I don't mean to seem like a prude. I'm not. But God I've seen sleazier movies with more tact and class than this. Or that were more inspired. This movie is meant to feel liberating. But instead, it's just cheap and lame. With bad cheap shots spilling out of its' ears throughout. It's practically oppressive. Not to mention how much of it centers on the double standard between men and women- where the girls will be punished for getting around but the guys can live it up with anyone they want to and not be bogged down by serious commitments. This movie almost favors that.
Which brings me to the movie's best quality: Stockard Channing. Her "There Are Worse Things I Could Do" is the one spot of honest to goodness intelligence in the entire film. It's just a summary of the whole thing her character is going through, but hits all the right points anyway. It's a very serious song and every line makes a big statement. All of them true, sharp, wise, and important. Almost a total paradox coming out of a movie like this. Rizzo becomes the movie's only brave character. She doesn't let the pressure get to her but she reveals that she's also human.
All the greaser characters in the movie, including the girls, have a really "Mtv" oriented idea about sexuality - irresponsible, cheap, and fast. Talking a lot about getting it and possibly giving it away, sex without condoms. Making them nothing but irritating (though I did like the Doody and Frenchie characters, I admit). But the nice girl Sandy won't make a little kissy-face at the drive-in and calls Danny's car a "sin wagon" because she thinks he doesn't respect her. That's an awful big leap for this movie to make about something innocent like that (and- since his friends weren't around, what's the excuse for him doing something he clearly wouldn't have done during the summer they spent together?).
Quickly, Sandy's observant and nice (and sometimes sassy) character becomes judgmental, irrational, and impossible to relate to. Danny's supposed to be the mess (and he is- none too respectful toward women, especially Rizzo; his "sloppy seconds" line was nasty even for a movie like this). First the sleaze, now the movie's reverse puritanical streak (trying to earn moral points by chastising the behavior after glorifying it). It's all overwhelmingly foul.
Oh, and the guy with glasses and bow-tie is a real square, man (or whatever they called it back then). Not cool at all. But just because he does well in school and isn't popular... he's involved in the dance committee. HUH? Valley Girl corrected this mistake 5 years later as Carrie did 2 years earlier - the popular kids are always on the dance committee! Is this actually authentic at all? It's also alluded to that just because he dresses this way, he's gay. Though the movie doesn't exactly finish that off by saying it's a bad thing. Gee- thanks for small favors... 'Course, he also gets picked on and his last scene involves him getting a pie in the face.
Did anyone making this movie know what they were doing at all? (Or, was there a lot of drug use going on on the set?)
Does THAT^ answer my question?