Beyond all of the obvious trappings of movies, books, shows, and songs that encapsulate moments of life into highlight reels that create unrealistic depictions of what those moments will play out like in real life, there's the matter of growing up watching movies about high school featuring actors aged in their early 20s (and sometimes well beyond), and yet when you arrive there yourself you don't look like Danny or Sandy - you're still actually a gawky fourteen year old.
Okay, in all honesty, it seemed like some people you ran into in grade nine did arrive as fully formed T-Birds or Pink Ladies, and maybe those were the folks that were having problems like turf wars, pregnancy scares, and lecherous TV hosts hitting on them. Me? I was worried about my math marks, I guess.
So whenever I watch any kind of super-sized high school drama, I'm always very detached from the salacious plotlines - and having made it through the years of parenting my own kids through high school, I can now say that I'm twice removed from all of that nonsense. All I want now is a good show.
And Grease is a good show. The songs are top-tier. The dancing is all fine - but boy is it obvious how Travolta is leagues ahead of everybody. I mean, his walk is a dance.
This project has also revealed to me that while I grew up presuming that Grease was the beginning for Newton-John, that's just because her prior success was in a blind spot for me.
My favourite scene from the movie also happens to be one of my favourite scenes of all movies; I don't have a list or anything, but how about top 50 for this: https://youtu.be/ZS9SXH3DfT8
The looks shared between Travolta and Channing are, especially in the context of this rather blunt movie, quite subtle and layered.
Oh, and I don't think that Danny boy is any good for Sandy.
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