cinemabon
09-22-2006, 10:33 PM
Grease at 25
From the moment Allan Carr saw the play on Broadway, he started planing how to bring “Grease” to the screen. After being turned down by all the major studios, he went to his friend, Australian producer Robert Stigwood, the man that successfully produced “Saturday Night Fever” earlier, a film which Carr helped promote. Since Carr started the adaptation process, he approached the man he had in mind all along for the lead, John Travolta. With Travolta onboard, the next in line to cast would be Sandy. Stigwood recommended fellow Aussie, Olivia Newton-John. She agreed to be cast under two circumstances. One, she wanted a screen test with Travolta. If that didn’t work, then she would nix the project. The second provision would be she had to have a solo number. Since Sandy had no solo in the play, one had to be written not just into the screenplay but musically as well. For that, another Aussie, John Farrar, long time collaborator with Newton-John on such albums as “Physical” (which actually came later) was asked to write the solo. “Hopelessly Devoted to You” would turn out to be the biggest hit from a show that did not have that music originally. (Farrar lost the Oscar to the forgettable “Thank God It’s Friday” tune, “Last Dance.” Boo on the Academy) He also wrote the ending, liked mostly by the cast as that memorable number, “You’re the one that I want.”
Unlike other producers, Carr showed up on the set every day, setting the tone for the director and the actors by joking and encouraging participation. With the cast and crew upbeat and in stitches, the energetic group created magic on the set, according to everyone present. Unfortunately for Carr, it would be practically his only contribution to cinema. Just a year or two later, the disastrous Academy Award production got him blacklisted and he never worked in Hollywood again. However, Carr put his stamp all over “Grease” and it works time and again. When watching the opening credit animation and sound effects reel, Carr balked at the soundtrack. He called another Australian (are you counting?), Barry Gibb, the last surviving member of the Bee Gees. At the time, they were riding high on the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack, produced by Robert Stigwood. Carr asked Gibb if he would write the opening.
“What do you want the song to be about?” he asked Carr.
“Grease!” Carr declared. “What else?”
Gibb called back one hour later and said the following to Carr: “Grease is the word.”
The phrase stuck and the music, sung by Frankie Valli (The Four Seasons) fit the opening animation perfectly, becoming the number two hit song from the show. “Summer Nights” the opening song featuring John and Travolta in a duet was number three. Often called the last great musical (Evita, Phantom and others have followed with varying success), “Grease” is one of those 1950’s revival musicals that is loved and admired on many levels.
The story revolves around your typical boy meets girl on a beach during summer break, only to be reunited in high school that fall with completely different personas. Sandy is demure and shy (her character changed to Australian for the film). While Danny Zuko is a gang leader (albeit a practically non-threatening one, their worst crime, knocking school books out of hapless student’s hands), he must maintain his cool exterior rather than appear weak to the other men in his gang for being in love with Sandy. Yet as the film progresses, Danny gradually realizes that after high school, the gang will matter less than his feelings for Sandy, which seem permanent. Rather than split from the gang, Danny helps friend and fellow gang member, Kenickie (Jeff Conaway, he actually played Danny on Broadway and knew Travolta) by customizing his car and racing it at Thunder Road. Suspected of being pregnant by Kenickie, Rizzo, leader of the Pink Ladies and played flawlessly by Stockard Channing, pines quietly on the sidelines with “There are worst things I can do.” The film’s climax involves Danny trying to change into being straight for Sandy, and is surprised to find Sandy doing the same for him. Sandy joins the Pink Ladies. They in turn get together with the T-birds, Danny’s gang at the end.
Released in 1978 (the year after Star Wars), no one, least of all the executives at Paramount, expected “Grease” to amount to anything that year, let alone become the year’s biggest box office hit and highest grossing film musical of all time (340 mil with world added). In this twenty-fifth anniversary edition, Paramount Home Video has pulled out, well, not quite all the stops, only about 70 percent of them. For one, they took the documentary from the 2002 DVD release and just changed some of the interviews, leaving most of the older blurry footage intact. They added some additional ‘workprint’ extended footage in black and white found at Paramount as a bonus. The so-called interview with John and Travolta turns out to be a few questions asked on the red carpet at the DVD party held earlier this year. The five-minute “could you stop for a few questions” is an extremely poor substitute for a sit down interview. Where are the rest of the cast survivors? The director’s commentary is somewhat informative, if not entertaining at times.
At any rate, to end on a positive note, the print and sound have been completely redone. Compared to the 2002 DVD, this is a completely different film. The colors are rich. The print is completely free of defect, artifact, or grain. It is extremely gratifying to find such a clean and crisp delivery of such an older film, and I applaud the print division for giving us a lasting clear image. The new commemorative box is surrounded with a black ‘leather jacket’ jacket and an embroidered “Grease” on the zippered front. If the features had been produced a bit better, it would have been easy to give this DVD an A-plus. The print is that superior. The features are just so-so.
From the moment Allan Carr saw the play on Broadway, he started planing how to bring “Grease” to the screen. After being turned down by all the major studios, he went to his friend, Australian producer Robert Stigwood, the man that successfully produced “Saturday Night Fever” earlier, a film which Carr helped promote. Since Carr started the adaptation process, he approached the man he had in mind all along for the lead, John Travolta. With Travolta onboard, the next in line to cast would be Sandy. Stigwood recommended fellow Aussie, Olivia Newton-John. She agreed to be cast under two circumstances. One, she wanted a screen test with Travolta. If that didn’t work, then she would nix the project. The second provision would be she had to have a solo number. Since Sandy had no solo in the play, one had to be written not just into the screenplay but musically as well. For that, another Aussie, John Farrar, long time collaborator with Newton-John on such albums as “Physical” (which actually came later) was asked to write the solo. “Hopelessly Devoted to You” would turn out to be the biggest hit from a show that did not have that music originally. (Farrar lost the Oscar to the forgettable “Thank God It’s Friday” tune, “Last Dance.” Boo on the Academy) He also wrote the ending, liked mostly by the cast as that memorable number, “You’re the one that I want.”
Unlike other producers, Carr showed up on the set every day, setting the tone for the director and the actors by joking and encouraging participation. With the cast and crew upbeat and in stitches, the energetic group created magic on the set, according to everyone present. Unfortunately for Carr, it would be practically his only contribution to cinema. Just a year or two later, the disastrous Academy Award production got him blacklisted and he never worked in Hollywood again. However, Carr put his stamp all over “Grease” and it works time and again. When watching the opening credit animation and sound effects reel, Carr balked at the soundtrack. He called another Australian (are you counting?), Barry Gibb, the last surviving member of the Bee Gees. At the time, they were riding high on the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack, produced by Robert Stigwood. Carr asked Gibb if he would write the opening.
“What do you want the song to be about?” he asked Carr.
“Grease!” Carr declared. “What else?”
Gibb called back one hour later and said the following to Carr: “Grease is the word.”
The phrase stuck and the music, sung by Frankie Valli (The Four Seasons) fit the opening animation perfectly, becoming the number two hit song from the show. “Summer Nights” the opening song featuring John and Travolta in a duet was number three. Often called the last great musical (Evita, Phantom and others have followed with varying success), “Grease” is one of those 1950’s revival musicals that is loved and admired on many levels.
The story revolves around your typical boy meets girl on a beach during summer break, only to be reunited in high school that fall with completely different personas. Sandy is demure and shy (her character changed to Australian for the film). While Danny Zuko is a gang leader (albeit a practically non-threatening one, their worst crime, knocking school books out of hapless student’s hands), he must maintain his cool exterior rather than appear weak to the other men in his gang for being in love with Sandy. Yet as the film progresses, Danny gradually realizes that after high school, the gang will matter less than his feelings for Sandy, which seem permanent. Rather than split from the gang, Danny helps friend and fellow gang member, Kenickie (Jeff Conaway, he actually played Danny on Broadway and knew Travolta) by customizing his car and racing it at Thunder Road. Suspected of being pregnant by Kenickie, Rizzo, leader of the Pink Ladies and played flawlessly by Stockard Channing, pines quietly on the sidelines with “There are worst things I can do.” The film’s climax involves Danny trying to change into being straight for Sandy, and is surprised to find Sandy doing the same for him. Sandy joins the Pink Ladies. They in turn get together with the T-birds, Danny’s gang at the end.
Released in 1978 (the year after Star Wars), no one, least of all the executives at Paramount, expected “Grease” to amount to anything that year, let alone become the year’s biggest box office hit and highest grossing film musical of all time (340 mil with world added). In this twenty-fifth anniversary edition, Paramount Home Video has pulled out, well, not quite all the stops, only about 70 percent of them. For one, they took the documentary from the 2002 DVD release and just changed some of the interviews, leaving most of the older blurry footage intact. They added some additional ‘workprint’ extended footage in black and white found at Paramount as a bonus. The so-called interview with John and Travolta turns out to be a few questions asked on the red carpet at the DVD party held earlier this year. The five-minute “could you stop for a few questions” is an extremely poor substitute for a sit down interview. Where are the rest of the cast survivors? The director’s commentary is somewhat informative, if not entertaining at times.
At any rate, to end on a positive note, the print and sound have been completely redone. Compared to the 2002 DVD, this is a completely different film. The colors are rich. The print is completely free of defect, artifact, or grain. It is extremely gratifying to find such a clean and crisp delivery of such an older film, and I applaud the print division for giving us a lasting clear image. The new commemorative box is surrounded with a black ‘leather jacket’ jacket and an embroidered “Grease” on the zippered front. If the features had been produced a bit better, it would have been easy to give this DVD an A-plus. The print is that superior. The features are just so-so.