Grease Movie Review (Essay Sample)

Grease
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Grease
Thesis Statement
The choreographer uses dancing in the film "Grease" to meticulously show mostly the varied life an adolescent and how provocative it can be. The music and dances is a clear indication of the struggles that teenage goes through ranging from early or teen pregnancy to violence.
"Grease" is an American musical film that was produced in the year 1978. The film was written by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. The film is about a girl, Sandy and the boy, Danny, the greaser who meet during winter. It happens that they fall in love. However, when the schools resume in summer, they realize that they are actually from the same school. They pass through several obstacles but their love stands the taste of time. The main stars in the movie include John Travolta, Stockard Channing and Olivia Newton. There exists quite a number of songs in the film some of them include Summer Nights, We Go Together, Grease is The Word, Hopelessly Devoted To You, Beauty School Dropout, Blue Moon and many more.
This research majors on only two dances scenes found in the film. Grease, a song by Frankie Valli, is one the song that has been used by the writers to show the differences in a teenage life and how provocative such life can be at times. The song uses dancing styles that are teenagers can easily identify with. Some of the lines include "Grease is the time, is the place, and is the motion”. This song "Grease" is useful in the case of bringing out romance as an inclusion of the movie. This feature is mainly seen by the way in which the soundtracks together with the merchandise have been successfully incorporated into video hits commonly found in teen magazines (Feuer 2004: 233). The actors in the song Grease, Travolta also makes the song become successful. This happens because several of the dancing scenes have been sold to large audiences who readily identify with the songs and the message contained (Kotter, 1979:9). A common feature with teenage music is the use of dance that adds the complexity needed in any narration. Grease, being one of the best songs, incorporated the use of dance in a very nice way (Gilmour, 1977:186). The dances employ the use of rock music over the commonly used images. The sequence used in the dances also expresses and solves problems using music. This clearly indicates that one element of the teenage films which usually cuts across people’s culture is the alternate story.
Gestures are also employed in this song. Gestures help in describing the varied elements of aesthetic production (Brannigan, 2011:172). The proper uses of gestures promote clear understanding between those performing the dance, the viewer, the film itself and even the relationship between the film and other disciplines. When gesture is understood in a very clear way the way it’s fully elaborated in Grease, it leads to opening up of ideas of how gesture should be and what categories of things needs to be gestural in any dance film. A philosopher, Lyotard, says "that gesture may not only refer to the work f an artist. It may also mean attempt by a person to respond to any art work.”
It’s therefore evident that in this song, Grease, the dance scenes have been used in quite a number of ways to help in making the message of the film clearly understood. This therefore means that the songs were not used here for the wrong reasons. They had a task of showing the teenage provocations which has been fully achieved by this song.
Another song that has been performed within the film and has a good dance and message is the Beauty School Dropout. This song is performed by Frenchie, a character who drops out of high school with an aim of joining a beauty school. To her surprise, life at the beauty school becomes more difficult than she expected. At one point she accidentally dies her hair with a pink dye. Stressed up, she approaches a waitress for a solution. The waitress seemingly is not interested in offering any helpful advice. Just in time, Frankie Avalon pops in and starts to sing her a song. The song uses persuasion to impress her and let her know the importance of education. The dance was performed in Ziegfeldian costume with several girls parading next to the accompaniment of the singer (Knapp, Morris & Wolf, 2011:207).
The dance scene in this song also stood out because of its honesty and the raw appeal it had. This was seen in the way the dancers did it with an aim of bringing out the intended message. The stylistic devices employed in the Beauty School Dropout works very well mainly because of the way Frankie Avalon lackluster way of performing the song and not because of the way in which Patricia Birch, the choreographer, and Kleiser understands it. Birch, who is believed to have choreographed the song, keeps the dancers busy but the climax reaches when Travolta, wearing a red hat, takes centre stage. He moves his body in such a way that the crowds remain swayed. At the end of the song it can be clearly seen that Frenchie seems to have made up her mind. It’s obvious that she is going back to school. The main aim of the two dance scenes in film is somehow as that that has been achieved. Once still the problems that a teenage goes through are fully covered here. It’s therefore appropriate to say that the dance scenes were not incorporated in the movie just for the sake of singing and dancing but to serve a particular function; to show teenage problems.
The historical context surrounding this movie is rather strange. The movie was performed in a time when America was undergoing a change in their cultural history. It’s documented as the period when culture was being turned upside down as rock and roll was evolving to Sexual Revolution. Several companies that produced music, film and other types of video had started producing hundreds of singles each week so as to cope up with the current system of events. Grease, which was at first considered as a film which had little musical power, proved to be the real story about cultural change in America.
The film was released in period when the teenagers were really concerned with the issues of styles and culture. There is nothing that mattered to that generation as being seen as those who were moving with time. An earlier tradition of finding adventure and freedom as the most important things that should be considered was also changing. A culture that mattered at that time was that of disengagement and disenfranchised. These two became the real symbols of civilizations among the youth.
The theatre that used to be performed at that time in America used to be one that was characterized with danger, rowdiness and a lot of insight. On the other hand, Grease released into the market a new way of doing things. There were several busting success of Hair shows and several shows of such kinds. Suchlike shows ignored the traps that had been laid by other Broadway musicals of that time. Grease great cultural truths concerning America and the community at large due to its theatre experience. It’s this experience that revealed numerous truths about the reality of the American culture. The experience that was produce by the Grease film is one that has been forgotten by several productions of the recent past.
Grease majorly is a film about two forces having a tug of war. The two forces here are repression against freedom in American sexuality. Sexual freedom had been an issue in the American history from the 1950s but real sexual revolution began during the 1970s, a time when Grease was just coming into existence. The 1950 teenagers felt for their rock and roll, which is believed to be the first art form which changed the way in which humans looked at sex. The rock and roll was initially an African American slang which was used to mean sexual intercourse. This slang dates back to the year 1920s.
Another important aspect of historical context of the film is that this film was performed at a time when America was undergoing several changes. The youth had come up with new ways of becoming rebellious. This was seen in the type of hairstyle they had. They failed to shave their hair and this to them symbolized a nationwide cultural declaration of independence. The characters who took part in the performance of Hair and Grease failed to accept to conform to the authority, the same way Hair and Grease as theatre pieces also failed. Just like Hair, Grease also proved to be antisocial, the same way most films that were being produced at that time were.
Grease is also said to be a film about authenticity, which means that it was acting like a watchword for the rock and roll generation. Teen sexuality had been an issue in the American for quite some time. It dates back to the time when rumble seat was being used. It had a property moving forward, like a freight train that always goes fast. Grease therefore proves to be a film that came up at the right time before teenage sexuality exploded. It mostly did the job of examining the sutures found within the armor of the bourgeoisies and repression. It also fantasizes on American dream that never happened on reality but only on television airwaves.
The American adults could easily identify with movie Grease because it represented their interests; it assured them that their teen was still a good girl despite all the challenges they pass through. Severa...