Grease Analysis

The film Grease (1978), is a musical comedy directed by Randal Kleiser. This film starred John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Stockard Channing, Jeff, Conaway, and Didi Con.

The plot revolves around a group of teenagers returning to school for their senior year in 1958. The group consists of two gangs: the boys are the T-birds, and the girls are the Pink Ladies. The leader of the T-birds is Danny Zuko, and over the summer, he meets a girl from Australia named Sandy Olsson. Due to a change in plans, Sandy ends up staying in America, and goes to the same high school as Danny and his friends, Rydell High School. The film deals with the issue of being yourself versus being who your friends want you to be. Danny struggles with the choice of whether

This was the time period of what is known as the greasers. This a certain style that boys would adopt to be cool. They wore jeans, t-shirts, and leather jackets, and styled their hair with a lot of gel or grease. They spoke with less refined mannerisms as people used earlier in the 50’s. It was a vernacular similar to Italian/new york slang. They also behaved much more recklessly than teenagers would earlier in the 50’s. They would exhibit lude behavior in public, and would sneak out at night to party, and meet with girls. The girls were also rebellious in their clothing and actions. Girls began to wear shorter and tighter skirts, pants, shirts that exposed their bellies, and shorter hair styles. They would also sneak out to meet boys and also exhibit lude behavior in public. However, there was a minority of students in the film that still dressed and acted more reserved, as teenagers would earlier in the 50’s, with an example being Sandy

Conformity and reserved behavior was the norm in that time period. However the film goes a bit further to show the transition out of that period, and how teenagers became more adventurous and expressive. This issue of rebellious teenagers taking more freedom relates to the current events issue of teenagers and their freedom on the internet. In the film, because of the freedom and lack of supervision, some characters make stupid decisions that could potentially hurt them. For example, Rizzo has a pregnancy scare, and her friend Frenchie drops out of high school. It is an issue today that some teenagers have too much freedom and lack of supervision on the internet, and tend to make stupid and dangerous decisions that could put them in harm’s