There’s car grease, elbow grease, greasy hair…and then there’s the best kind of grease: Greased Lightning.
Poodle skirts. Pink ladies. Young John Travolta. And the best soundtrack of the 70s.
Grease is my favorite movie (please try not to psychoanalyze me based on this tidbit of information—you already know I dress up my dogs and take photos of them, that’s enough).
Sandy and Danny–the classic good girl-bad boy love story. They have a summer romance when they meet at the beach, but Sandy must return to Australia.
The dog days of summer meet Summer Nights
But then, *suprise*, Sandy doesn’t return. Unbeknownst to either of them, she ends up enrolling at the same high school as Danny. (*Brief Aside* So Sandy’s parents are enjoying their U.S. vacay soooo much they decide–‘Hey, who cares about all our belongings and family and jobs back home [what if they had a dog–what happens to the dog!], we’ll just stay here. It’s only Sandy’s senior year of high school, in a new country, where she knows no one, she’ll easily make friends and adjust’ [which, apparently, she does–she is sitting and singing with friends at lunch on day 1–WHAT?] But, more importantly, of all the high schools in America–Sandy ends up at the one her summer fling attends. Seriously? What. are. the. odds.)
T-Birds and Pink Ladies discuss the ups and downs of summer lovin’
The Pink Ladies figure out that Danny is Sandy’s Summer fling and Spring them on each other during a Fall pep rally, but Danny is as cold as Winter (I.am.so.clever.). He is not the sweet guy Sandy met on the beach, he is a bad boy, a greaser. Sandy storms off in tears.
Sandy goes to a sleepover with the Pink Ladies, there is more singing, and then the T-Birds show up. One of the Pink Ladies (Rizzo–but I only have so many dogs at my disposal) goes off with a T-Bird, they have some…fun…but the leader of The Scorpions (a rival “gang” who seems to consist solely of their pockmarked “leader”) rams their car, interrupting them.
The T-birds then spend time fixing “Greased Lightning,” singing about how awesome their lives would be if the car was all fixed up (i.e. they would get lots of tail…wagging. They would wag their tails a lot because they would be happy, obviously).
“Well this car is systematic, fire hydrantmatic…”
Sandy and Danny end up getting back together and there’s a whole big dance sequence that was outside of my budget. (As was the drive-in scene, where they break up again).
Next, Danny has to race against the Scorpion leader after Kenickie gets hit in the head and can’t drive. Sandy watches from the sidelines, rethinking her good girl image and her feelings for Danny.
The big race (*spoiler* Danny wins)
The final scene takes place at the school’s end of the year carnival. Danny shows up in a letterman’s jacket, trying to impress Sandy–but Sandy shows up smokin’ hot (as well as just smoking).
“We go together like ramma lamma lamma ka dinga da ding DOG”
Sandy and Danny end up back together and fly off in Greased Lightning (because having the car magically fly away without any explanation, set up, or believability whatsoever was obviously the only fitting choice for ending a movie about high school sweethearts …not like a kiss would’ve sufficed.). So the moral of the story is–change into whatever your partner wants you to be and you’ll live happily ever after…or…every good girl is really a hidden bad girl…or…punish your parents for moving you halfway across the world your senior year by getting with the resident bad-boy…or…if you sing about it enough, it’ll happen. Take your pick.
“You’re the one that I want…” and I completely trust you to fly this car, even though it has no wings and I’m 99.99% sure you don’t have a pilot’s license yet.
Grease is the word.
DramaDogz 