40 years of Grease: has it aged well?
16th June 2018
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On this day in 1978, Grease released in cinemas for the first time. Now, 40 years on, we look at how well the film has aged, and whilst the costumes are still amazing, the acting is still good and the songs are still very easy to sing along to, there are certain aspects of the smash hit musical that haven't aged so well.
The most obvious thing on first look back, is the ages of the cast members. Whilst Hollywood has always seemed to trend towards adults playing teenagers, you only need to compare the more recent Grease Live adaptation of the hit musical to the 1978 movie, and it becomes apparent which plays more convincingly as teenagers (hint, it's not the original cast members). Most notable is Stockard Channing who, at 35 in the movie, would never be able to play a teenager had the film been shot now. Pretty well all of the cast were well into their twenties, and it definitely shows.
The lyrics of some of the songs are also a little iffy now, especially that one line in 'Summer Nights' where one of the boys asked Danny "Did she put up a fight?" essentially implying that Danny raped her, which yeah, was probably not a great lyric then and is an even worse lyric now. Greased Lightning is chock full of dodgy sexual references, which are made even worse when you realise that this is a song a lot of us used to belt out at school discos!
The sexual politics of the film might have been appropriate for its fifties setting but for 2018, in the age of #TimesUp and #MeToo, not so much. Danny attempts to grope Sandy in the scene in the car, and then tries to force himself on her before she runs away. Vince Fontaine, host of the televised high school dance, attempts to roofie Marty (it's a throwaway line, but she says he tried to put aspirin in her coke). Rizzo is horribly slut shamed for having sex after her pregnancy scare is revealed, and Rizzo herself shames Sandy for being a virgin (this film really can't decide which is worse, having sex or not having sex). All the girls shame Cha Cha for having had sex, describing her as the girl with the "worst reputation" even though most of the Pink Ladies (if not all) have had sex themselves.

The sexual politics of the film might have been appropriate for its fifties setting but for 2018, in the age of #TimesUp and #MeToo, not so much. Danny attempts to grope Sandy in the scene in the car, and then tries to force himself on her before she runs away. Vince Fontaine, host of the televised high school dance, attempts to roofie Marty (it's a throwaway line, but she says he tried to put aspirin in her coke). Rizzo is horribly slut shamed for having sex after her pregnancy scare is revealed, and Rizzo herself shames Sandy for being a virgin (this film really can't decide which is worse, having sex or not having sex). All the girls shame Cha Cha for having had sex, describing her as the girl with the "worst reputation" even though most of the Pink Ladies (if not all) have had sex themselves.
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