Post 8: The Ultimate Debate

While watching Ali Wong’s Baby Cobra and reading the Vulture article about it over the weekend, I came up with a sort of comparison. It seems familiar to me that the “perfect, somehow virginal mother” that the article mentions is compared to Wong’s badass “use [of her] pregnancy as a source of power and…a weapon instead of a weakness”. Where have I made this comparison before? Oh, right! The pure, innocent, malleable and pastel-wearing Sandy from the classic film Grease compared to a similar-looking yet quite different Stephanie from the sequel Grease 2, who is self-reliant, hard-working, and feminist.

Okay, did I use Wong’s special as a partial excuse to talk about Grease 2 and why it is so good? Maybe. But I still made the connection, and I stand by it! And also, I couldn’t justify making a solely Michelle Pfieffer Appreciation post, so this is what I’m going with.

Note: Sorry to Holly, Vivienne, and those who I have already subjected to my soap-box-rant about Grease v. Grease 2. To the rest of you, get ready.

As my source, I found a great article that speaks about some of the things that I love most about this sequel (other than Michelle Pfieffer herself), and this article describes Grease 2 as a sort of “gender swap” version of the first movie, with the roles of Pining Girl and Indifferent Dude flipped for the protagonists Stephanie and Michael. This article also talks a bit about why the original Grease is actually not so awesome, with Danny and Sandy’s love story “about trying to change identities to fit in with who they think the other wants them to be”, and where Sandy, in the end, is the one who morphs into the ideal ‘bad girl’ and “[leaves] her real self far behind”. Not only does Stephanie not change her “sexually awake”, tire-changing self for Michael, but she also, unlike the first movie’s Rizzo, “doesn’t have to be mean to anyone who doesn’t fit into her Pink Lady standard”. Throughout the movie, if you are comparing it to the original Grease (which, if you have ever seen the first film, it is almost impossible not to), it is so clear that Stephanie “offers a much better female role model than the mousy” female protagonist Sandy for so, so many reasons, and the second movie as a whole proves to be much more feminist (and better overall) than the original.

Let’s talk about some music, shall we? Both Grease and Grease 2 are musicals, so the track is a very important part of the movies. Like the article mentions, the first Grease features the song “Summer Nights” with the lyric “Did she put up a fight?”, which, even before my love of the sequel, always rubbed me the wrong way. However, though Grease 2 does feature the problematic song “Let’s Do It For Our Country” in which one of the T’Birds “tries to seduce a girl in a bomb shelter”, there are so many wonderful and even educational bops littered through the second movie.

Like what, you ask? Well…

The song ‘Reproduction’ is sung by all of the main students, including Stephanie and Michael, in a classroom with a substitute teacher who is attempting, and failing, to control the teenagers as they break into song and dance (tell me that isn’t hilarious!). The entire class (and even one of the female teachers) “go all in on their hormones together” in this tune as they sing about how babies are made using euphemisms of plant parts, and they make a nod to how clueless men are about the female reproductive system. This always has been and forever will be my FAVORITE song in the whole movie, I can sing almost every word of it, and am singing it in my head involuntarily as I write this.

A very close second favorite of mine is the bop ‘Cool Rider’, sung solo by the-protagonist-with-the-pipes herself, which the article deems “the movie’s best musical moment, and a showcase for Pfeiffer’s Travolta-rivaling charisma”. This song contains the famous Ladder Scene, where Michelle Pfieffer climbs a prop-ladder in all black (with her Pink Ladies jacket reversed to be a leather jacket, I would die for one of those) and bright red lipstick, then pretends to ride the ladder like a motorcycle.

‘Score Tonight (Let’s Bowl)’ is also an honorable mention due to the absolutely insane bowling alley dance number with nuns, which (though I recommend watching this entire movie once or twice a day, every day, forever) is a clip you should take the time to watch.

‘Girl For All Seasons’ is another song I’d like to add, specifically because it features only women and all of the Pink Ladies. Also, I didn’t realize before reading this article, but one of the Pink Ladies is actually Lorna Luft, the daughter of Judy Garland!

As the article states: “Let’s be clear, Grease 2 is not perfect”. However, I believe that it is much better than the much more widely-praised original film, and not just because it is my favorite movie. It is feminist, it is sex-positive, it teaches girls that they don’t have to change themselves for a man, and it features a soft, emotional yet strong male protagonist. Grease 2 has “earned a legacy as one of film’s worst sequels”, but it is truly “undeserved”.

P.S. Never seen Grease 2 but think Michelle Pfieffer looks familiar? She also played the evil mother and former-beauty queen in Hairspray with John Travolta. And guess who comes back in this movie? Frenchy! As well as the principal and Blanche, still working hard at Rydell High!

P.P.S. Please let me know if you have seen Grease 2/what your opinions on it are! It is one of my favorite conversation topics. 

COOL RIDER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYB317pljts

REPRODUCTION: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwM0SPJ9Gj0

SCORE TONIGHT (LET’S BOWL): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOLyYOq3j2Y

GIRL FOR ALL SEASONS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmKUIu85QR8

Article: https://film.avclub.com/grease-2-is-actually-way-cooler-than-the-original-1798264518