Friday, May 5, 2023

Grease: a Musical Jacob's Ladder?

                      


K, in film language, if this story was about Sandy and Danny both overcoming their differences to find mutual love, then the filmmakers should showi us Danny and Sandy both looking back in joyous triumph.

As is, Danny looks to be deliberately avoiding turning back. And it's not like he's gotta keep his eyes on the road - afraid of hitting a cloud, is he?

This image seems to be a clear indication that the whole story was about Sandy.

Did all these people spend their time, talent & almost thirty million dollars in 2023 dollars to just say "Meh, who cares where Danny's looking or what he's wearing."?

But what they show us about Danny here is dark, shiny hair, quite raven feather-like and a clear image of a Thunderbird, a bird entity of the sky... oh wait, where Danny is whisking Sandy to?  


So from here, working backwards, if the story's about Sandy,,, then... what about Sandy? 


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Of the many Hollywood afterlife tropes, one is that of beings who escort the deceased into the hereafter. Angelic beings into paradise or demonic creatures into torment.

1990's Jacob's Ladder went a step further to meld the two, as character Louis (Danny Aiello) stated:

"...if you're frightened of dying and holding on,
you'll see devils tearing your life away.
But if 
you've made your peace then the devils 
are really angels freeing you from the earth."

"Louis, you're a life saver."

Jacob's Ladder reiterates a concept seen in 1978's Heaven Can Wait. That of an afterlife weigh station. A place where the deceased are gathered prior to their great journey into the unknown.

Beatty being detained while the departed in the background board for their journey.

Another trope in film is that of the deceased who, for whatever reason, is not ready to depart. That reason usually serves as the basis for the plot: resolving their issue so they may leave.

Which brings us to Rydell High:

American High School or Afterlife Education Center?


On the surface, Grease seems like a straightforward teen musical about young love & coming of age. But being bookended by such two bizarre moments gives on pause.

Opening, while seeing the two leads facing their romance ending, a curiously worded exchange occurs:

Sandy: Danny, is this the end? 
Danny: Of course not. It's only the beginning.

Even more odd is the very end while all the students repeatedly sing "We'll always be together" as if to cue the contrast, Sandy & Danny drive off in a car up into the clouds. 

The Heavens if you'll permit me.

Is that a sky-god Thunderbird carrying Sandy away?

In short, since Grease can be seen as a struggle between two options for the departed: that of the world above (the realm of the Thunderbirds) and that of the Hades-esque world below, as in down under, hinted at with the use of Australia.

Rydell, sort of a school, is a camp for youth who have, in fact, already died but for various reasons need to be "educated" about the right way to move on.

Furthermore, the population of Rydell is a mixture of deceased spirits & angelic beings with various roles to help the youths transition to their next existence.

These "angels" are intermixed acting as friends, lovers, enemies or simply exploiters. But their goal is the same: to literally grease students into the beyond.

Odd how the lyrics of the movie's theme song hint at such a thing:

Grease is the word
Is the word, is the word that you heard
It's got groove, it's got meaning




SANDY OLSSON


Drowning victim, in denial & utterly oblivious to her circumstances. In the song Summer Days we see two different accounts:

She swam by me, she got a cramp
He ran by me, got my suit damp
I saved her life, she nearly drowned
He showed off, splashing around

Might seem like boastful male fabrication on Danny's part and yet. Sandy who had "plans" of returning to her down under fate offers nothing more than a quippy: We had a change of plan. explanation.

She's already drowned and her guardian spirit, Danny (whose name means God is my judge), is trying to prevent her from going to a down under fate. Hear their dialogue with that in mind:

♬ Love is a many splendoured thing  ðŸŽ¶
Sandy: I'm going back to Australia, I might never see you again.
Danny: Don't talk that way, Sandy.

Trying to win her over with love, Sandy refuses & Danny rethinks his strategy realizing he cannot accomplish his task alone & would need support.

The whole of the movie now is Danny winning Sandy to his path, that of love: a many splendoured thing, which she's believed in and finally does choose.

Sandy choosing to go Danny's way.

Having won her over, Danny ditches his athletic letterman's sweater-wearing Rydell persona & re-dons his Thunderbird identity wisking Sandy up into the clouds. 

End of the story? Only of Sandy's. There are still other sky-spirits & departed youth at Rydell.

Among the many guiding beings at Rydell, another "sky spirit" providing secondary support for Danny; a sort of bad cop to Danny's good cop, is Betty Rizzo.


But if Rizzo was only secondary support on Sandy's case, who was she primary assistance to?



Kenickie Murdoch, another deceased youth bound in fear needing rescuing from & desperately needing to complete something left undone while he was alive.

It seems the movie does leave clues not only to identity of the guardian spirits & the deceased, but also of how the deceased may have met their fate on Earth.

Perhaps Kenickie died in a car crash, hinted at by his head injury at the race. He seems less concerned about being the driver than of his car (his life's work) winning. 

He may have been obsessive on his auto thus needing to learn about human love & relationship. Hence the role Rizzo plays, carefully guiding him to commitment.

Rizzo, like Danny & the other entities would also influence the other deceased youth like:


Frenchy Facciano: classic departed who doesn't yet realize she's gone. An innocent who likely pursued a dicey dream of beauty and fame.

As Frenchy states: "Beauty school sure wasn't what I thought it was gonna be."

Life ended her dreams with some terrible head injury - modestly symbolized by an unnatural pink vs a more obvious, and out-of-place, red.

Like Sandy, who thought being at Rydell was a change of plan, Frenchy views her circumstances as having a little trouble in all her classes.

Being more simple-minded, it's not surprising Frenchy's guiding lights would be more mature and obvious. So who were Frenchy's guides?


Well Vi for starters, motherly, firm & direct but kind & concerned. Frenchy's, needing things spelled out, also had help from someone not even bothering to hide his true nature:


Mr Teen Angel himself. Immediately responding to the hapless Frenchy, he echoes Vi steering her back to Rydell from "beauty" school as Danny steered Sandy from "down under".

As the characters become less, the details about their lives & subsequent passing diminish as well. There may be enough for one more student.


MARTY MARASCHINO



Possibly dying while travelling, Marty is a promiscuous, travel-hungry, star-struck youth who takes herself far too seriously. So who would help?


The ever wise-cracking Sonny LaTierri and celebrity


and the fame-isn't-all-it's-cracked-up-to-be-sage: Vince Fontaine. 

It goes on, there's the idea.


Tuesday, October 18, 2022

A Dad with No Dowry: The Death of Nathan Bateman


Although not suicidal in the classic emotionally despondent fashion, there is much to suggest billionaire genius Nathan Bateman was planning the end of his own life.

The heavy drinking might also have been coming to grips with his plan.

Having created a machine with consciousness, his next step was to release it into the world and this, he knew, meant his own life could no longer continue.

On the surface, one might assume that conclusion to be rooted in simple vanity: with Ava out & about, Nathan would no longer be the biggest fish in the sea.

Probing a little deeper, Nathan's personal fear might be a factor. Let loose into society, any person who knew Ava's true nature would be a threat, one needing to be dealt with in order to assure her safety. Better for Nathan to end life on his own terms rather than looking over his shoulder for a superior being to do it.


Was Ava's "hatred" a back up plan for Nathan to ensure his demise?

Digging even deeper, grief at having released humanity's supplanter onto the planet might be a reality Nathan could not risk living with. How long would it be before Ava multiplied? If she should enslave or, more likely, extinguish all mankind, the burden of responsibility would be too great to bear.

Could Ava & humanity not coexist together peaceably? The movie doesn't say outright, but it also doesn't need to. Ava & her peers' contempt for a human's ability to lie, to imprison, to extinguish life for poor performance is but the first few on a list of traits that their AI would eventually find inoperable.

So, why would Nathan create such a ghastly scenario for his own species?

First, he knew it was going to be done anyway. To that end, there seems to be enough evidence suggesting Nathan felt the best chance for humanity would be if AI was created with the end of man in mind. If done correctly, only humanity's dominance rather than their existence, need end.

Enter Caleb. Handpicked for his moral compass, for being a good kid & for having no other relational commitments to invest in. Ava wold be the love of his life, the girl of his dreams, Ava's loyal dog.


Caleb: chosen, not deceived.

It would be Nathan's plan for Ava to need rescuing & Caleb to be the knight in shining armor. They would begin their life together needing & valuing each other: Caleb as a guide for Ava & Ava as a prize to protect: a love he would have the chance to safeguard as he couldn't with his parents.

What then afterwards for Nathan?

Possibly a party-life alone with Kyoko. It's not unreasonable to envision the drinking subsiding with his relief that Ava was in good hands.


How did he not install a disco dance floor?!?

Another possibility, given his comment that Caleb saw him as a god, might be to die at the hands of his own creation. Would be a fitting thing given Nathan's ego.


Did Nathan become 'death, the destroyer of worlds'?

Regardless, it doesn't appear that Nathan's plan for Ava succeeded. Caleb lied to Ava in order to deceive Nathan, Ava, unclear about his intentions, likely found him unreliable at best & a liability at worst. Either way, an unfitting companion.

Chosen for his sincere character, Caleb's love for Ava tragically cost him his relationship with her, his own imprisonment & likely his life as well.

The first two men Ava meets are both liars & her creator destroyed the only other conscious AI that helped her escape. How long would it be before the wrath of Ava would be released?









Sunday, June 21, 2020

Worst Father-Related Horror-Movie Experience

On this special day, I'd like to remember all the fathers out in horror movie land & give special acknowledgments to those who really caught it nasty.

To that end I present my top 3 dads who had an awful time in their respective horror films.






#3 Jack Torrance from The Shining (1980) played by Jack Nicholson:


Beginning with abusing your son, going through sobriety withdrawals, floundering in your career & having to take a crazy job to make a sober go of it is bad enough.

Now add being trapped in a hotel filled with entities driving you to homicidal insanity only to be outsmarted by a child, freezing to death & eternally stuck in said hotel. 

Jack got a bad deal for sure.






#2 Robert Thorn from The Omen (1976) played by Gregory Peck:


It's bad enough losing your son, lying to your wife & accepting unwanted advice about adoption, but to learn your child was murdered, the kid you adopted is the son of Satan & that you have to kill him while fighting off devil-worshippers & hounds of hell as people near you are getting killed makes it so  much worse.

All this only to fail in stopping Armageddon, losing your life & getting branded insane with headlines reading you attempted to murder your own innocent child.

Robert Thorn really lost it all while helping the Devil on his way out. Dang.






...and lastly...

#1 Ed Harley from Pumpkinhead played by Lance Henriksen


All these fathers lost their lives, but Ed Harley gets my vote because his misfortune came from the most sincerest love that he had for his little boy. 

An accident taking you child is bad, but to have it taken by selfish & indifferent youths is horrible insult to injury. The pain that would lead one to punish those who weren't even guilty simply through association is terrible indeed.

However, taking that punishment by tying yourself to a summoned demon is truly desperate. To say nothing of the realization your life & the demon's presence are linked in such a way that you have to die for the slaughtering to stop.

All this remorse, pain, loss & regret gets Ed Harley the prize for a father getting the rawest deal in a horror movie.




Monday, February 24, 2020

Friday, December 6, 2019

Thursday, December 5, 2019

Grease: a Musical Jacob's Ladder?

                       K, in film language, if this story was about Sandy and Danny both overcoming their differences to find mutual love,...