A few weeks ago as I was scrolling through Facebook, I saw saw a meme and the image was from the final scene in the movie Grease when Olivia Newton-John is dressed in tight clothes. The caption was something about changing who you are for love and it was sarcastic.
I totally see the point the person with the meme was making because it did bother me for a long time that ONJ's character of Sandy had to change from a "good" girl to a bad one to catch Danny. Why should she have to change? She's fine just the way she is and Danny loves her just the way she is, but if he's too big of an idiot to realize it, she's better off without him.
But over time, as I've thought about this, I realized something. Sandy might have changed at the end for Danny, but earlier in the movie, Danny tried to change who he was for Sandy.
Remember when he dressed in a sweater and tried out for sports? He did the exact same thing Sandy did, the only difference was that he tried to change earlier. We always recall the end more vividly than an earlier point in the movie and I think that's why Danny's attempt at change is forgotten. Something tells me that Sandy's change won't last any longer than Danny's did--like a day or two.
The other thing that occurred to me is that high school is over. Being part of the greaser clique or having a label of "good girl" doesn't mean much in the real world. I can see Sandy and Danny getting married, he gets a job, and who they are morphs. No one is the same at say 25 as they were at 18 and the hero and heroine from Grease are no exception.
You're probably thinking why would anyway waste this much time thinking through the plot of a movie and working out all kinds of theories. This is the bane of my existence. I'm always critiquing films--it's one of the reasons why I rarely watch movies anymore.
The plus side, though, is that this overthinking the movie has allowed me to enjoy it again. There was a long stretch when I was too annoyed by Sandy's transformation to watch it.
