The Problem with "Grease" - The Becket Cook Show Ep. 16

hey guys welcome to the becca cook show i'm beckett cook and as you know on the show i like to look at the culture and see how it influences us as christians and the lies of the culture and what the biblical truth is underneath those lies and today i have kind of a surprising topic and for some reason over the last week the movie greece the musical came to into my mind and i started thinking about it and i remember seeing it as a kid and i of course loved it and everyone loved it and i started to think about the themes of the movie and what it was what the messaging was so i went back and i watched it again the other night and it um kind of blew me away what basically the main theme of the movie is as you know it's it's john travolta it plays the character danny zuko and olivia newton-john plays sandra sandy sandy olson and they have this kind of summer romance in malibu or wherever in santa monica at the beach and then she's supposed to go back to australia she's from australia they actually the producers of the movie wanted to cast her but she couldn't do a convincing american accent so they just put it in the storyline that she was from australia which worked so she ends up not going back to australia with her family they end up staying in california in los angeles basically and and she ends up going to rydell high school which is the high school where this all takes place and it's danny's senior year at rydell and of course danny zuko is the leader of the gang kind of of the like biker sort of leather jacket gang the t-birds and you know kaniki is in the gang and and three other guy a few other guys and there's also a kind of the female version of the t-birds which is called the pink ladies and rizzo is the leader of that gang and rizzo was of course was played by stalker channing all of these actors by the way were like in their late 20s and and some some of them in their 30s playing high school students which is kind of funny because i remember as a kid thinking like those people look kind of old but everyone looked old when you were a kid so but i realized thinking about it and watching it again that you know the main theme of this this beloved movie by all americans and i'm not trying to be tipper gore about this at all i just i just want to point out that we don't live in a vacuum and that we are where we are today because of very specific cultural moments that have taken place since the 1960s and this was one of those cultural moments and it the the movie was based on a 1971 musical uh the the musical grease and it's interesting because that year was a pivotal year in 1971 was right on the heels of the 1960s sexual revolution so it makes sense that the themes of the movie would be sexual in nature and so and also that was kind of the beginning 1970 was really the beginning of the gay movement um 1969 was when stonewall the the stonewall riots happened in new york so the main theme of the movie is that sandy who is kind of this innocent sort of goody two-shoes girl is not really who she should be she and by the end of the movie she becomes who she should be which is a hyper-sexualized version of herself so that's kind of the whole theme of the movie is this this this pent-up young girl blossoms into kind of a sexual woman by the end of the movie and and it's interesting how that that transmogrification happens and and i went back and i really listened to the music and the lyrics are crazy that the lyrics are so sexualized and i'm going to go through some of the lyrics today but as you know danny danny and sandy had that kind of summer fling kind of romantic love affair not a love affair but they had a romantic fling they went steady basically over the summer it was very innocent but when sandy comes back to high school to rydell she she runs into danny and she's like danny and and immediately he's kind of you know just like blown away by seeing her and he's like sandy and then he realizes his cool friends are behind him and so he suddenly like shifts and he's like oh sandy like and he pretends like he doesn't really know her because she looks too goody two shoes for the t-bird gang so at the beginning of the movie before that actually before that scene they sing summer nights um and and it's kind of like the song is between the point of view of of john travolta his point of view of the relationship over the summer versus olivia newton-john's point of view of the relationship over the summer and and they're very different in nature john travolta's view is very sexual and and uh olivia newton-john's is is not and so i just kind of want to read a couple of lines from the song summer nights uh you know how it goes summer loving had me a blast like that song so the the guys say the the guys the t-birds say tell me more tell me more did you get very far meaning did you have sex with her and then it says and then later in the song it says tell me more tell me more was it love at first sight tell me more tell me more did she put up a fight like did she put up a fight when you tried to have sex with her like there's so much like weird sort of like rape undertone in this it's very strange and then uh near the end of the song it says she says he got friendly holding my hand so of course her version is very innocent and then he says she got friendly down in the sand which is of course a sexual illusion and then she says he was sweet just turned 18. [Music] and then he says john travolta says well she was good you know what i mean again there's sexual innuendo almost in every other line of this movie it's just out of control and it reminds me of this kind of like led to tv shows like three's company and i don't know if you know remember three's company with uh john ritter and suzanne summers but it was i think it came out in the late 70s early 80s but i mean in that show everything was sexual all the all the jokes had kind of sexual innuendo like that was the entire premise of the show and then i the the show friends the tv you know the sitcom friends is is all about sexual innuendo will and grace the same what thing how i met your mother on and on and on so i think that greece the musical the movie that came out in 1978 this came out in 78 was kind of one of the seminal moments when the culture was shifting in terms of in terms of the way we treated sex and sexual sexualization on tv and on in movies i mean obviously there were movies before that that were sexual in in in some tv shows but this was i think a big turning point in the culture and then frenchy who's part of the the pink ladies frenchie really kind of takes a liking to sandy she feels kind of sorry for sandy innocent sweet sandy and she is talking to the pink ladies and talking to rizzo and she's she says you guys how do you like sandy huh do you think we can let her in the pink ladies and rizzo says she looks too pure to be pink so again there's that sexual undertone it's like she's two she's two goodie two shoes she hasn't you know she hasn't had sex she's a virgin like she can't be part of the pink ladies that's kind of the the message there and then frenchie has in a pajama party she invites all the the pink ladies to this pajama party and she invites sandy olivia newton john and she she attempts to pierce sandy's ear and she's sandy starts bleeding and she passes out basically in the bathroom and while she's in the bathroom rizzo sings the famous song look at me i'm sandra d and you'll remember look at me i'm sandra d and so and and rizzo is making fun of sandy and sandra d of course was an actress in the 1950s and or in 60s and i i guess she had a very kind of goody two-shoes reputation that was her persona and so stocker channing says look at me i'm sandra d lousy with virginity won't go too bad till i'm legally wed i can't i'm sandra d so again it's just like pushing kind of this like sexual liberation messaging this kind of sexual movement and sexual revolution um it's really pushing and so and then later in the movie oh by the way the opening credits of greece uh is the song grease and um it's kind of uh it's it's sung by i think frankie valley and he says it's interesting the lyrics of this of part of this song he says in the the lyrics of the song are we take the pressure and we throw away conventionality belongs to yesterday so you see how immediately in the beginning of the movie the they're they're signaling that conventionality traditional roles traditional sexuality or traditional norms are being thrown out the window conventionality belongs to yesterday so this is kind of ushering in a new wave of of what it means to be a human and it means it means sexual liberation it means being sexual and and then he goes on to say there is a chance that we can make it so far we start believing now but we can be who we are so again this part of the song is kind of addressing that whole sort of hyper individualism that radical individualism that started happening in the 60s and 70s um and so he says we but we can be who we are so again it's kind of like forget tradition forget norms forget you know values forget any of that we're gonna we're this is a new day a new day is dawning and it's all about hyper individual uh expression and sexualization and so then in that song grease he there's this kind of existential moment where he sings this this part which is interesting to me he says this is the life of illusion wrapped up in trouble laced with confusion what are we doing here and what's interesting about that what struck me about that line what are we doing here is it's like yeah if you don't know why you're here of course all bets are off and anything goes if you don't know why you are on this planet it doesn't matter what you do and that of course that's again that's in my life i've talked about this many times but when i was living as a gay man for 20 years or whatever however long there was no god in my life there was no i i was i was an atheist i didn't believe in god and i of course thought that finding sort of my kind of sexuality and expressing my sexuality was part of of the reason i i was here was part of the reason why i was living it was that was a huge part of my life was sexual kind of sexual engagement and and of course when you know what are we doing here again when we don't know what we're doing here we don't know what we it's a this is a post-modern situation and as i say all the time when i was living in that post-modern world where there is no right and wrong there is no up and down there is no black or white it's just whatever you kind of believe in your in your mind because of what your feelings are it's all based on kind of your feelings and your interpretation of things but when you when you live that way um you you can do anything you want it doesn't matter what you do but when when you find that when i got saved 11 years ago when god redeemed me out of that life praise god so glad he he he plucked me out of darkness and into his light because it's so much better kind of like in the book of hebrews everything you know jesus is is better jesus is better um but it's so much better to be in the kingdom of god than and to be than to be in the kingdom of darkness and and once i knew you know why i was here because you know the day i got saved it was such a road to damascus moment and i knew exactly why i was here what what i was doing here where i came from and where i was going it was so clear and once that happens to you everything changes including your sexual ethic including and you and you understand why god sets up boundaries for sexuality and sets up these boundaries for sexual ethics and what his sexual ethic is what the biblical sexual ethic is and why he created sex which i've talked about another episode so you can go back and watch but um so it's interesting that you know this obviously this movie is being produced and written by by people who are secular humanists who don't understand who god is and don't understand what the point of life is and so of course when you don't understand that then you just go with your feelings and if those feelings are sexual feelings you just go with that and that's what our culture has been doing since the sexual revolution in the 60s and then there's the song grease lightning which i can't even really i can't even tell you what some of the lines are because they're really really raunchy i didn't realize how raunchy they are remembering in the movie grease lightning is when uh kaniki is he bought this old jalopy sort of 1950s jalopy and they're fixing it up and john travolta and they're all in this kind of white stage and singing grease lightning grease lightning and um i'll spare you the the details of the song because they are extreme they're like rated x and i didn't even know that like as a kid watching that i remember watching that scene and loving it but not really understanding what they were saying and they say a lot and it's all extremely extremely sexual so if you want to look that up you're welcome to do that but i can't read that live on air um and then there's this turning point in the movie where sandra d or where sandy has this major sort of turning point and it's when she goes down to the la river to watch the drag race that's happening between kaniki and leo who leo is the kind of rival gang leader and of the scorpions and kaniki kind of has this like sort of accident he the the car door hits his head and he passes out basically so john travolta has to take over and and do this drag race against leo the head of the scorpion gang so there's this drag race and leo's girlfriend remember her his girlfriend cha-cha she she's like wearing a scarf and she takes it off and she's like she you know starts the race and um cha-cha has an interesting character too she's super hyper-sexualized as well so sandy is watching the drag race and after she sees the drag race and sees that john travolta wins she has this moment of kind of like i want to be like them i want to be sexual like them i want to change and and she sings look at me i'm sandra d but in her own way and she says it's interesting the lyrics are really interesting she says look at me there has to be something more than what they see wholesome and pure oh so scared and unsure a poor man sandra d and then she goes on to the next stanza she says sandy you must start anew so she's she's changing she's realizing she wants to become a new person and become no longer the prude sort of uptight goodie two shoes she wants to become a bad girl right and so she says sandy you must start anew don't you know what you must do hold your head high take a deep breath and sigh goodbye to sandra d so you see she's she's basically saying goodbye to that that pure that purity that pure life that i was leading goodbye to that kind of goody two-shoes traditional old-fashioned way of of thinking old-fashioned way of of living i'm going to become this sort of sexualized person and i'm going to become a part of this group and because i want to belong to the culture i want to be a part of the culture and that's what the movie is all about really and then at the end of the movie there is the song of course you're the one that i want and it's it's when uh sandy comes out and you see her new outfit she's no longer wearing like a poodle skirt and you know a cardigan sweater she with her hair like you know perfectly you know brushed she comes out and her hair is all teased and she's wearing basically the female version of the t-birds outfit so the t-birds all wore black black leather jackets and black you know pants and blah blah and sandy is now wearing super tight black spandex pants and a black top that's kind of low cut and and she's wearing black heel or black you know yeah black heels and so this is her transformation this is you know she's she's she's coming into her own she's coming into herself she's coming into her true self is what the the message of the movie is and it's almost like this is the message of the movie is telling the audience this is what you need to be you need to be sexual you need to come out and come out of that shell and come out of that old way of thinking and come into this new way of thinking about sex and and and sexual liberation which that which of course as i always say is sexual bondage but in the song you're the one that i want um it says i'll just read a couple lines from it it says you know john john travolta and olivia newton-john it's a duet between them and it says you better shape up she says she says you better shape up because i need a man and my heart is set on you you better shape up you better understand to my heart i must be true and again this is all about that the whole ethos of follow your heart that the culture has been indoctrinating us with since the 60s follow your heart follow your heart follow your heart follow your heart and we know from the bible that the heart is deceitful and wicked and so we should never follow our hearts we need to follow god's heart we as christians we need to follow the word of god and follow what his heart is and and so that line to my heart i must be true is so powerful to a culture and by the way this was uh this was one of the big i think it was the biggest grossing movie of all time at that at that time in 1978 um i think it was it was one of the biggest grossing movies of all time and and then so she says to my heart i must be true and then she goes on um oh and then john travolta says i better shape up cause you need a man who can keep you satisfied and of course once again sexual undertones in that who can keep you satisfied and so it's just interesting to me you know i i you know as a kid when i saw this movie it just seemed so innocent and fun but obviously it's not there's so much underneath the fun of this movie is so much kind of indoctrination and messaging and and that that led to so much more obviously over the last 42 years 43 years um and that's where we are today we're in this kind of upside down world where everything is is good is bad and and bad is good and left is right and wrong up is down and down is i mean everything is just upside down in our world today and we wonder kind of how that happened and obviously this this the movie greece is an exam a very potent and a very pivotal example of how we got to where we are today and that's why i focus on culture so much because politics is downstream of culture culture kind of sets the agenda it sets the rules for for the society and for for even for public policy and that's where we are today and it's it's not like we got here out of nowhere i mean it's because of movies like greece and again i don't want to be you know this kind of prude about it or or whatever but i just want us as believers as christians to be aware of what how we're being influenced by culture what's happening in culture that makes us believe that things like oh homosexual practice is no longer a sin like what they're these are the types of things that make us as believers as christians believe the lie of the culture we start to look more and more like the culture instead of looking more and more like christ and i always say that we're either giving into the pressure of the world or the pressure of the word and that's why it's so important to my bible's over there and i can't reach it but well that's why it's so important to be in the word all the time as believers to combat the lies of the culture even just you know something is quote unquote innocent is watching the movie grease we need to be constantly renewed in our minds by the truth of the of the gospel by the truth of of scripture of god's word and and so uh anyway i hope this helped you and i i don't know you might want to go watch greece again and just kind of see what i'm talking about and see how sort of raunchy the movie is it really is a raunchy movie and um i hope you enjoyed this episode and share like subscribe and i will see you next time on the becca cook show thank you

Channel: Becket Cook

Views: 80,844

Keywords: Grease, John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Sexual Revolution, Chynna Phillips, California Preachin, California Preachin', Becket Cook, Ben Shapiro, Matt Walsh, Dave Rubin, Andrew Klavan, Lila Rose, Allie Beth Stuckey, Candace Owens, The Remnant Radio, PragerU, Daily Wire, Michael Knowles, Jordan Peterson, John MacArthur, Fleccas Talks, Eric Metaxas, Carl Trueman, Stephen Crowder, Elijah Schaffer, Christopher Rufo, Ron DeSantis, Douglas Murray, Joe Rogan, Larry Elder

Id: Whq_TMPIQRI

Length: 27min 38sec (1658 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 11 2021