WELL, YOU KNOW THAT IT'S THE [THING] WHEN WE'LL BE GETTING [HITS ON BING] FOR GREASED LIGHTNING! In writing about the Sing-A-Long Grease today, the NYT notes that this verson "features some minor lyrical changes to make the songs less crude." According to original director Randal Kleiser, "The new version has some really funny things too, like when they sing 'pussy wagon,' we put a picture of a cat. When they say 'tits,' we put a cow doing the twist. It’s continuing to be crafty." Har, har.
Also, all of the cigarettes are CGI'd out, Rizzo is worried that Kenickie has made her late in applying early to Pomona, and the scene where Danny Zuko sings "Sandy" while a suggestive weiner does backflips behind him ... I have no idea what can be done with that.
Related: How we almost had a Grease with Henry Winkler as Danny Zuko, Carrie Fisher or Susan Dey as Sandy and Lucie Arnaz as Rizzo.
That possible casting reminds me of watching an AMC feature on Carrie, and how since they were looking for a lot of the same age group they shared auditions with Star Wars. Yes, imagine footage of William Katt trying out for Luke Skywalker and the like. Or hey, Cindy Williams as Leia.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/v/8Ob-k0Rr6Fg" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="170" height="140
In the trailer, the subtitles replace "cream" with "scream" in "Greased Lightning," though Travolta still sang "cream." However, despite the "less crude," the Sing-A-Long version is rated PG-13 ("for sexual content including references, teen smoking and drinking, and language"), while the original version remains rated PG.
ReplyDeleteWell, there was no PG-13 back then ... have any pre-Red Dawn films been re-rated?
ReplyDeleteIf they are commercially re-released with any changes at all, I believe they have to go through re-rating. It appears all the Star Wars special editions got re-reviewed for rating purposes, but without any changes.
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ReplyDelete</p><p>I think there's pre-PG-13 precedent in the other direction too -- I believe Midnight Cowboy, which was originally rated X, was re-rated a couple years later on as R, and I don't think there were editorial changes.
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</p><p>The Star Wars special editions DID have changes from the original (the Greedo/Solo interaction, new Jabba scene, different FX shots, etc.), so the re-review by MPAA makes sense, regardless of the decision not to change the films' respective ratings. But I think Midnight Cowboy's re-rating was more of a situation of the X rating, which was originally intended as a real MPAA rating, becoming co-opted/diluted by the porn industry (one possibly apocryphal story is that the MPAA never bothered to copyright the "X" rating or register it as a trademark), and the producers/MPAA wanting to re-release the movie without what by then was a scarlet letter.
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Looking at the trailer, oh how annoying the cutesy subtitles are. Is this how SA Sound of Music was?
ReplyDeleteAlso, CGIing the cigarette out makes the brief shot of Black Leather Sandy look rather less child-friendly than more, imho.
I've heard the "didn't trademark" story, and the MPAA's trademark registrations bear it out. There's no record of them having applied to register "X" or "X-rated."
ReplyDeleteWow. I didn't look before. That's horrifically cutesy, and no, Sound of Music was not like that.
ReplyDeleteCan we get a sing-along version of "The Apple?"
ReplyDeleteAlso, seriously, a TON of then-PG rated films from the pre-Red Dawn era would easily be slapped with PG-13 if reevaluated today. Jaws being Exhibit A, and Poltergeist Exhibit B.
ReplyDeleteI always associate the PG-13 rating with Temple of Doom and Gremlins, as the films that led to the rating - hadn't realized that Red Dawn was the first one to carry the rating.
ReplyDeleteI am substantially less interested in this than I would have been without these changes. So, thanks for the heads-up, y'all.
ReplyDeleteThe CGI'ing-out of cigarettes appalls me in a way that more conventional censorship doesn't. It decontextualizes the film, in a way that cutting the topless coeds from Animal House doesn't.
ReplyDeletePretty in Pink is another one... rated PG, with at least 1 eff-bomb in there. Also, Beetlejuice... "Nice fuckin model!" *crotch grab*
ReplyDeleteI think most parents would faint if they saw that in a PG movie now, maybe even a PG-13.