English essay(assignment 1)

1. SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN
THE DESIGN SCHOOL
FOUNDATION IN NATURAL BUILD ENVIRONMENT
NAME: LEE CZEN SHING
STUDENT ID NO:0317832
FILMS SELECTED: GREASE & fOOTLOOSE
WORD COUNT: 1026 WORDS
ENGLISH 2 (ELG 30605)
WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT 1: COMPARE – CONTRAST ESSAY
LECTURER: CASSANDRA WIJESURIA
SUBMISSION DATE: 19TH SEPTEMBER 2014

2. Some of you may wonder, what is does musical films actually mean? Well basically,
it’s a film genre in which songs sung by characters are interwoven into the narrative,
sometimes accompanied by dancing. This kind of musicals never fails to draw my
attention especially the movie Grease and Footloose. What draws my attention towards
this two great musical films is because of the extraordinary tunes, alongside with the
dance moves. These two films are similar in the sense where the main combatant
moves to a new place and is faced with challenges, unfriendly people and a feeling of
being an outsider.
The ‘uneasy state of serenity’ in Footloose is shown when the banning of dancing
and rock music in the town carried out by Reverent Shaw Moore, who was the spiritual
leader mainly to discipline the stubborn and rebellious teenagers. This jittery state was
caused by a few teenagers who got into a car accident a few years back. Thus, in
Reverend Shaw Moore’s conclusion, he believed it was caused by loud music as well
as drinking. However, the town’s uneasy state of equilibrium is violated when Ren
McCormack moved to town. He is the type who dresses like David Bowie. Adding on to
that, he drives at a fast speed to school while blasting rock music in his car. Since most
of the citizens have learnt to obey the rules and not be discernible, they feel threatened
when an outsider violate their rules. Thus, they try all sorts of ways to make him feel
unwelcomed. Moreover, he also gets kicked out from the gymnastics team as he was
accused of drug use.
Comparing it to the movie Greace, the similarity is when Sandy Olsen moves to the
same school as Danny Zuko. But unlike footloose, the movie Grease was not an uneasy
state of equilibrium before Sandy but, after she moved in. When she moves to Rydell
High, she creates an uneasy state in the sense where Danny’s reputation among his
friends which is the T-Birds gang. His gang made fun of him for being a goody two
shoes. Thus, that’s why Danny pretends to be uninterested being a good student so
that he could maintain his bad boy reputation. This point in proven when Sandy asks
Danny “ What is the matter with you nowadays?” as he was being pretentious.
Thereupon, Ren’s journey to Bomont, the new town he moved into, made him realize
that all his horror dreams have come true. No dancing! No rock music! The public
knows that Ren enjoys dancing when he tells Willard, which is his first friend in Bomont.
He tells Willard about his adventure back in Chicago where he danced closely with a
girl. Adding on to that, we as audience know that Ren enjoys rock music when his mum
compares him to David Bowie as well as the type of music he listens to during his ride
to school. The movie “journey’s hero” can be applied to Ren when his epiphany to
organize a dance while washing his car right after he found out that he has been kicked
out of the gymnastics team. The climax begins when Ariel Moore, which is Reverend’s
daughter , becomes Ren’s friend. Adding on to that, she helps him with his quest by
asking people to support him at the town’s council meeting. Ren attempted to convince

3. the town council failed but he did not lose hope. Ren’s ultimate benefit comes when
Reverend Moore finally gave his blessing for the seniors to have their prom after a
civilized talk from Ren. This was when Reverend realized that Ren, that was also known
as the troublemaker is not that bad after all.
Sandy from Grease nonetheless does not cause a change in the uneasy state of
equilibrium. On the other hand, she is the one who changes due to the uneasy state. In
her mindset, she thinks she has to change in order for her to be truly accepted by
Danny, Pink Ladies and T-Birds. Thus, she changed herself and ended up smoking and
wearing revealing clothes. Sandy is the apotheosis of innocence. This was shown when
both Sandy and Danny were describing their summer holidays. From this, we viewers
can see that Danny’s interpretation of his summer contains many sexual acts which is in
contrast with Sandy’s innocent version. During Sandy’s summer holiday she only went
strolling and drank lemonade. This proves how pure and innocent Sandy is. In addition,
her innocence was mocked by the Pink ladies during the sleepover. Specifically Rizzo,
from the gang mocked her by singing “Look at me, I’m Sandra Dee”, pretending to be
Sandy.
Hence, Ren’s journey from Chicago to Bomont leads him to a whole new
environment without dancing and rock music. It also does not allow teenagers to dance
and have fun. In contrast, Sandy that moved to a new school leads to a change towards
herself. This was proven when she decides that she has to change in order for the
uneasy state of this world to be balanced.
The reason why both Grease and Footloose are considered to be a romantic musical
is because both the protagonists gets a boy or girl. In Grease, us audience know from
the beginning that Sandy and Danny are already romantically involved, whereas in
Footloose, Ren does not know anyone from Bomont, still manages to persue a girl,
Ariel.
To wrap it all up, we can see both the main characters, Ren and Sandy, experiencing
a change in their lives when the moved to a new place and environment. Us viewers
can see Sandy changing her attitude just to be with the boy she loves. Fortunately, she
succeeded in the end. In contrary, we can see Ren changing the new town he moved
into. He succeeds in making the town alive again, with dancing and music.
Fundamentally, what actually made both this musicals more expressionistic is from the
amount of musical. They notified us about how Sandy changed throughout the film and
what Ren’s true feeling is. Along with these songs, it also allowed Sandy and Danny to
declare their love in the end.