Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Backwards Films


Back in the olden days, if you played lps backwards (a.k.a. "records" for those of you born after 1988), you might hear some secret messages. However, if you play films backwards, you get totally different movies. Welcome to Backwards Films!

Here are a couple of my own contributions:

Flashdance
A dancer with the Pittsburgh ballet school tires of her prim, confining schedule, and decides to explore the realm of exotic dancing in nightclubs. Eventually, she discovers her true calling as a steel welder.

Grease
Sandy, a wild, spandex clad girl from Australia decides that a future with John Travolta is no future at all, and spurns him after watching him recklessly race his car backwards down Thunder Road. She straightens her hair, removes her make-up, and starts wearing dresses with Peter Pan collars. Rizzo, her best friend, feels betrayed by the change and gradually becomes more hostile toward her increasingly "square" friend. When all hope seems lost, Sandy and John Travolta meet upon a beach and kiss passionately. However, when John Travolta says, "This is only the beginning," Sandy responds that it is the end. And so it is.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Let me tell you how much I'd rather watch THAT version of Grease!

Yorkshire Pudding said...

Did you ever read Kurt Vonnegut's excellent anti-war novel - "Slaughterhouse 5" in which a backwards film illustrates the horror of warfare.

Saints and Spinners said...

Yorkshire Pudding: I have indeed read Slaughterhouse 5, but it bears rereading!

Galetea: If you like this version of Grease, wait until you see Grease 2.:)

Liz said...

Too funny hon! I'm surprised this whole phenom hasn't actually produced a movie. You know how hollywood loves to recycle. Your Grease actually sounds better than the original.

Anonymous said...

I think I want to see your version of Flashdance! That is just hysterical.

And can I tell you? Grease 2? I don't know what this means, but that was my gradmother's favorite movie. Honestly.

Michelle Pfifer attends the senior luau with her dream date, the "cool rider," Maxwell Caufield. But soon after, her lover boy fakes his own death by riding his motorcycle over a cliff while fleeing from Adrien Zmed (and really, who could blame him?).

Distraught at her loss, Michelle Pfifer dresses up as a Christmas tree to sing "Turn Back the Hands of Time" at the senior talent show. The song seems to have an effect, as the school year rolls along in reverse. Michelle Pfifer starts seeing her "cool rider" again, at the gas station, at the bowling alley. Only she can no longer see his face.

Meanwhile she keeps getting hassled by some English brainiac who wants to help her with her Hamlet essay. The English kid tries to learn to ride a motorcycle in order to impress her, but he just keeps getting worse and worse until eventually the bike gets totally demolished. And Adrien Zmed keeps breaking up with her even though they were never going out.

The movie ends with Michele Pfifer pining away for a new "Cool Rider" and looking forward to another Adrien Zmed-fee year at Rydell High.

Saints and Spinners said...

Nonny: Thanks! "Grease" was actually one of my favorite movies when I was a little girl. My parents took me to see it when I was 6, and most of it went over my head, except that I remember being impressed that grown-ups went to high-school.

Goddess: Thanks so much for the plot summary of "2 Grease!" If more people provide their plot summaries in the comments section, I'll be happy to compile them. Of course, I'll get the credit for the blog post (wicked cackle as lightning flashes).

Hazed said...

Oh this is just too cute. I'd love to hear your take on the backwards version of something ghoulish, like Silence of the Lambs. hehe

You're gonna love this: Not only did I love the movie Grease, I remember begging for the "Grease tape". It was the soundtrack, and I got it. On 8 Track. To top that all off, I found my old stereo on which I played that tape into the ground. Yes, I now have a stereo that has a turntable and an 8 Track deck, with 2 speakers, each about the size of a dollhouse, that only put out minimal sound. It all still works. Everything. I can't decide whether to keep it or sell it. But I can't find my Grease tape, nor can I find my old Sean Cassidy and Debbie Boone albums. *sigh* I bet you're not quite old enough to remember all of those. But Nonny is.

Philip said...

You realize if you just substitute "stripper" for "steel welder," you've turned Flashdance into a softcore film for Cinemax. Actually, a film with that very plot probably already exists. Not that I have seen such things, of course.

Lady K said...

I've seen BOTH backward versions of those movies.

I have to say, though, that Flashdance is STILL one of my favorite alltime movies. I can't believe it when I listed it before.

LOL my WV is ifrqqqy...isn't that a song from West Side Story? "I fr qqqy, oh so qqqy..." hee hee