Let's Get Sadistic
Olivia Newton-John has lost her innocent look in ABC special
Heeding her own lyrical command, Olivia Newton-John-also known as Olivia Neutron-Bomb gets physical in tonight’s ABC special (at 9, KVUE-TV, Channel 24).
Fans who remember Newton-John’s winsome performance in the movie, “Grease,” may find the current punk-rockish version something of a shock.
“Let’s Get Physical,” the title song from her best-selling album, is the centerpiece of more than a dozen rock tunes turned into mini-movies star-ring Newton-John.
The style is 1960s psychedelic with standard camera trickery and head-shop imagery.
At the opening, Olivia writhes in slow-motion in the surf near her Malibu Beach home. Her flimsy costume comes mighty close to extinction in the water.
“A Little More Love,” (in which she asks the burning question, “Where did my innocence go?”), “Make a Move on Me” and “Magic” are belted out in a disco setting.
But the more adventuresome of the mini-musical numbers fall head over heels into surrealism.
“Landslide” features a fantasy romance between two over-heated co-workers. The flirting and cooing is interrupted by cutaways to sinister hawks and barking dogs. Olivia gets her guy but roughs him up and then discards him.
A noticeable streak of sadism runs throughout the hour.
Men unlucky enough to fall prey to Olivia’s charms meet with various forms of abuse, and there seems to be a fascination with cages and leather.
“Silvery Rain” is the most original and offbeat of the video weirdness, highlighted with disembodied faces floating in puddles and featuring lookalikes from “Night of the Living Dead.”
“Stranger’s Touch” is the closest thing to a real mini-movie, with lyrics acted out in a foggy rip-off of “Casablanca.”
Olivia vamps it up with a Saks Fifth Avenue model wearing a Bogart fedora.
A note of humor is injected in the title song rendition, as Olivia works out in a gym with a bunch fat guys who turn svelte through the miracle of television and iron-pumping substitutes.
This special is stranger than most commercial TV fare because it was never intended for commercial broadcast.
“Physical” was produced and marketed as a video disc, a grooveless record designed for music visuals and believed (by some people) to be the wave of the future for the recording industry.
ABC bought the Newton-John disc on a whim and paid the singer to add some dialogue. Presto!
For a fraction of the cost and none of the effort, the network bought a prime-time special.
With cost-conscious producers wondering how to make ends meet, video discs may be the wave of the future for commercial TV.
The video disc format is a welcome departure from the singer-at-the-microphone style of most music specials. Guest stars and pathetic comedy sketches are nowhere to be found here. “Physical” is lipsynched, “dramatized” music, presented in psychedelic imagery that is some-times interesting but frequently just strange.
The emphasis on seduction and superficial sadism makes it slightly tasteless. Unless Newton–John’s fans are indeed hopelessly devoted, they are likely to be disappointed.
By Diane Holloway
More from the Physical TV special.