My Top 5 John Travolta Roles

Certainly, John Travolta's roles, from the time he was on Welcome Back Kotter to his most recent turn as an obese woman afraid to leave her home have been quite varied. He has said he chooses his roles based on the character and the story, among other things, and you can truly see it. He's just so interesting, he always takes over and becomes the most entertaining thing on the screen at any given time. Watching him in Hairspray this week, I started thinking of all my favorite roles of his, and decided to compile my top 5.

1. Michael, Michael
This character just had too many "Laura" ideas attached to it for me not to like it. I never thought much about angels until my son, not so coincidentally named Michael, started discussing an angel he had befriended. A few years later this movie came out, and I knew I had to see it. What I found was a movie that had all my ideas about life in it, such as everything happening for a reason, and angels coming in all shapes and sizes, not necessarily pretty blondes with flowing white robes and halos. The character was crude to some extent and was definitely slovenly but his heart truly was that of an angel. He knew what he was doing all the time, and whether it be eating pie, making a pit stop to see the world's largest frying pan, or forcing someone to apologize, there was reason for it all.



2. Danny Zuko, Grease
I heard the soundtrack for this movie at my best friend's house when I was 14, before I even saw it for the first time. I loved the music and had to see the film. Just 2 years earlier I had had my crush on John Travolta watching him as Vinnie Barbarino. Watching the film, he was supposed to be ultra cool and he was. He epitomized cool, and while the role may have been almost typecasting, he actually played this role on Broadway, long before Welcome Back Kotter. The character of Danny went back and forth between having to be ultra cool for his friends and being a lovesick goof for Sandy. While it was great to see him be so cool, we later found that the lovesick goof was truer to who Danny Zuko was, as well as John Travolta.



3. Edna Turnblad, Hairspray
I don't know who thought up this casting, but it's genius. Can you imagine? "We still need someone to play the obese, agoraphobic mom." "Hey, I know! Let's cast movie idol John Travolta. He's gained weight for roles before, such as with Michael, and at his age, he doesn't necessarily look like Danny Zuko anymore." "You're right! He's our man ... woman?" True, whether on film of Broadway, this role was always played by a man, but this one just seems even more of a stretch, which somehow makes it even better. He was last seen on film riding a hog, and here he is crying over the fact his husband never tells him he's wearing a nice muumuu. It's hard to think of my 6th grade heartthrob dressing as an obese woman, but something about it works, and makes me like it all the more. Read my review of Hairspray.



4. Vincent Vega, Pulp Fiction
Leave it to Quentin Tarantino to come make a violent film that is so highly entertaining you don't notice that everyone seems intent on killing everyone else in the movie. I'm not even going to get into the genius of the film here, as it involves the different pieces of a story entwined together. But once again, Travolta manages to take a character and make him lovable, even when he's a hit man. Just before he and Samuel L. Jackson bust into a room shooting, they talk about what Big Macs and Quarter Pounders are called in France, and talk about the benefits of giving a woman a foot massage. And what woman wouldn't want to dance with him like Uma Thurman did?



5. Tod Lubitch, The Boy In the Plastic Bubble
This is probably Travolta's first recognizable heavily dramatic role. The importance of it was it brought a serious health matter to light. Who knew at that point that some people had such serious health deficiencies that they couldn't touch anything that might carry someone else's germs? Again, he made this character lovable. While the other kids his age made fun of him, pointed, and laughed, he just wanted to be part of it. He wanted to be able to go to the beach, kiss a girl, etc. We felt his pain as the girl of his dreams, played by Glynnis O'Connor (didn't she play every boy's "girl of his dreams" back then?), held his hand, and he then found out she did it on a dare from the other kids. I couldn't believe it when I found this movie on DVD in the dollar corner at Super Target recently. I gladly bought it. When I first saw the movie, I was 12, and couldn't understand how in real life Travolta could fall in love with Diana Hyland who played his mother. Seeing it again 30 years later, I understood. She saw in him everything that we see.