I kick off my Patrick Swayze love fest with another one of
his period pieces, Dirty Dancing. It’s easy to compare this movie to The
Outsiders, weird as it may seem, because of its look at a “simpler” time in
American history. And in the comparison, Dirty Dancing comes out far, far
ahead.
(Please note: I am inherently biased towards this movie
because I grew up on this movie’s soundtrack, which features a Patrick Swayze original song which I may or may not have sung karaoke to last year.)
The movie centers on Francis “Baby” Houseman, whose family
spends the summer of 1963 in the Catskill Mountains. This is pre-Beatles,
pre-JFK assassination, where abortions are illegal and 17-year-old young ladies
have no problem with the nickname “Baby.” The uptight squares spend some time
in the mountains, putting up with the antics of the lowlife wait/dance staff,
an almost perfect stand in for the greasers from The Outsiders. It’s soc vs.
greasers again, only without the knives, collapsed church, and murder. (Or is
it? Abortion – discuss!)
Baby learns that a dancer, Penny, is pregnant and needs
help, though the A-word is never actually used. (“She’s in trouble.” “She needs
a super secret, illegal medical procedure.” Etc.) The procedure will require
that she miss a performance, so Baby volunteers to learn her part and dance
with ultra-sexy dancer, Johnny Castle (Swayze). Naturally, because the dancing
is sensual, they start dancing horizontally too, or as super-classy Robbie
would say, Baby goes slumming.
Long story short, Dad forbids Baby from hanging out with the
low-born after having to take care of Penny post-procedure (the guy didn’t even use
anesthesia and messed things up). Johnny stops sleeping with his wealthy cougar to prove his love
for Baby, but she learns of this young lovers’ dalliances and promptly frames
his for stealing wallets, for which he is fired. Baby says it can’t be him
because they were together all night, Dad is sad, Johnny is fired anyway, and
then it’s the final big show of the summer.
Johnny, who always does the last song, comes despite his
being firing, and finds Baby in the corner. He says Baby shouldn’t be in corners (or
something to that affect) and they do the big dance, complete with the
impossible lift. All the old people love it and dance despite the whiff of 1960s hippie culture on the horizon, everyone is
happy, Dad finally learns Johnny wasn’t the one who “got Penny in trouble,”
maybe there’s a place for this idyllic place in a rock ‘n roll world after all!
Look, this movie is cheesy and romantic, the type of movie I
should hate. But I just can’t. It’s a nostalgic look at the early 1960s, when
the baby boomers ruined the world for war heroes. It’s an honest depiction of
the way things were, it features a believable love story, and the chemistry
between Swayze and Jennifer Grey is great. She shows genuine attraction from
the beginning, and he exudes palpable hatred which slowly turns to lust, as
these things do. The soundtrack is fantastic and never intrusive, and the
scenes never drag or take me out of the story.
If you’re only going to watch one soc. vs. greaser Patrick
Swayze movie, make it this one!
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