For my fifth grade birthday slumber party, I had my mom rent two movies: Hairspray and Dirty Dancing. From what I remember, we watched Dirty Dancing once before we went to sleep, and again the next morning. Since that sleepover, I've seen this film, often in bits and pieces, many times. When it's on TV, it's hard not to watch, because it takes me back to the more innocent times, times when the dancing in the movie actually did seem rather dirty, and when I really, really wanted to take dancing lessons with Patrick Swayze.
I caught Dirty Dancing in its edited-for-television entirety this past weekend, and only then did I realize (though I wasn't exactly surprised) how silly the whole thing is. I can't really even imagine an adult paying to see this movie (at least in 1987), unless she or he needed a fix of Swayze's shiny, naked chest, which is in its bare state for a good portion of the film. But adults did pay to see the film, I'm sure, and they likely even enjoyed it. It's a satisfying movie, even if its characters are stereotypical, its acting (some of it, at least) overdone, its plot unbelievable, and its dialogue often stilted.
Jennifer Grey plays Baby, a studious teen on vacation with her well-to-do family in the 1960s (the soundtrack and attire and Swayze's automobile suggest it's the early '60s). Her older sister is the pretty, dumb one who doesn't get much attention from doctor Daddy. Baby, on the other hand, is Daddy's darling who's going to change the world and make things better for people in foreign countries. She's slightly reserved, but also curious about the unknown; early on, she ends up hanging with the vacation resort's hired entertainment, a group of young, wrong-side-of-tracks types who "dance dirty" when they're amongst themselves. Swayze's character (I forget his name) catches her eye from the beginning. He's the bad boy; he's experienced; she can learn things from him. Like how to dance.
Baby must learn how to dance; after befriending the dancers (despite her awkward intruding presence during initial scenes with them), she comes to the rescue of Swayze's dance partner, who's been knocked up and has decided to get an abortion. To prevent the dancing duo from being fired, Baby agrees to performing in the "final show." So we get to watch the Baby/Swayze friendship and romance blossom among montages of dance practice. And the eleven-year-old girls fantasize about being in Jennifer Grey's Keds, running up to Patrick in the middle of the lake in the attempt to do the "lift," a "look, I'm flying" kind of maneuver. Ultimately, what we the audience are supposed to learn is that they're both learning and growing from each other. It's very heartwarming.
Meanwhile, there are issues with Daddy, who ends up finding out about the abortion (and, ultimately, about Baby's relationship with Swayze) and chastising his daughter (actually, virtually disowning her for the rest of the vacation) for her choices. It all gets resolved happily, however.
Swayze's character is a '50s rebel throwback who was "discovered" when he worked in a luncheon. He won free dance classes, excelled at them, and now rich older women throw themselves at him. It's difficult to tell what age he's supposed to be playing (early 20s?); he looks to be around 30. His delivery is generally pretty stiff, and he sounds so stupid saying some of his tough-guy lines that you wonder whether his unenthusiastic delivery is just because he knows this.
Grey is convincing as the eager young woman. She makes it easy for the awkward, not-yet-blossomed pre-teens in the audience to relate to her average looks and lack of experience. Indeed, I think that's why I used to like this movie so much. I could really relate to Baby. And if she was able to find the good bad boy to teach her how to move, maybe someday I would, too. And we could dance together on the log, and he could break into his car by shoving a pole through his back window, and I could say, "You're wild!" And we'd laugh together. Yeah.
Apparently a lot of other women felt the same way, given the almost entirely positive (and predominantly 5-star) reviews of Dirty Dancing on this site.
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