Dirty Dancing
Release Date: August 21st, 1987Writer: Eleanor Bergstein
Director: Emile Ardolino
Logline: "Spending the summer in a holiday camp with her family, Frances "Baby" Houseman falls in love with the camp's dance instructor Johnny Castle" (Source: IMDb) Music/Romance, 100min.
Bechdel Test: Passes all three tests.
Review
Logline: "Spending the summer in a holiday camp with her family, Frances "Baby" Houseman falls in love with the camp's dance instructor Johnny Castle" (Source: IMDb) Music/Romance, 100min.
Bechdel Test: Passes all three tests.
Review
Ok, lets be honest, there isn't a lot of point in reviewing a movie that has survived as a must-see for generations.
It's a classic. If you haven't seen it, go see it. If you have seen it, go watch it again.
Here's why: It holds up. Most 80's movies become very dated when you watch them now, because of fashion, trends, stars, whatever, but Dirty Dancing just happened to have a lot of things going for it. First, it is set in the 1960's. That really removes the film from the 80's trendiness. The music does the same. Some classics from the era they are trying to portray and some songs that went on to become mega hit's in 1988. When those kind of pop culture references are stripped away its easy to stay in love with this movie.
Plus... "Nobody puts Baby in a corner." This is a quotable, feel good, never disappointing movie. It might be total fluff, but everyone seems to love this fluff.
Instead of a real review I wanted to share some Dirty Dancing trivia:
Everything about this movie screamed destined to flop. They studio considered releasing it straight to home video. It was a low budget disaster. There were no major stars, and the screenings didn't go well. The film cost $5 million to produce and went on to earn more than $64 million in domestic box office sales, surprising everyone.
It was the first feature film to break 1 million home video sales. Much of that could be attributed to the film's soundtrack, which itself sold over 32 million copies and spent over 4 months in the number one Billboard slot. The soundtrack even had it had it's own sequel.
Eleanor Bergstein wrote a very biographical movie. She basically did everything Baby does in the movie, including calling herself Baby. She went on to go to dancing school, and then later wrote dancing movies. So maybe that's what Havana Nights should have been about.
It seems to be greatly overlooked that a big part of the plot is how Penny needs an abortion. At the time it would be illegal, but all the dance kids rally around Penny, with Baby trying to find the money for the procedure and offering to stand in for Penny on the day of. Robbie gives Baby the book "The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand to justify abandoning Penny, because "objectivism" means you can be a jerk to people.
Some famous scenes from the practicing-their-dancing-montage were not scripted. It was just Jennifer and Patrick being cute together. Everyone say "Aww..."
Both Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey appeared in the film Red Dawn a few years prior. Both Dirty Dancing and Red Dawn have had reboots in the last decade that were both atrocious.
Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey weren't the only stars. Choreographer Kenny Ortega has become a serious money maker for dance-movies. His moves can be seen in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, High School Musical, Hannah Montana, and Michael Jackson's This Is It.
Conan O'Brien lead a successful letter writing campaign to demand the re-release of Dirty Dancing in 1997, a followup to the successful re-release of Star Wars. The studio said they received over 80,000 phone calls demanding to put the pic in theaters. Conan had said on his show if they were not successful, he would fire his trombonist La Bamba. We are all glad he's still around today. Jerry Orbach went on Conan's show to promote the re-release, and they reenacted a scene
Portrayal of Women: There's a little bit of old fashioned romanticism in here, but lets be honest. That's why we love this movie. Baby is a pretty bad-ass chick. She's trying to save the day, and she steps up to learn from other people. The other side of it is that the kids around her don't underestimate her, she isn't cast aside for being a girl. She is cast aside for being a rich kid, but that's another blog.
Sisterhood Moment: The fact that 24 years later (2011), the movie Crazy, Stupid, Love came out, and had an iconic scene with Emma Stone asking Ryan Gosling what his "move" was (to seduce women) and his answer was working Dirty Dancing into the conversation. Who doesn't love that?
Rating: 5/5 (Because you write a movie that people will still watch and talk about for the next 30
IMDb - Dirty Dancing (6.8)
Wikipedia - Dirty Dancing
Rotten Tomatoes - Dirty Dancing (72%)
It's a classic. If you haven't seen it, go see it. If you have seen it, go watch it again.
Here's why: It holds up. Most 80's movies become very dated when you watch them now, because of fashion, trends, stars, whatever, but Dirty Dancing just happened to have a lot of things going for it. First, it is set in the 1960's. That really removes the film from the 80's trendiness. The music does the same. Some classics from the era they are trying to portray and some songs that went on to become mega hit's in 1988. When those kind of pop culture references are stripped away its easy to stay in love with this movie.
Plus... "Nobody puts Baby in a corner." This is a quotable, feel good, never disappointing movie. It might be total fluff, but everyone seems to love this fluff.
Instead of a real review I wanted to share some Dirty Dancing trivia:
Everything about this movie screamed destined to flop. They studio considered releasing it straight to home video. It was a low budget disaster. There were no major stars, and the screenings didn't go well. The film cost $5 million to produce and went on to earn more than $64 million in domestic box office sales, surprising everyone.
It was the first feature film to break 1 million home video sales. Much of that could be attributed to the film's soundtrack, which itself sold over 32 million copies and spent over 4 months in the number one Billboard slot. The soundtrack even had it had it's own sequel.
 |
| The real flop |
It seems to be greatly overlooked that a big part of the plot is how Penny needs an abortion. At the time it would be illegal, but all the dance kids rally around Penny, with Baby trying to find the money for the procedure and offering to stand in for Penny on the day of. Robbie gives Baby the book "The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand to justify abandoning Penny, because "objectivism" means you can be a jerk to people.
Some famous scenes from the practicing-their-dancing-montage were not scripted. It was just Jennifer and Patrick being cute together. Everyone say "Aww..."
Both Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey appeared in the film Red Dawn a few years prior. Both Dirty Dancing and Red Dawn have had reboots in the last decade that were both atrocious.Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey weren't the only stars. Choreographer Kenny Ortega has become a serious money maker for dance-movies. His moves can be seen in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, High School Musical, Hannah Montana, and Michael Jackson's This Is It.
Portrayal of Women: There's a little bit of old fashioned romanticism in here, but lets be honest. That's why we love this movie. Baby is a pretty bad-ass chick. She's trying to save the day, and she steps up to learn from other people. The other side of it is that the kids around her don't underestimate her, she isn't cast aside for being a girl. She is cast aside for being a rich kid, but that's another blog.
Sisterhood Moment: The fact that 24 years later (2011), the movie Crazy, Stupid, Love came out, and had an iconic scene with Emma Stone asking Ryan Gosling what his "move" was (to seduce women) and his answer was working Dirty Dancing into the conversation. Who doesn't love that?Rating: 5/5 (Because you write a movie that people will still watch and talk about for the next 30
IMDb - Dirty Dancing (6.8)
Wikipedia - Dirty Dancing
Rotten Tomatoes - Dirty Dancing (72%)
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