Dirty Dancing
(1987)
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Headstrong 17-year-old Baby Houseman hardly expects her family's usual summer vacation in the Catskills to be momentous. But then Baby spies Johnny Castle, the resort's dance instructor from the wrong side of the tracks. Johnny's facing a crisis: his dance partner and friend Penny is pregnant and has reluctantly decided to get an abortion. This leaves Johnny a solo act--until Baby agrees to take Penny's place. She has to learn how to dance first, however, and as Johnny teaches her the choreography's sexy, seductive moves, the two fall in love. But Baby's father believes that Johnny is the creep who got Penny pregnant, and he furiously orders Baby to end the relationship. Baby knows that Johnny's innocent--and with her feisty idealism and his dance talent, the two will prove to Baby's father that their love is worth fighting for. |
Screenshots
The ultimate feel-good movie, which works a curious charismatic magic and catapulted the then-unknown Patrick Swayze to stardom. Intended as a low-budget filler, this sentimental but never cloying tale of sexual awakening at a Jewish holiday camp in 1963 became a much-loved blockbuster and kick-started major industry careers for its production team. The casting is perfect, with ex-dancer Swayze as the sexy bad boy dancing coach and Jennifer Grey as the feisty middle-class teenager, and their relationship never strikes a false note. But what really makes the film unmissable is the fabulous dancing which, despite being highly erotic, is never tacky.
Halliwell's Film Guide
Mildly agreeable variant on Saturday Night Fever, almost equally successful at the box-office.