"Dirty Dancing" (1987)

Jennifer Grey plays Baby, a seventeen year old out spoken girl with ambitions of changing the world and making it a better place. In the summer of 1963 she is on holidays with her family at Catskills resort. All appears very innocent, very mundane, until Baby is meets Johnny Castle (Patrick Swayze), a dance instructor at the resort, and she is introduced to their world. After Johnny’s dance partner, Penny, has becomes pregnant and suffers a botched abortion, and is unable to dance, Baby steps in as Johnny’s partner.Of course in time their affections towards one another begin to blossom…But not without plenty of drama along the way.

I have yet to meet a person (well, girl, I guess I should say) who doesn't like this film. It’s a classic. Whatever about the story line, the soundtrack was a humongous success! Songs such as “I’ve Had The Time of My Life”, “Hungry Eyes”, “She’s Like The Wind” were nearly responsible for karaoke! – A classic. The film received an Academy Award for “Best Original Song” for “I’ve Had The Time of My Life”.

I’ve known this film to be brandished off as ‘just a girlie romance story’ but I really don’t think this is entirely fair. In fact, I think it could be considered as underrated. After all, it does touch on bigger issues than just “secret” liaisons between Johnny and Baby. Well, for starters, there’s Penny’s abortion. It’s quite a serious enough topic for ‘just another teen movie’ – I think. While not everyone might agree on it, this film does something for showing why it might be necessary. Then of course, we’ve got the issue of ‘not judging a book by its cover’ which is quite prominent here too. Baby comes across almost as this naive innocent girl (or so Johnny initially pegged her as upon first encounter) but aha, this is inevitably not the case, far from it. On the surface also, Johnny is just a penniless dancer, at one point accused of theft, and is stereotyped as someone who is not important, perhaps with no particular morals, when in fact, he has far more morals than the more respected waiter, Robbie… Finally, another even more prominent theme/issue is that of trust. Throughout the film Baby is learning their dance routine. This is almost a metopher really, for it’s not until the end that she’s able to do the lift and is able to trust Johnny enough.The relationship between Baby and her father is based completely on trust. Baby has earned his trust having never lied, and he firmly believes this, so their relationship is rocked when Baby must go behind  his back to help Penny and Johnny. And then of course her father puts complete trust in shallow Robbie and he turned out to be the least worthy of it. The film seems to centre itself around the issue of the importance of choice too. The difference between right and wrong: the complications that come in between this thinning line. This is particularly seen through Baby’s character.

      

Baby is a very strong character. She knows what she wants out of life and she’s not afraid of attaining it, or of standing up for what she believes in. She proves this on several occasions. When the film opens, she is reading a book about economic development because she’s going to major in the economics of underdeveloped countries and join the Peace Corps. Immediately this tells us she’s smart, caring and determined which are all important traits to have in a protagonist. She is brave. Having found out Robbie is the father of Penny’s baby, she goes to him to convince him to pay for the abortion. Failing this, she goes to her father to get money for Penny’s abortion (though doesn’t tell him what it’s for), and following another fail, she doesn’t hesitate in bringing her father to them to help Penny in spite of how much trouble this could get her into. She puts others first.

Whatever people might say about this film, there’s no denying there’s a sexiness to the steamy dance moves and even the name: the fact it has the word “dirty” in it just…I won’t lie, I felt very excited and grown up the first time I was able to watch it! 

It’s just a fantastic movie. One that will never get old!

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