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'Dirty Dancing': It still moves
August 25, 1997
Web posted at: 11:11 p.m. EDT (0311 GMT)From Reviewer Carol Buckland
(CNN) -- I was past (lo-o-o-ong past) the age of consent when "Dirty Dancing" made its big screen bow in 1987. Maybe it was a nostalgia trip, but the flick got to me. I sighed a lot, swooned a little, and for a few crazy days, considered taking dance lessons.
I've rewatched "Dirty Dancing" with pleasure, oh, maybe a half-dozen times on TV and tape during the last decade. Yet I found myself approaching its 10th anniversary rerelease -- and the idea of returning to the local "weenie-plex" theater to see it -- with a sense of trepidation.
Would it still reach me? Or would I find myself wondering (a tad disgustedly) what in heaven's name I'd ever seen in it?
As far as I'm concerned, "Dirty Dancing's" still got the buzz. The interesting thing is, the nature of that "buzz" seems to have changed.
Or maybe what's changed is me.
Clip from the movie "Dirty Dancing" 850K/18 sec. QuickTime movie For those who might not be clued in: "Dirty Dancing" is the story of Francis "Baby" Houseman, a nice Jewish girl who loses her virginity to a hunky, blue-collar dance instructor named Johnny Castle and gains some critical perspective on the world during a family vacation at a Catskill resort in the summer of 1963.
I cherish "Dirty Dancing" for the fact that it is a Hollywood rarity: A coming-of-age flick told from the girl's point of view. I think the time period in which it is set works to its advantage, too. The USA -- like "Dirty Dancing's" heroine, Baby -- was on the cusp in the summer of 1963. It was still an innocent, idealistic place in many ways.
Performance still strong
My respect for Jennifer Grey's performance as Baby has grown over the years. She's naive without being stupid, vulnerable without being a wimp, and achingly believable as her character begins to explore the power (and the potential dangers) of her sexuality.
While Patrick Swayze's Johnny still stirs the old hormones, the limits of his acting talents are more acutely obvious to me than they used to me. Grey is so open; Swayze -- except when he's dancing -- is very opaque. Of course, being stuck with howlingly awful lines such as the climactic zinger "No one puts Baby in a corner!" doesn't help the cause much.
Funny thing, though. As appealing as the Baby-Johnny pairing is, the two relationships that struck me most while sitting through this 10th anniversary rerelease are those between Baby and her father, Dr. Jake Houseman (the terrific Jerry Orbach), and between Johnny and his ex-girlfriend/dance partner, Penny (Cynthia Rhodes).
The former intrigues because it captures the complex and contradictory emotions felt by both dads and daughters when "little girls" start to become women. The latter seems fresh and poignant because it involves an intense yet essentially platonic male-female friendship.
I still have mixed feelings about the ending of the movie, not so much because it's "happy" but because it's so blatantly Hollywood. A production that seemed remarkably real suddenly degenerates into toe-tapping fantasy. Yeah, it's good show biz. It also smacks of a commercial sellout.
The soundtrack -- which has sold more than 10 million copies -- is still supreme.
The notion of doing a "Dirty Dancing II" has been kicking around for years. I, personally, hope this is one box office smash that remains sequel-less. The success of the original was a sweet surprise. It was a $6 million chick flick -- no stars, no special effects -- that grossed $170 million worldwide. The magic can't be recaptured. Trying to mimic it -- to invoke it by profit-driven calculation -- would be ruinous.
"Dirty Dancing" isn't a great or classic film. And no, it isn't going to give movie audiences the cinematic time of their lives. But it is something special and I was glad to see it at the movies again.
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