First dance, first love, the time of your life! (Dirty Dancing (DVD))

Member Name: linzeelou

Product:	Dirty Dancing (DVD)
Date:	08/08/09 (123 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Soundtrack and dancing

Disadvantages: Patrick Swayze at times

Dirty Dancing, a coming of age film, was released in 1987 by Vestron Pictures. The film is 100 minutes long and is rated 15 because of a mild sex scene, bad language and one small fight.

Dirty Dancing had a tiny budget of $5 million and went on to make nearly $214 million worldwide and it is one of the most popular musical romance films of all time.

Awards Won
1987 - Academy Award for best original song
1988 - Golden Globe for best original song
1988 - Grammy Award for best pop performance by a duo

Plot
Francis (Baby) Houseman and her family are going on holiday in 1963. Baby is the quiet sister and Lisa is the beautiful popular one who gets everything her sister wants. The family are going to stay at a lodge resort in the mountains because Jake (Baby's dad) is the owner's personal doctor.

The holiday camp has lots to offer and Baby's parents encourage her to take part instead of staying cooped up in the lodge. When Lisa is instantly taken a shine to by Robbie, a waiter, Baby wants to do something for herself. Even when her parents, and Max, the owner, try to set her up with Neil, Max's nephew, she see's how great the dancing staff are and pays more attention to them.

Baby is drawn to Johnny Castle, the lead male dancer. He and his partner Penny, don't follow the rules well and would rather dance their own way, rather than how Max prefers. One night, Baby winds up near the staff accommodation and Johnny's cousin lets her come along to their club. Baby is quite shocked by the dancing that goes on there, as it would never be allowed to be seen in the clubhouse but Johnny gives her a little lesson. After his partner gets sick, Baby offers to take her place in a show at another camp if Johnny is willing to give her lessons. Johnny and Baby get closer and closer as time goes on but both of them know they're from different worlds and shouldn't really be together.

Cast
Baby Houseman - Jennifer Grey
Johnny Castle - Patrick Swayze
Jake Houseman - Jerry Orbach
Penny Johnson - Cynthia Rhodes
Max Kellerman - Jack Weston
Lisa Houseman - Jane Bruckner
Marjorie Houseman - Kelly Bishop
Neil Keller man - Lonny Price
Robbie Gould - Max Cantor

Trivia about the film:
- Throughout the film, Johnny and Baby always wear contrasting colours, Baby in very light colours, and Johnny in black or something very dark.
- The dancing that Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey do during the love scene was actually the same dance that they did for the screen tests. It was not originally supposed to be in the film.
- Val Kilmer was initially offered the lead but declined.
- Billy Zane was considered for the lead role, but he didn't dance well.
- At the beginning of the film, it is said that Baby will attend Mount Holyoke College in the fall. Her namesake, Frances Perkins, was a graduate of Mount Holyoke, Class of 1902.

My opinion
Well seeing as this is a film all about dancing, I'm going to start with that. There is a great mix of different dancing styles in this film and that was one of the main things I loved about it. On one hand we have the boring, normal ballroom kind of dancing with the strict moves but then we have Johnny and the dance staff's kind of dancing and that's where we get the name of the film from. At the time this was seen as a bit rebellious, especially in the film and it was a little too raunchy for any normal dance floor. I know so many girls that have wanted to re-enact the scene where Johnny is teaching Baby how to dance and runs his hand down her side, one of them was me when I was younger. Quite a few of my friends started taking dance classes after watching this film because they were so impressed by the standard.

Dirty Dancing has one of the best soundtracks, and now probably one of the most famous and it won 3 awards for it's music. Many people's favourite song is 'I've had the time of my life', but mine was 'Hungry Eyes' because of the scene it came from. After watching this film I found myself listening to the songs over and over again and wanting to sing and dance along to them. It is definitely very addictive. Patrick Swayze actually sang and co-composed the song 'She's like the wind'.

Of course, because this film is a romance, we get the happy ending but I didn't really mind that it was predictable. I think that is partly what makes the film so great. All the way through I was hoping for Baby to get what she wanted in the end and was so happy when she did. The ending still puts a huge smile on my face.

Jennifer Grey was fantastic as Baby and it was great to watch her grow up through the film and realise she doesn't have to do everything to please her parents. A lot of people told me before watching this film that the lead female was whiney and annoying but I didn't find her like that at all. I thought at the start she was quite shy and naïve but soon came into her own and showed how strong she was.

Although I didn't think Patrick Swayze was the right choice for the role, he has certainly become very famous for it. The thing that I didn't like about him was the fact he wasn't good looking enough for me. (So many people are going to disagree with me on this.) Johnny is supposed to have so much sex appeal but he just didn't do it for me, yes he has a nice body but that's about it. At least he was an amazing dancer so he was right for the role in that aspect. At least he had fantastic chemistry with Jennifer, unlike a lot of lead couples in films at the minute.

I was recently thinking about my all time favourite films and couldn't believe that I had forgotten about this one. It isn't my #1 but it is my #1 of romance films at least. I don't know many guys that like this film so it's definitely more one for the girls. The film was re-released in 1997 to mark the 10 year anniversary and sells over 1 million copies a year. The DVD (either version) are around for anywhere between £3 and £10 depending on where you buy it from, but I assure you, you won't regret buying this film.

Summary: #1 romance film for me