REPOST: Dirty Dancing, review: 'a hard-eyed fairy tale'

What makes Dirty Dancing a good film? Sarah Crompton reviews this classic film on the article below: 

Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing | Image Source: telegraph.co.uk

There was a time when I watched Dirty Dancing at least once a month and I am sure it did me a lot of good, because what seems an enjoyable piece of fluff about a summer camp romance is, in its own quiet way, a powerful morality tale.

It is set, as Baby (Jennifer Grey) says in her famous opening line, in "the summer of 1963 when everybody called me Baby, and it didn't occur to me to mind. That was before President Kennedy was shot, before the Beatles came."

Baby is an idealistic type who wants to change the world, while her sister "just wants to decorate it". She doesn't quite fit in and from the start she is attracted to bad-boy entertainer Johnny (Patrick Swayze) and the world of the camp staff, whose dancing is dirty, sexy, and a million miles away from the silly competitions taking place in the camp proper.

It's the dancing that everybody remembers; that and Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes's (I've Had) the Time of My Life, which won the Best Song Oscar and provides the rousing finale. And it's true that Grey's sheer joy and good humour as she practises her steps on bridges and in lakes is absolutely infectious, while Swayze transcends one of the worst haircuts in recent film history to convince as a terrific dancer and an attractive man.

But what makes Dirty Dancing such a good film is that it is about more than sex, love and the liberating power of dance. It's a girl's need for an abortion that enables Baby and Johnny to dance together and allows Baby to express her altruism and her belief that "everyone is alike and deserves a fair break". It is thus a hard-eyed fairy tale, albeit one with a very warm and witty heart.

When Johnny returns to put his holiday love centre stage ("nobody puts Baby in a corner") there's no suggestion of a happy ever after; the point is that they have shown each other and us how to live. I defy you not to cry and cheer at the same time.


Lou S. Habash is a jazz dance teacher who has taught both children and adult alike. Visit this Facebook page for more jazz related updates.