| | | First dance. First love. The time of your life.
Features: Original
Heartthrob Patrick Swayze (Red Dawn), Jennifer Grey (Ferris Bueller's Day Off) and dancing sensation Cynthia Rhodes (Flashdance) star in this electrifying sensual film. A vivid love story, Dirty Dancing is set to the pounding rhythms and vibrant dance of the time. It's summer, 1973, Baby (Grey), 17 years old and all idealistic innocence, is vacationing with her parents in the Catskills. While exploring the resort grounds late one evening, she is drawn into the staff quarters by stirring music. There she meets Johnny (Swayze), the hotel dance instructor, as experienced in life as Baby is naive. Mesmerized by the sexy beats and uninhibited movements of "dirty dancing," Baby soon becomes Johnny's prize pupil -- in dance and in love.
"Jennifer Grey is a knockout." David Ansen, Newsweek
"Absolutely sensational!" Jeffrey Lyons, INN/Sneak Previews
"Patrick Swayze... is a seething mass of sensuality..." Jami Bernard, New York Post
"Excellent performances... the dancing, especially the dirty dancing, has a drive and a pulse that gives the film real excitement." New York Times
Editor's Note
It's summer, 1963. Baby, 17 years old and all idealistic innocence, is vacationing with her parents in the Catskills. She meets Johnny, the hotel dance instructor, and is mesmerized by him as well as his dance style. She soon becomes Johnny's prize pupil - in dance and in love. Academy Awards: Best Song ("(I've Had) The Time of My Life").
Plot Summary
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.
| Features | Full Frame - 1.33 |
| Technical Info
|
Release Information
|  | Studio: Artisan |
| Release Date: 1/21/2003 |
| Running Time: 105 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1987 | | Catalog ID: 16013 | | UPC: 00028485160132 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], English | | Video: Color |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Oscar (1988) |  | John DeNicola, et. al., Winner, Best Music, Song | |
Golden Globe (1988) | | John DeNicola, et. al., Winner, Best Original Song | | | Patrick Swayze, Nominee, Best Performance By An Actor In A Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical | | | Jennifer Grey, Nominee, Best Performance By An Actress In A Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical |
| Memorable Quotes| "The reason people treat me like nothing is because I am nothing." ---- Johnny Castle [Patrick Swayze] |
|
| | Professional Reviews | New York Times
"...Nicely bittersweet....A drive and a pulse that give the film real excitement..." 08/21/1987 p.C3Variety
"...Some nice dance sequences and a likable performance by Jennifer Grey make the film more than watchable..." 05/20/1987 Los Angeles Times
"...Smart and funny, touching and unabashedly sexual....Grey and Swayze are tough, thoughtful, lovely actors..." 08/21/1987 p.C1 Entertainment Weekly
"[A] slumber-party classic..." 04/15/2005 p.48 Total Film
4 stars out of 5 -- "[T]his '80s classic transcends cynicism to give warm-fuzzies the world over." 03/01/2007 p.46 Ultimate DVD
5 stars out of 5 -- "[T]hanks to a fabulous soundtrack and enthusiastic performances, it's still as much fun as ever." 12/01/2007 p.98 TNT's Rough Cut 9 of 10
To understand how a coming-of-age film with a heavy helping of bump and grind thrown into the mix could have become a phenomenon...years ago, see Dirty Dancing... But what intangibles account for the persistent charm of this sexually suggestive dance lesson set against a Tony Robbins-style you-can-do-anything motivational message? The late Emile Ardolino's direction seemed to adhere a simple strategy: keep the camera on the Adonis that was sweaty, graceful Swayze and the natural, giggle-prone charm of Grey. And this right-on call still covers a multitude of sins. Hey, I'm 10 years away from the dateless 16-year-old I was when saw it for the first time, and it's still difficult for me to string coherent criticism together about anything Swayze does in this picture -- including that bad urban accent. Even the campy dialogue ("Nobody puts Baby in a corner"), the overdone performances (who told Cynthia Rhodes that she could act?) and that "Dancing on the Ceiling" dance number finale can't obscure the chemistry between the leads and that sing-along soundtrack. The death of the American musical has been bemoaned, but only by those who missed its transformation in the '80s to the cheesy, long-form music video... But the enduring appeal of the feature lies beyond the pelvic thrusts -- it's directly behind the eyes of beautiful people pretending to be in love, while you pretend you're one of them. - Wendy Wilson
|
| |
|
|
|
4
5
