| | | The only person you need to be is yourself.
Features: DVD, Widescreen, Dolby, English, Dolby Digital (5.1), Dolby Surround Sound
Sara (Julia Stiles) is a small-town girl with a big dream: to become a world-class ballerina. But when her mother suddenly dies, Sara must abandon her plans and join her estranged father (Terry Kinney) on Chicago's gritty South Side. A white girl in a predominately black neighborhood, Sara feels out of place--until she is befriended by a black classmate, Chenille (Kerry Washington), and her handsome brother, Derek (Sean Patrick Thomas). Sparks fly between Sara and Derek, whose shared love for dance leads to romance. But as Sara and Derek's relationship grows, so does opposition from their families and friends. Now Sara and Derek face the biggest challenge of their young lives--to stay true to their dreams...and each other. Pulsing with the beats of today's hottest hip-hop music, Save The Last Dance "will have you dancing in your seat" (Shawn Edwards, NBC TV).
"A slammin' combo of dance and drama..." US Weekly
Editor's Note
With her dreams of becoming a professional ballerina decimated by the accidental death of her mother, Sara Johnson (Stiles) is forced to move from her quiet Midwestern town to her father's ghetto apartment on the south side of Chicago. The stark urban environment's contrast of race and class compound Sara's loss and her misplaced guilt, which are both exacerbated by the fact that her mother had been en route to her dance performance at the time of her death. But when she meets Derek (Sean Patrick Thomas), a popular black student with a passion for hip-hop and a future brighter than his troubled past, her repressed ambition and sorrow are released through a revitalized interest in the cathartic and expressive power of dance. Their friendship and mutual interest in dancing inexorably lead to a passionate romance that raises the sadly typical, bigoted resistance from Sara's white father and Derek's black friends. Widely hailed by critics for being as sophisticated and intelligent as it is viscerally passionate, SAVE THE LAST DANCE enjoyed the top of the American box office in its first weekend in release, playing to sold out shows across the country, a landslide affirmation that Sara and Derek are not as alone as they think.
| Features | Commentary By Director Thomas Carter | | The Making Of Save The Last Dance | | Deleted Scenes | | Music Video--"Crazy" By K-Ci & Jo-Jo | | Scene Selection | | Theatrical Trailer | | Cast And Crew Interviews | | French Dolby Surround | | English Subtitles | | Interactive Menus | | Widescreen Version, Enhanced For 16X9 TVs | | English 5.1 Surround Dolby Digital | | English Dolby Surround |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Paramount |
| Release Date: 1/4/2005 |
| Running Time: 113 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2001 | | Catalog ID: 334554 | | UPC: 00097363345541 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], English, French Dubbed | | Available Subtitles: English | | Video: Color |
| Cast & Crew
| Memorable Quotes| "You come and take one of the few decent men left after drugs, jail and drive--bys."---- Chenille (Washington) to Sara (Stiles) | | "We spend more time defending our relationship than actually having one." |
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| | Professional Reviews | Variety
"...[Stiles'] performance, and her dancing, blossom in a pleasant, spirited way....Thomas projects a potently attractive self-confidence..." 01/08/2001 p.37-8Entertainment Weekly
"...SAVE THE LAST DANCE teaches that you should never give up your dreams and that love is all you need..." 01/19/2001 p.63 Total Film
"...[The film has] smart performances and pulls off the rare trick of tackling some thorny racial issues without becoming blandly moralistic..." 04/01/2001 p.85 Los Angeles Times
"...Well-crafted and smoothly paced, SAVE THE LAST DANCE benefits most strongly from its predominately youthful cast....Lawson and the most appealing Washington make impressions as vivid as those of Stiles and Thomas..." 01/12/2001 p.F1 Chicago Sun-Times
"...The development is intelligent, the characters are more complicated than we expect and the ending doesn't tie everything up in a predictable way....[Stiles is] one of the most talented of the emerging generation of actresses..." 01/12/2001 p.20 Salon.com 7 of 10
...it offers the basic appeal of teen movies: the pleasure of watching kids be kids, acting as they do among themselves instead of how parents and teachers expect them to act... the banter and remarks that the characters toss back and forth...have some of the unexpected comedy you hear listening to kids mouthing off to each other on the subway or outside a convenience store after school. - Charles Taylor
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