Dirty Dancing
Dir: Emile Ardolino
1987
****
Dirty Dancing is known as one of cinema's biggest surprise hits but you have to wonder why. Based on the childhood of the films author, Eleanor Bergstein would spend her childhood summers in luxury resorts and would go dancing while her parents played golf. She would learn to dance 'Dirty' on these vacations and she was nick-named 'Baby' by her friends. The character Johnny was based on the stories of Michael Terrace, a dance instructor Bergstein met while researching the story at the Catskills resort she revisited in the 80s. Although fictional, it was a simple love story that many young girls (and boys) would fantasize about and even maybe experience. Add an exciting soundtrack and some innocent teenage rebellion and it's hard not to see why it became such a huge hit. Being a dancer herself, Bergstein was on hand to make sure the choreography was perfect and and although Kenny Ortega was principal choreographer on the shoot, Bergstein would instruct the actors in her own special way, enforcing rules such as no contact between dancers unless dancing, to enhance the sexual tension of the final performances. The shoot was prolonged by bad weather and disagreements between the actors. Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey had fallen out with each other previously while working on the film Red Dawn and their dislike for each other reignited through tiredness and the difference in ability. However, the footage where Grey is obviously struggling and Swayze is getting gradually more angry and impatient were so effective that they were used in the final edit and remain some of the best scenes of the film. Although the film was completed miraculously on time and on budget, it was felt by producers and by the crew themselves that it was going to flop. Bergstein refused to cut out the abortion scene when asked, stating that it was an integral part of the story although many of the large percentage of the preview audience hadn't even realised it was part of the films sub-plot. Producers wrote it off before it hit cinemas with one stating that they should burn it and collect the insurance. It was indeed released to negative reviews, most stating that it was a cliched love story and a tired version of a bygone ideal and very much out of date for a 1987 film. It is fair to say everyone missed the point. It is old-fashioned in a sense and very much a cheesy love story but that is exactly what teenage love is all about. It is realistic fantasy, people could relate to Grey's character and were attracted to Swayze's, when you break it down it has the perfect formula. Predicted failure to cherished icon, one of the few 'girls' films that many 'guys' will amid to not hating.