So Saturday night I finally sat down and watched Dirty Dancing-joined by Mateo and Mike.
Honestly, I don’t see what’s so gay about the movie, unless you count Patrick Swayze’s presence in the film, but even then he’s not really considered a gay star-at least as far as I know-unlike say Tom Cruise, who despite his constant assurance that he’s not gay, still is hot.
The film was actually, well, fun. I wouldn’t call it great film literature by any stretch of the imagination but it did work-the tussle between upper class Jewish community and the so-called lower classes was demonstrated in this film, but then again, that same story has been repeated in any number of films-my favorite in this genre would of course be Breaking Away-the classic town and gown tussle set in Bloomington around the Little 500.
What I find interesting about the movie is that the examination between the educated and uneducated is brought into sharp relief by a topic that would probably not be broached in today’s cinema: abortion. The use of abortion to bridge the gap was fascinating and actually gave me much pause. It was perfectly acceptable to make this movie in 1987, but I suspect that if you were to hint at this in a movie made today, the religious righteous would be up in arms, and I wouldn’t be that surprised if the miserable failure made an issue of the movie much like Dan Quayle made an issue of Murphy Brown having a child.
The movie, which stands well by itself, was accompanied by an extra DVD with extras including an interview with Jennifer Gray. I wish I hadn’t watched this extra. She made it sound like the movie was the be-all, end-all of her existence. Of course, it wasn’t, and Patrick Swayze was conspicuously absent from the Ultimate Edition.
Did I need to see it in English before seeing it in German? Probably not. This movie is pretty simplistic and the emotions show right through.
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