DIRTY DANCING is a really well-put together movie

[xiphias]

Lis and I just watched DIRTY DANCING. I don't think there's a shot, word, or even movement in it that you could cut. It is just SO tightly done.

It's also interesting in that it's a story about a seventeen-year old girl discovering her own personal power and agency and becoming a woman. Johnny Castle is the PRIZE that Baby wins -- it's ABOUT Baby. There might be one brief shot from someone else's perspective than Baby's -- when Lisa goes over to Robbie's cabin -- but I don't think there's any other.

It's also been pointed out that the event that drives everything else is an illegal abortion -- and nobody (except the absolute jerk who is as much of an antagonist as the movie has) blames the woman; she is sympathetic and supported by everybody. While the plot is definitely against ILLEGAL abortion and against guys who knock up women and then refuse to take any sort of responsibility, it's not against women who have abortions, or abortion itself.

Comments

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's a great film. It would be remarkable if it were made now, and it's especially remarkable given its age.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Actually, Hollywood is a lot less willing to take risks like DIRTY DANCING today -- a woman-focused movie based on nostalgia for a time just BEFORE things went ALL to heck? I don't think it would be greenlight. Studios just aren't willing to make movies focused on women as much as they once were.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Did I just say, "Eh. Things were better in the OLD days, back when I was a kid, not like TODAY"? Yes, yes I did. And I meant it.

I am crotchety and old. I managed crotchety and old before my fortieth birthday! That's an accomplishment!

[wcg.livejournal.com]

You may well be right. Which makes me appreciate it all the more.

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

In fact, there was supposed to be a 2011 remake, which never happened, purportedly because of casting issues, but also likely because abortion is so very radioactive now and it is a lot lot easier for people to organize over the Internet.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

Word.

*hums "I've had the time of my life"*

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

Heh I've been meaning to make a dirty dancing post - read a bunch of articles on it the other day that I threw into a FB thread for later reference. The abortion and class parts I had noticed, but not the agency parts when I first saw it.

They lost a clearasil campaign over the abortion subplot, and the writer very deliberately made it so that there was no way to cut any part of it.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Your post may be what made Lis and me want to get it from the library and see it, in fact.

[embryomystic.livejournal.com]

All very good points. I hadn't thought about it, but you're right.