Starring: Patrick Swayze, Jennifer Grey, Jerry Orbach.
Release Date: August 21, 1987
Running Time: 100 min
Genres: Drama, Music, Romance
Commentary Dirty Dancing is a terrific dance movie which features some great oldies from the early '60s. Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey perform some fantastic dance moves. The story is also quite romantic and generally entertaining.
Plot Summary Dirty Dancing takes place at Kellerman's, a fictional resort in the Catskill Mountains of New York, in the summer of 1963. Frances Houseman (Jennifer Grey), whom everyone calls "Baby", is vacationing there with her family. She's unhappy with the mundane activities her family participates in, so she sneaks into a latin dance club led by the rebellious Johnny Castle (Patrick Swayze) with beautiful dance partner Penny.
One night Baby finds Penny in tears because of an unwanted pregnancy from Robbie, the dining room captain. She needs $250 for an abortion but doesn't have the money. Baby tries to get Robbie to pay but he refuses. She ends up asking her father for the money without telling him what it's for, and he agrees reluctantly. Baby must cover for Penny in her dancing while she gets her abortion, so she practices for two days and ends up successfully filling in for her. Meanwhile, Penny's abortion turns out to be a disaster, and she badly needs help, which Baby begs her father, who's a physician, to provide. He does a great job helping her but becomes furious with his daughter as well as Johnny, who he assumes is responsible for the pregnancy. Things get worse when he learns that Baby and Johnny are in love and had spent the night together. As a result, Johnny gets fired and Baby is not allowed to participate in the final dance.
In the final climactic scene, however, Johnny insists on performing the final dance with Baby. Soon everyone else at the club joins in and Johnny and Baby get a big round of applause.
Cultural Significance Dirty Dancing helped popularize the style of dancing portrayed in the movie, which became known as "dirty dancing". Several dirty dancing clubs opened shortly after the movie was released. Dirty Dancing also contributed to the popularity of several old dance tunes featured in the film. Much like Saturday Night Fever, the music from Dirty Dancing became quite popular and the sountrack album sold millions of copies.
Music The songs featured in Dirty Dancing are mainly '60s oldies, but a few new songs are also used. Oldies include the following:
"Be My Baby" by the Ronnettes
"Big Girls Don't Cry" by the Four Seasons
"Do You Love Me" by the Contours
"Stay" by Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs
"Hey! Baby" by Bruce Channel
"Love Is Strange" by Mickey & Sylvia
New songs include
"Hungry Eyes" by Eric Carmen
"Yes" by Merry Clayton
"She's Like the Wind" by Patrick Swayze
"(I've Had) The Time Of My Life" by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes
Movie Clips
Here's the climactic scene of the film - the last dance.
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Title: Dirty Dancing 
