Dirty Dancing (1987)

Spending the summer at a Catskills resort with her family, Frances "Baby" Houseman falls in love with the camp's dance instructor, Johnny Castle.

Director:

Emile Ardolino

Writer:

Eleanor Bergstein

Stars:

Patrick Swayze, Jennifer Grey, Jerry Orbach

Won 1 Oscar. Another 10 wins & 6 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jennifer Grey	...	Baby Houseman
Patrick Swayze	...	Johnny Castle
Jerry Orbach	...	Jake Houseman
Cynthia Rhodes	...	Penny Johnson
Jack Weston	...	Max Kellerman
Jane Brucker	...	Lisa Houseman
Kelly Bishop	...	Marjorie Houseman
Lonny Price	...	Neil Kellerman
Max Cantor	...	Robbie Gould
Charles 'Honi' Coles	...	Tito Suarez (as Charles Honi Coles)
Neal Jones	...	Billy Kostecki
'Cousin Brucie' Morrow	...	Magician
Wayne Knight	...	Stan
Paula Trueman	...	Mrs. Schumacher
Alvin Myerovich	...	Mr. Schumacher

Storyline

In 1963, Frances "Baby" Houseman, a sweet daddy's girl, goes with her family to a resort in upstate New York's Catskill Mountains. Baby has grown up in privileged surroundings and all expect her to go on to college, join the Peace Corps and save the world before marrying a doctor, just like her father. Unexpectedly, Baby becomes infatuated with the camp's dance instructor, Johnny Castle, a man whose background is vastly different from her own. Baby lies to her father to get money to pay for an illegal abortion for Johnny's dance partner. She then fills in as Johnny's dance partner and it is as he is teaching her the dance routine that they fall in love. It all comes apart when Johnny's friend falls seriously ill after her abortion and Baby gets her father, who saves the girl's life. He then learns what Baby has been up to, who with and worse, that he funded the illegal abortion. He bans his daughter from any further association with "those people". In the first deliberately willful ...

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Plot Keywords:

coming of age | abortion | teenager | pantyhose | sexy woman | 

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Taglines:

Dancing to the beat of their hearts.

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Genres:

Drama | Music | Romance

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Certificate:

PG-13

Did You Know?

Trivia

When Baby mentions "monks burning themselves in protest" at the beginning of the film she is referring to the day a Buddhist monk (Thích Quang Ducset) set himself on fire in Saigon in a ritual suicide to protest government anti-Buddhist policies. Therefore we can assume the action starts after June 11, 1963, when this occurred.

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Goofs

When Baby is talking to her sister Lisa and Lisa reveals that she is "going all the way" with Robbie, Baby urges her not to. Lisa says "You wouldn't care if I screwed the whole army as long as I was on the right side of the Hochiminh Trail." The Hochiminh Trail was not known and common knowledge in the United States until 1965, not 1963 and definitely not by Lisa who was not interested in politics.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Radio disc jockey: [on radio] Hi, everybody, this is your Cousin Brucie. Whoa! Our summer romances are in full bloom, and everybody, but everybody's in love. So cousins, here's a great song from The Four Seasons.
Baby: [voiceover] That was the summer of 1963 - when everybody called me Baby, and it didn't occur to me to mind. That was before President Kennedy was shot, before the Beatles came, when I couldn't wait to join the Peace Corps, and I thought I'd never find a guy as great as my dad. That was the ...

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Connections

Referenced in This Is Us: A Hell of a Week: Part Two (2020)

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Soundtracks

Be My Baby
Written by Jeff Barry (uncredited), Ellie Greenwich (uncredited), and Phil Spector (uncredited)
Performed by The Ronettes
Courtesy of Phil Spector International, Inc.
Produced by Phil Spector

User Reviews

Original 'Feel good" dance epic -- often imitated Never Duplicated

This is one of those rare rare films that needs a 30 year break between the time of production and the time of the review in order to appreciate it.

Since 1987 I have seen this film 7 or 8 times. Each time it just gets better. As a Prolific Review here on the IMDb, I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of films that improve with age like that.

This is literally the original "feel good" dance film -- which spawned dozens if not hundreds of imitations. The script is perfect. The acting is perfect. The casting is perfect. The direction is perfect. And the music score is to die for.

Nobody puts Baby in a corner? Well, nobody should ignore this film either! Also has an odd note of the "one hit wonder" label about it, which in my view only makes it more of a treat than it already is.

Swayze's career was unfortunately cut short. Jennifer Grey, who practically made this role a part of her DNA, had a nose job and (the cynics say) lost a lot of later roles because the casting directors were afraid no one would recognize her. And the brilliant writer/Producer Elenor Bergstein for whom this was a labor of love (there was a documentary on this) also seemed to hang up her spurs when production wrapped.

The IMDb rating is a joke. This is no less a classic in its genre than Maltese Falcon or the Matrix.

See it, rent it, buy it. But don't forget it.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [United States]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 August 1987 (USA)

Also Known As:

Dirty Dancing

Filming Locations:

Virginia, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$6,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$3,900,000, 23 August 1987

Gross USA:

$64,577,242

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$217,688,008

Company Credits

Production Co:

Great American Films Limited Partnership, Vestron Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min

Sound Mix:

DTS (re-release) Dolby Digital (re-release) Dolby Stereo (original release) SDDS (re-release)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1