Sunday, August 14, 2011
Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner
People can't stop talking about Dirty Dancing. From a post by my girl Lesley over at xojane, I learned there will be a remake with Lea Michelle cast in the Jennifer Grey role. A red flag, but I'll be first in line when it comes to the Bellevue Theater. I can't help myself. I've seen Dirty Dancing probably twelve times. At Sassy, we used to act out scenes from the movie, and try to force Mike Flaherty to play the Swayze role. (He refused.) I'm pretty sure I could recite the entire film to you right now.
I'm not the only one. In the pilot for the fall series New Girl, the character played by appealing Zooey Deschanel spends her post-breakup days on the couch crying and endlessly watching Dirty Dancing. Dirty Dancing was also referenced in Crazy Stupid Love, which Dalton and I saw last night. (Fun date movie, but Steve Carell gives me the heebie jeebies, so he and cute Ryan Gosling cancel each other out.) Ryan Gosling tells Emma Stone that he always gets girls to sleep with him by executing the lift from the final scene of Dirty Dancing. And then he demonstrates. I asked Dalton if he would do the lift with me. But he said it would throw his back out.
Reading Sunday Styles this am, I found a Dirty Dancing reference in the etiquette column, and a piece about grinding, the dirty dancing that actual teenagers have been doing for a decade.
I couldn't resist any longer. I am not made of stone, you know. So I went to you tube to watch the lift scene. It still give me chills. Swayze in that low cut cropped black shirt, adorable Jennifer Grey, the father seething in the corner. It's all gold.
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The concept of remakes is puzzling: the original will never, ever be equalled! Patrick Swazy and Jennifer Grey, their dance talent and chemistry are magic. And I had to laugh when I read about the re-enactments at SASSY! I worked for 'TEEN for nine years and we had our musical moments there as well!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kathy: the original will never be equalled. This is why I think just the idea of a remake is wrong. In any case, I must admit I used to hate it, labelling as "cheesy", but in the Nineties, in the years I spent at university, I watched it so many times that I finally appreciated it for what is it: one of the best romantic dramas I've ever seen.
ReplyDeleteYou would like Heartbreaker with Vanessa Paradis. Dirty Dancing is her character's favorite movie and it comes up repeatedly in super awesome ways.
ReplyDeleteI agree. This is one of my all time favorite movies. The only season of DWTS that I watched was the one with Jennifer Grey. And I cried every time she danced. When Patrick Swayze passed away it was awful and I don't normally react to deaths of people I didn't know. But this one was hard for me. Since it came out in 1987, I'm pretty sure I've watched it 50 times. So embarrassing to admit that.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I enjoyed reading this blog post.
Thanks,
Tracy