I never liked it as a kid because it sounded too girly and sex oriented.
I like it allright now. It is girly but it's also very romantic and not dirty at all.
But now I want it to be dirty.
Why was it so clean? Couldn't they squeeze in some hotter dance moves or situations or sex scenes?
I think a more adult movie (instead of a family oriented one) could have turned even better, at any rate at least the title would have made sense.
Those dance moves were considered very dirty in the early 1960s.
shareBah, even if they were, the movie NEVER makes a point about how dirty or taboo they were.
The hotel manager barely says something, but he is clearly a square and behind his times, as there are official competitions attended by every kind of people. It's not some underground kink.
The only objection being raised is to Johnny as a poor, promiscuous, unreliable man (mostly by her father) but they never condemn his dancing.
Early in the movie, they make reference to the dancing and music being dirty aka: risque which is why they did it in secret and Johnny was upset when his cousin brought Baby there. Baby is shocked by what she sees.
Anyway, it should be common knowledge. Rock music and R&B records were sometimes censored for being immoral as well as dancing in a suggestive manner. (New music was very controversial until the 80s or 90s).
I'm plagiarizing this from another poster because it gets to the essence:
"A large portion of the public saw Rock and Roll as "degenerate" "black" music -- comparatively, America was quite conservative going into the sixties. Segregation was still the norm across much of the country, especially the south. Rock and Roll was still new and early on, really was quite innocent when compared to more modern forms. Remember, this was a time when married TV couples were shown sleeping in separate beds, so even the slightest hint of sexuality offered in a song was morally wrong for a large portion of the population (Re: Let's Spend the Night Together: Rolling Stones). To have Elvis gyrating his hips on Ed Sullivan while performing offended a lot of people. The standards we hold today are quite more "liberal" than almost sixty years ago."
Another layer is that the Houseman family was upscale & Jewish. Wealthy people can buy their way out of a lot of problems. And being part of the "other", they're more tone-deaf to the racial dog whistles. They felt like they were above this stuff.
The viewers did not. Not even in the 1980s. The dancing was understood to be "dirty", especially for a movie aimed at teens. And they were not entirely wrong, seeing what happened between Robby & Penny. The heroine is kept "clean" to make it easy to swallow.
Keep in mind that a major plot point is the disconnect between what people assume is happening & what actually happens behind closed doors. I dislike the movie, but it was a huge success because of how well it threaded this needle.
Yeah it was definitely "Dirty" Dancing for a movie set in the 1960s. Also the abortion subplot isn't exactly Kid-Friendly.
sharethis movie was made in the late 1980's though. And frankly they could have (due to the standards which DID exist in the 1980's) show more on screen
True.
And also movies were less comic book nerd friendly, but more sexy in general. See all the great sex scenes from the 80s, like Top Gun, No Way Out, Terminator etc.
For a romantic film called Dirty Dancing, this was too clean.
I never liked it bc the main female character's name sounded like something you give an animal or a doll. if she was called Carol, or Sandy, or Lauren, it would have helped
The music is all wrong for the era this is supposed to be set in. They 'forgot' this is supposed to be early 1960's and said okay lets just make a movie about repressed kids dancing. Should have just either rewrote the script to go along with that and set it in the 1980s.
It says a lot about Swayze that this film did not tank him. It would have damaged other actors---and would have been regarded as a 'B movie' if anybody else did it.
Frances?
shareI think it's a great movie for what it is.
I also thought Baby is a stupid nickname, but it is memorable.
Even in the ‘80s this dancing made little ol’ pearl-clutching, puritanical sections of the US gasp. A fews years later the lambada (aka “the forbidden dance”) came out and caused an immense uproar.
A lot has changed since the early 1960s, but just as much so as the early 1990s.
The lambada certainly causd an uproar.
This movie instead is so clean I have never heard of any gasping nor complaints for it.
Where have you seen differently?
If they had actually showed stuff they could get away with in the 80s then it would have been interesting.
share