When Baby soars at last in Dirty Dancing
Coming-of-age blockbuster screening in Toronto now to celebrate 30-year anniversary
In this series, our writers own up to the entertainment that never fails to bring a tear, or a torrent of them, to their eyes. When Baby comes out of her corner, the tears start to trickle out of my eyes.
By the time — in the final triumphant act of Dirty Dancing — Johnny Castle is leading the other entertainment staff of Kellerman’s lodge down the centre aisle of the ballroom like a hip-thrusting Pied Piper my vision is getting a little blurry.
And I’m audibly sniffling when Baby finally nails that lift she’s been trying to do all movie long; Johnny holding her aloft in her pretty white dress as she beams and the audience breaks into applause.
I have watched this movie from time to time on VHS or DVD since it was first released on Aug. 21, 1987 — 30 years ago today, as it happens — and that sequence never fails to make me tear up.
To refresh your memory, Dirty Dancing is about a 17-year-old girl, Frances “Baby” Houseman, who goes to a resort in the Catskills with her doctor father, mother and sister in 1963 and falls for Johnny, a dance instructor from the wrong side of the tracks.
As with any star-crossed romance, obstacles are thrown in their path: the snotty-nosed grandson of the resort owner lords his privilege over Johnny; a rich guest considers Johnny her personal plaything; Baby’s own father — after treating Johnny’s dance partner for the back-alley abortion she had when a waiter at the resort got her pregnant — believes Johnny was responsible and forbids Baby from having anything to do with him. Johnny and Baby mambo and cha cha their way around these hin- drances. At least they do until Johnny gets accused of stealing a guest’s wallet by his vengeful ex-lover. Baby confesses they were sleeping togeth- er when the theft took place to save him from getting fired, but he gets fired anyway for fraternizing with a guest.
Imagine how anticlimatic the movie would have been if it had ended there, with Johnny driving off in his Chevrolet Bel-Air and a sad Baby heading back to the city with her folks.
But no, Johnny returns during Kellerman’s end-of-season party, spots Baby at the back of the room with her parents, utters those immortal words, “Nobody puts Baby in a corner,” and pulls her from her seat and onto the stage, where they do a flawless mambo.
The entertainment staff join in with the slightly naughty “dirty dancing” of the title and everybody is on their feet at the end, even Baby’s chastened dad, who has learned he was wrong about Johnny.
No matter how corny the dialogue, no matter how one-note some of the characters, the movie — a semi-autobiographical tale written by Eleanor Bergstein — gets me every time.
I’ve always been a sucker for those moments in a film or TV series when the hero and heroine give in to their passion for each other. So I guess it’s no surprise that the other Dirty Dancing scene that brings tears to my eyes is when Baby goes to Johnny’s room and they dance slowly and seductively to Solomon Burke’s “Cry to Me” before tumbling into bed.
I was 25 when the movie came out, about a year and a half younger than Jennifer Grey, who played Baby, so I wasn’t coming of age along with the character. But I know what it’s like to feel awkward and like you don’t quite fit in, as Baby does when she first stumbles upon the staffers’ steamy dance party, and to hanker after the guy who seems too cool for you.
And then there was the dancing. As someone who actually liked doing the “Bossa Nova” in gym class, who had one glorious year of ballet and still treasures the pointe shoes she got just before the money for lessons dried up, I lived vicariously through Baby as she went from stepping on toes and “spaghetti arms” to dance goddess. And who wouldn’t want to trip the light fantastic with a shirtless Patrick Swayze, may he rest in peace.
Of course, I wasn’t the only one captivated by the movie.
It was a box office hit, despite its lack of big name movie stars, grossing about $214 million (U.S.) worldwide on a $6-million budget.
The film is still beloved today. In fact, it’s screening in several GTA Cineplex VIP theatres Monday at 7 p.m.
My advice? Brings tissues.