Believe
it or not, I'm not gonna trash it.
Christian De Matteo
Solid
So, quite recently, I was made to watch one of the few films I
have done my damnedest, all my life, never to ever see:
Dirty Dancing. How was I forced into seeing this, you
ask? Two guesses, but you probably only need one... Yup, and
she's a hottie.
Well, faithful readers (both of you), shock amongst shocks, I'm
not going to trash it. Sure, I sat down to watch the film,
intending to write a scathing review mocking every nook and cranny
of this quintessential dancing can save the world flick, but I
can't. And True Romance is part of the reason.
(True Romance Spoilers in next
paragraph)
Recently, I was attempting to explain the absolute brilliance of
True Romance to my mother, who would have none of it, and in doing
so, surprised myself as describing it this way: It's what
every 13 year old boy thinks is cool in one movie. The film
is the very definition of a young male teen's belief in what truly
is cool. Clarence loves comics, kong-fu movies, and
Elvis, and finds a girl named Alabama who loves all those things
too. She thinks he is the "coolest" thing ever,
even writing him little messages like You are so cool, when
he's wheeling and dealing. She fights for him and
appreciates every gesture he makes. Even his wound is cool
to a young teen... I mean, come on, he gets an eye patch!
(Isn't this a Dirty Dancing review? You know I always tie it
all together.)
Dirty Dancing is everything that a teenage girl would think is
cool. How could I possibly trash a film that so successfully
captures all that is cool to a young girl, that even captures the
ultimate romance in a film centered around risqué dancing?
I can't. The film is brilliant that way. No, it's not
a brilliant film, yes it does bore me a tad, but that's not
because it's a poor film. That's because it is successfully
aimed at young girls.
A high school senior is forced to go to the Catskills (old folk
country) with her family (ugh! so gross), on vacation where
they will all learn dances together, listen to her sister's
cackling attempt at singing (and speaking), and be made to dance
with pompous society type wannabes. This is everything that
would suck for a young girl. But wait, what discovery does
she make here? There's an underworld of young gypsy types
(the clean, cool kind, of course) who spend all their free time...
dancing. They are not allowed to fraternized with the
patrons they teach dancing to during the working hours, and she's
not allowed to stay with them. Exciting. Add to this
that the dancing is risqué, sexual even, and that what awaits her
is true love in the form of a gerbil-stuffing bad boy, with a
heart of gold who will (spoiler) in the end, throw it all away for
her, true love and to teach the world the healing power of dance.
Sure, it's silly and unrealistic, but so is a comic book nerd
who's do cool, that he kills a pimp, does a major drug deal
earning tons of money, has a girlfriend that thinks he's the
greatest thing since sliced bread and has Elvis as a mentor.
But you know what, that's frickin cool to me, so there's no way I
could pan what was well done and would be the same kind of cool to
a girl.
Overall, Dirty Dancing is a well done movie, with an astounding
soundtrack.
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