DIRTY DANCING

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 2 out of 5

Because of: sexualized dancing, content, abortion

Rated:

The original film on which the remake was based, Dirty Dancing is all about discovering love and sexuality through dance. Having seen both films, I can safely say the remake is much cleaner... an irony when you consider how careless studios are about content. Frances Houseman (Jennifer Grey), whom all her family and friends call "Baby," is out to save the world. She wants to join the army and demolish worldwide hunger by sending her leftovers to starving third world countries. When she comes to a fancy resort for a week in the late summer, she never realizes it will change her life forever. Dragged along by her doctor father, boy-crazy sister and mild-mannered mother, Baby quickly figures out that she fits in better with the serving class at the hotel rather than the guests. In a place where there is constant activity and excitement to keep guests from becoming overly bored, the dance instructors are the most highly revered and respected.

Penny Johnson (Cynthia Rhodes) and Johnny (Patrick Swayze) are perfect on the dance floor, but not meant to share one another's hearts. Baby is enthralled with their abilities and wants to become one of them. She becomes inadvertently involved when she discovers Lisa is pregnant. Wanting to avoid scandal, Lisa is searching for other options. Baby provides the cold hard cash for an abortion but the only day the doctor can squeeze her in is the same as the dance showoff, where each hotel in the district sends their instructors to perform in a gala. Baby wants to help so badly she is determined to dance with Johnny in the show, but as he teaches her all the latest dance steps, she becomes romantically interested. The age gap between them, as well as the controversial manner of their dance, build up to an inevitable conflict while Baby learns the lesson of love.

The pleasing aspect of this film is the main characters, who are likable (though all blatantly immoral). By the end you feel a sense of completion, as though you'd been through a week of intense dancing lessons along with Baby. Her relationship with her father is very strong, and they're unafraid to talk to one another, although she hesitates when it comes to telling the truth about Johnny. Her father doesn't mind telling her he's disappointed in her when he learns the truth about the money she asked him for. The abortion goes wrong and Lisa nearly dies from it; he nurses her back to health, but shows disapproval both for the action itself (it's never clear whether he approves of abortion itself, or just such an abusive physician, who used a "dirty knife, a folding table, and no ether") and the careless intimacy that lead up to it. He's shocked when his daughter confesses to spending the night with Johnny.

As the title implies, there is plenty of Dirty Dancing -- worse than the remake, which is more mamba than outright physical. The opening and closing credits, several scenes inside the crew lodgings, and numerous instances between Baby and Johnny all are downright embarrassing. What is now called "freak dancing" has also been called "sex with clothes on," and this movie has a lot of it. There's also extremities of immodesty on part of all the girls (Baby wears tights and panties-like leotard to practice in, we see her in a bra several times, various characters show cleavage, her shirt become slightly sheer in the lake, etc.), and sexual content. Johnny makes it plain he's slept with most of the girls in his dance class because they leave him the key to their rooms -- even older women. Once he meets Baby and they begin an intimate relationship, he stops sleeping around. They dance around in his room and kiss; he pulls off her top and they continue dancing, before they're shown kissing in bed in a close-up and the camera fades out.

Numerous instances implying they continue intimacy occur: curled up in bed together, getting dressed afterward, mild conversation. Baby's sister muses about giving herself to the busboy and intends to, but walks in on him in bed with another girl. Four GD's, one abuse of Jesus' name, numerous instances of the s-word, mild abuses of deity, and a couple of instances of coarse sexual slang invade the script. Two boys get into a fistfight but one manages to control himself before he badly hurts the other. Lisa goes through with her abortion without remorse but suffers physical consequences from it. I'm not going to say the film doesn't have charm... the final dance sequence is just as beautiful as the innocent love it tries to portray. But casual sexuality, and dancing of this nature is inappropriate and indecent. I cannot recommend the film to Christian audiences.

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