80sfilms

In 1987, long before the folks at “So You Think You Can Dance” were a gleam in their parents’ eyes, a little film called Dirty Dancing grabbed audiences sleeper-hit fashion and skyrocketed.

The film’s ability to entertain both ’tweens, teens and adults, coupled with captivating music and fancy footwork, as well as the coming-of-age theme, all blended together to create a film that still has a rabid fan base.

Leads Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey exhibited not only great acting ability and dance skills, but also palpable chemistry that made the opposites-attract pairing totally believable, only upping the romance factor in the plot.

Swayze, who is currently battling cancer, got his start much like the character in the film, as he grew up dancing and turned to acting more as a fallback career. Not only is he handsome and can move, but he also sings, making him all the more marketable.

Grey, who two years previously played a peripheral role in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, turns what might have been a one-dimensional character into a young woman struggling with hormones and parents, two major issues most teens could (and still can) easily relate to.

As the film is set in the 60s, the fantastic soundtrack mixes oldies such as “You Don’t Own Me” by The Blow Monkeys and “In The Still of the Night” by The Five Satins, with contemporary hits such as triple-threat Swayze’s “She’s Like The Wind”,  and “(I’ve Had) the Time Of My Life” by Jennifer Warnes.

Dirty Dancing was (and still is) one of my favorite 80s films.

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