THE FANS' LOVE STORY: How The Movie 'DIRTY DANCING' Captured The Hearts Of Millions! (26 page)

Please tell me the other things that you liked best.

*2 similar comments:
Everything. This movie is excellent, how Jen portrays a teen, how she falls for the hot Patrick. The dancing, acting, music, the entire movie. Also, the love scenes.

The randomness of it. To clarify, I always thought, even at age six when I first saw it, that Baby and Johnny were not meant to be. It makes the story bittersweet, and conveys a “make the most out of the moments you’re given in life, even if circumstances are not optimal” type message.

Baby and Johnny get people to change their minds.

Choreography.

It gives hope.

The courage Baby has to love Johnny against the will of her father.

The first dance with Penny is very, very good.

In the beginning, Johnny was so sarcastic towards Baby, but how he begins to soften up towards her.

You can actually go to Mountain Lake and be where the movie was filmed. I did that and will never forget it. I stood where Patrick Swayze stood. My favorite memory was the feeling I got when I was there.

Johnny teaching Baby to dance in turn brings out a talent that she would have never known that she had. Sometimes you do not know what you have until someone else brings it out in you.

How we need to learn to trust our teenagers and spend more time with them than we did in the ’60s.

The feel-good feeling that comes when I watch the movie.

I also enjoyed Orbach’s role. I also loved his acting.

“Nobody puts Baby in the corner.” My grandchildren love that movie also—thirteen year old and ten year old.

The beauty of the location.

For a love story, it kept me on the edge of my seat every time. I just wanted the movie to never end.

I’m from the ’60s and vividly remember dirty dancing . . . it made us feel alive, and like we could do anything!!! This movie takes me right back to the scenarios in my own life. I love it all!!!

As it is my favorite movie ever, I really love Jennifer Grey’s natural talent and Patrick Swayze guiding her to be the best she can be as she also brings out the best in him.

It is very sexy.

’57 Chevy. How can I find out what happened to it?

The love story.

The dancing is smooth and phenomenal. It taught me that in order to dance with a partner, you have to really feel the music and totally be in sync with that person. You almost have to breathe in one another.

Please tell me your other reasons.

11
people wrote comments about Patrick Swayze: Patrick Swayze. Number one on this list would have to be Patrick Swayze . . . because Patrick Swayze is very beautiful and dances very, very good. Patrick Swayze stars in this movie and that’s why it has remained popular.

I think the way the movie was made/the way it turned out is also important. Some movies have a “feel” to them that is special; DD is one of those movies. It’s got a charming, almost magical feel to it—with a very simple manner of storytelling, nothing convoluted, over-earnest or over-the-top—that makes you overlook some of its faults, and just yearn to rewatch it and relive it.

It is hard to choose just four reasons. All of these add to the popularity.

Choreography.

When Johnny is leaving, he says goodbye to Baby and “She’s Like The Wind” is playing.

When Johnny goes to see Baby’s Dad.

Everything about the movie is the best.

It is just a feel-good all over movie.

My kids and grandchildren can sing all the songs in the movie. It’s fun.

It’s a story for all ages . . . integrity and love never die, and there’s something of this movie in everybody’s past, whether they’ll admit it or not.

It’s a movie that brings two people from different sides of the tracks together, and they begin to come to terms with each other’s expectations, and they could make it work as they both say “fight harder” and that’s what Johnny and Baby did. They fought and overcame their fears and found trust in one another.

Every time I watch it, it is like watching it for the first time. It evokes the same feelings every time.

The acting bond the characters had with each other. They “clicked” well with each other.

It’s solid. Well-choreographed and really romantic without being too over-the-top.

OTHER: Please tell me any other positive impact.

Since
Dirty Dancing
, I have been a huge Patrick fan and through my Patrick Swayze message board and Perfectly Patrick fan club, I’ve made many friends and was able to talk to Patrick on the phone.

It’s made me a dancer. I am not an entertainment professional, but I firmly believe in taking dancing, singing, and/or anything else pertaining to the arts, as it helps a great deal in getting through life, and should be something everyone delves in, whether they are professionals or not.

Following up on the story of how it was made and the impact it had on those involved in the movie. Very real people.

Joined the Patrick Swayze fan club.

Because of the actor, Patrick Swayze.

I have always thought that honesty and innocence can’t be played. Either you have these qualities or you don’t. It can’t be faked. Patrick (Johnny) & Jen (Baby) are really (in real life) honest people with high integrity who show innocence in its finest form.

It has been a lovely friend through many years.

I’m twenty-six years old and first watched the film at just six years old. Patrick was my idol all that time. I always said to my daddy, when I’m a big girl I’m going to America and hunt him down. Well, last year my dream came true, and I finally met him and shared three months in London in his company. He saved me a huge air fare, showed me that dreams really do come true, no matter how big they are . . .

Watching
Dirty Dancing
gave me an “escape” from life as I was growing up. I had a difficult childhood, and when I would turn on the VCR, I instantly stepped into Johnny and Baby’s world. It kept me together.

Has given me hope for my life, that I will have courage to find my own way, especially in dancing.

I have leave school a long time ago, and I learn English with this movie because text is easy now. I continue to learn English with speak up (magazine). Now I have many movies with Patrick, and I see them in American or English for hearing his voice with his accent. I like
One Last Dance
also. That’s given me strength and willpower for making sport. Thanks to Patrick and Lisa.

Every time I hear a
Dirty Dancing
song or watch a
Dirty Dancing
advertisement just for coincidence, suddenly I feel that next activity or moment of life I am going to live will be positive and perfect. That give me motivation, charge my batteries. I am studying tourism, and I am preparing myself in language and hotel skills and hotel management, in order to reach my dream to work in Mountain Lake Hotel (Virginia).

Being introduced to Patrick Swayze and enjoying watching him in all his other movies. It has been so much fun for me to get so caught up in him, and I honestly feel like I know him just through the roles he has chosen to play.

Patrick Swayze has always been an inspiration to me in every way.
Dirty Dancing
was the movie that opened my eyes to see what a true artist he is.

I was already a Swayze fan when the movie came out, so that’s why I went to see it. But WOW! I was very ILL at that time and alone. My family was thousands of miles away. I was too sick to work and very depressed. I went to the movies every day—sometimes twice a day. After the first week, I think I knew every word.

It puts you in a great mood, and it makes you want to get out there and dance the night away.

Just love it.

I believe that this movie has also made me think that there are people out there like Baby & Johnny. I also think it has made me feel like things happen when you least expect it.

That the best-looking gal didn’t get the guy.

When I get depressed, this movie really cheers me up. This movie is so awesome. This movie has impacted my life totally. Patrick is such a hunk.

That love, truth, and honesty will prevail in love . . .

Patrick Swayze was the first actor I had a crush on, and he’s still the one! So I finally had an idol.

That the guy can finish first place. It shows our kids that good values do count and that learning new things can be fun. Don’t give up your dreams.

Always makes me happy no matter what mood I am in.

It is just a beautiful story & the best movie I have ever seen. I love to watch it.

For me, I was going through a terrible time in my life where I needed something “good” to hang on to. Something positive to focus on, and something for me to strive towards—a love like that one! (I have it!)

I listen to the music, and find myself smiling . . . can’t help myself. And it introduced two great characters, Johnny and Baby, as well as actors, Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey, into my life.

I can relate to it in so many ways, such as being seventeen years old and breaking away and individuating in your own unique way, and me and Jennifer Grey are alike. I really look up to her in a way that has given me strength and power to stand up for myself, and stand up for what I believe in no matter if it’s to dance or fall in love. I really thank her for that, and Patrick is a dream come true. They could not have picked better actors to suit this film. Those two have a great chemistry, which nobody can take away from them. It will live on forever, because nobody puts Baby and Johnny in a corner.

The movie itself has a large impact in my life. Patrick Swayze is a role model of mine from that movie alone, so I would have to say all of the above & more.

You can do whatever makes you happy.

Patrick is an equestrian in his non-acting hours, and his love for nature and horses has inspired me. It was through watching DD interviews etc. that I learned of his love for them. I ended up being a volunteer through STEP, which is a therapeutic Equestrian Program for disabled children. I have always wanted to work with horses, and he inspired me to do a good deed for children in need. This has turned out to be a very rewarding experience—not only working with children but also with horses.

It still inspires me that a person can really fulfill their dreams if they put their heart and mind to it.

I saw the movie when I was twelve and now am thirty-three. At that time and still now, sexy Johnny, that came from a different class, fights for his place in the world.

Finally, on a special note, I want to share a comment made by my brother’s partner, Andrea Mathias, regarding how
Dirty Dancing
positively impacted her sister, Anna Mathias. Anna is thirty-six years old and lives in Budapest, Hungary.
“My sister is also a huge fan. I think she continued
to go to dance school because of
Dirty Dancing.
She used to have her hair styled like Baby’s and even dressed like her!”
Per Anna:
“This enthusiasm for DD happened in my teenage years. During this time, my ideal man was Patrick Swayze. I tried to learn the same choreography presented in this movie while waiting for the day when ‘my Patrick’ would finally dance this performance with me.”
Per Andrea:
“Anna and her husband are great ballroom dancers and they went out a lot to dance when they were dating. Also, he proposed to her at a formal event called the Anna Ball. So her dream came true in a way.”

Patrick Swayze was awarded Best International Actor for
Jump!
on May 16, 2009.
Jump!
tells the true story of the acclaimed celebrity photographer Phillippe Halsman; focusing on his murder trial in 1928 in Austria. Patrick is featured as Richard Pressburger, the attorney who helps Phillippe Halsman fight against the rampant anti-Semitism of the time.

Mr. Patrick Swayze wrote something in the April 2003 issue of
Arts Houston Magazine
regarding
the movie
One
Last Dance
(written, directed, produced and starred in by Ms. Lisa Niemi, and starred in and produced by Mr. Patrick Swayze) that applies to
Dirty Dancing
just as well:

“ . . . the world wants, needs, and demands that a movie change it in some way . . . A movie must make this life more special, or at least bearable, by the realization that someone else feels what we feel, that we are not alone in this world . . . ”
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