Dirty Dancing: 1987 vs 2017

Hello book-nerds!

Today we’ll be doing something a little different, we’re going to talk about movies! Specifically Dirty Dancing.

My Mom’s teen crush was Patrick Swayze and it all started with Dirty Dancing. It’s been a common argument in the house, which movie was best: Grease, that both me and my sister love, or Dirty Dancing, my mom’s all time favourite movie. So I figured, I’d see the movie and irritate my mother by over criticizing her movie (spoiler alert: I wasn’t trying to me mean, just to ruffle her feathers a little ;p)

So I saw Dirty Dancing, the original, from 1987 and…

I didn’t hate it. Actually, in all honesty, I really liked it.

I have my problems with the main male character, Johny, he’s so rude in the beginning that if I was the protagonist, Baby, I would have punched him in the face. But she’s a better person than me and fell for him instead.

My favourite part was, without a doubt, the dances. It is noticeable that a big effort was put into them and they look effortlessly. Johny is an amazing dancer and teacher, I was watching the movie and wishing I could hire him to turn these left feet into that.

(I’m still sad I can’t…)

But I’m missing the point! We should be comparing the new version to the old one.

Because, right after seeing Dirty Dancing, I saw the remake. To compare things, since what I heard was that the remake was a total failure.

The first thing to notice is that the casting was sloppy, the new actors look nothing like the old ones. In this new version, Johny and Penny look too old and Baby too young.

Other thing that I believed was a big factor for the unsuccess of this remake, was the storyline, fans of the original want to see something familiar, but in DD2017 the focus shifted so violently from Johny and Baby to other characters, that the chemistry between the two of them was almost non-existent.

In the original, I was rooting for the main couple, adoring every moment they spent together; however, in this one it feels like one moment they’re hating on each other and in the other they’re in love. I don’t know if I’m being biases, because I liked the first one so much, but it didn’t feel realistic to me.

But the one thing that made this movie a huge NO for me, was the dance. I told you the casting job was sloppy, but even more important than this was that the dancers, Johny and Penny mainly, were not very good at dancing. Johny’s actor seemed to be too concentrated on not messing up the steps, and Penny as good but lost her shine when with him.

On the dancing department, DD1987 is definitely the winner.

Well, in all honesty, the only thing where DD2017 wins, is the fact that they sing, which turned it into a musical and not only a dancing movie, DD1987 is the uncontested winner.

But let me know in the comments your thoughts on Dirty Dancing! Have you seen it? Are you a fan? Do you prefer the original or 2017’s version?