Director
Emile Ardolino
Leading Actors/Actresses
Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey
Supporting Actors/Actresses
Cynthia Rhodes, Jerry Orbach, and Jane Brucker
Genre
Romantic Drama
Language
English
Awards
Won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "(I've Had) The Time of My Life"
Date of Release
August 21st, 1987
Producer
Linda Gottlieb
Setting and Context
New York, the summer of 1963
Narrator and Point of View
Told from a third-person point of view
Tone and Mood
Joyous, High-Energy, Chaotic, Romantic, Creative, and Sexual
Protagonist and Antagonist
Frances (Protagonist) vs. Robbie Gould (Antagonist)
Major Conflict
Frances and Johnny's struggle to overcome societal norms and expectations and be in a relationship together
Climax
When Johnny and Frances dance to "(I've Had) The Time of My Life."
Foreshadowing
Penny's abortion is foreshadowed early on in the film.
Understatement
The extent to which Frances and Robbie's relationship is taboo is understated throughout the film.
Innovations in Filming or Lighting or Camera Techniques
N/A
Allusions
Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, West Side Story (1961), Cleopatra (1963), Camelot (1967), Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), screenwriter Eleanor Bergstein's life, popular culture, and history.
Paradox
Despite the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade (1973), the U.S. was still very much anti-abortion. Dirty Dancing, which was created to make money, lost a number of sponsors (which pay money to have their products featured in the film) because of the films abortion subplot, which is paradoxical to the film's goal to make money.
Parallelism
N/A
