please rank Dirty Dancing, Footloose, and Flashdance

[Anonymous]

Flashdance, footloose and dirty dancing.

I could never get behind the chemistry in DD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FLASHDANCE!!!!!!
Footloose
Dirty Dancing

+1

[Anonymous]

I can watch Dirty Dancing and Footloose over and over.

Flashdance was boring then, and it's boring now. If you've seen the MTV videos, you're good. No need to watch the entire movie.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dirty Dancing: An excellent period piece with an iconic ending. (Nobody puts baby in the corner.) Strange matchup between Jennifer Gray and Patrick Swayze. I wasn't feeling the chemistry there.

Footloose: A teen flick with a formulaic plot and predictable ending, but the excellent theme song will live forever in the zeitgeist. One of the few times Kevin Bacon plays the romantic lead. (Can anybody even name who played the girl?)

Flashdance: Stupid movie. Stupid plot. Pretended to be feminist but she still needed some guy to save her. All the dance scenes were done using an uncredited stand-in. Spawned an entire decade of fashion with leg warmers and cut up sweatshirts. Guys seemed to like it more than girls, and the only thing they remember is that she took off her bra under her shirt and pulled it out of her sleeve.

Lori Singer, played a cellist in the TV series Fame. Obviously it was my era lol

I loved her! So pretty and talented!

[Anonymous]

Footloose, Flashdance, Dirty Dancing.

I was a little older, had little kids, so my perspective may have been different if I was younger. I love music and dancing and you know none these are going to be in any way realistic.

DD - loved the original music, liked/loved some of the dance scenes, and will occasionally watch it just to see a couple of those. But definitely things that made me go huh(?) or roll my eyes. Why was Johnny so enraged about a locked car that he had to take a baseball bat to the window? To show he was a rebel bad guy? Baby’s father so upset and disappointed with her. Until a big dance with Johnny and all is forgiven and he’s ok? A lot of plot holes that don’t really make sense. But, hey, it’s all pretend, but sometimes kind of a far reach.

Flashdance - loved the music, loved the dancing, basic Hollywood plot, girl has talent, wants to be a star, has no chance, goes for it, gets a chance and everyone is wowed and dreams come true. Predictable and corny, you know how it’s going to end but brain candy enjoyable.

Footloose - loved the music, loved the dance scenes. Still corny and predictable but had a little more fleshed out storyline and characters. New outsider guy who doesn’t get the small town vibe, pastor father biased with religion beliefs furthered by son’s death, pastor daughter rebelling by trying to be the bad girl. Some understanding and acceptance of others toward the end (did I mention predictable? Lol)

And Everybody Dance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looking back on all three with a more feminist perspective, footloose is pretty horrible. Dirty Dancing and Flashdance are more female positive. Do LOVE the opening scene from Footloose though, in the Bug with I think Quiet Riot blaring

The abortion-positive (or at least not overall negative) subplot of Dirty Dancing was pretty revolutionary at the time. Went over the heads of much of the younger audience, I think.

I was a devout Catholic high school girl when Dirty Dancing was popular. None of my friends thought the abortion storyline was that unusual. The whole point was that she lied to her father. She disappointed her father by not telling him what the money was for. And she knew she just ran and got her father whenever something was wrong. Plus, the important storyline was how her father was so class conscious, favoring Robby over Johnny.

While I'm glad for you, I don't think you and your friends were typical. There was a lot of later analysis about it.

This was a progressive move for the late 1980s, and foreshadowed a future where we would be able to talk much more openly about abortion.
Before We Knew Better: How the illegal abortion in “Dirty Dancing” started honest dialogue about reproductive rights
https://qz.com/quartzy/1576857/dirty-dancing-started-a-dialogue-about-reproductive-rights

Even a decade and a half after Roe v. Wade, the subject was so controversial in 1987 that it was almost cut from the movie.
Don’t Forget That Dirty Dancing Has a Powerful Pro-Choice Message
https://www.glamour.com/story/dirty-dancing-powerful-pro-choice-message

And this film almost didn’t happen. An independent film with a female-driven story written by a female was not getting traction. There’s a great Movies That Made Us on Netflix on getting the film made. ... But the story behind it and the story plot device within it was groundbreaking. And the fight for representation like this on-screen was not new but one that is important.
Metrograph Presents: It Happens To Us: Abortion In American Film (DIRTY DANCING)
https://www.hammertonail.com/editorial/metrograph-dirty-dancing/

When I first watched it at 15 years old (sorry, Mum), I, like most pubescent teenagers out there, was mostly enraptured by the dreamy storyline of sweet wallflower Baby (played by Jennifer Grey) meeting and literally being swept off her feet by bad boy dance instructor Johnny Castle ... at 21 years old, I gave Dirty Dancing another go and boy, did it surprise me in more ways than one! Yes, the eponymous hip grinding still made me blush for a good minute but for a movie all about bold moves and swift footwork, it became obvious to my (fortunately) more mature mind that the film had other powerful moves and gestures hidden within its narrative that would’ve otherwise gone over my 15-year-old head.
WHY ‘DIRTY DANCING’ WAS AHEAD OF ITS TIME: THE SPICY POLITICS OF A STEAMY DANCE FILM
https://www.buro247.my/culture/film-tv-and-theatre/why-dirty-dancing-movie-was-ahead-of-its-time.html

It was a bold move to include such a divisive issue at the heart of the film, and one that alienated a lot of potential investors.
Clearasil – sensing a potential teenage viewership primed to buy their range of acne products – pulled out of a lucrative sponsorship deal after Bergstein refused to remove the abortion content.
Dirty Dancing: the surprising politics of the ’80s classic
https://inews.co.uk/culture/film/dirty-dancing-the-surprising-politics-of-the-80s-classic-85112

Thanks for mentioning The Movies That Made Us on Netflix - the episode on DD is great and I’m working my way through the other episodes as well.

[Anonymous]

I don't think I've ever watched Flashdance all the way through, though of course I'm familiar with the story.

DD and FL, I saw in the theater. Just inconic and I love them both.

Jennifer Gray's memoir is good - came out last year. She talked about how Patrick was very wary of her since she wasn't a professional dancer and that storyline was 100% true and she thought it really helped the movie that Johnny ALSO thought that about Baby.

I can't wait to see her in upcoming Lifetime movie about Gwen Shamblin!

Kevin Bacon is so amazing.

Agree DD holds up better in terms of messaging.

[Anonymous]

Flashdance!!!!