Back when I was a freshman, I made the regrettable mistake of ripping on Dirty Dancing\ ad nauseam whenever I saw it gracing the shelves of a female acquaintance's movie collection. This was before I realized that nearly every girl I know not only owns but cherishes her copy of that Patrick Swayze-Jennifer Grey dance hit, and cracking wise about it is a rather unwise idea.
Now I know that not all of you women like and/or own that movie, but at least from my primary observation, a whole hell of a lot of you do. So, if you accept that generalization, here's another one: Many men hate ""Dirty Dancing"" with intense passion. It's as formulaic and corny as they come, the various characters and conflicts couldn't be more blatantly dependent on time-worn cliché, and no matter how hard you try, you can't stop humming and/or singing ""Hungry Eyes"" or ""(I've Had) The Time of My Life."" And how many dancing-themed chick flicks have you gals dragged us to? ""Shall We Dance"" (the Japanese version and the Richard Gere redux), ""Dance With Me,"" ""Dirty Dancing 2: Havana Nights"" and countless others—films that may not have existed if Swayze hadn't been shaking his ass back in 1987.
A few years ago, I finally broke down and watched the movie, and unsurprisingly, I would assert that it's pretty bad. For a while I rode my masculine high horse, but when I saw and guiltlessly loved another Swayze ""classic,"" 1989's ""Road House,"" I began to understand and appreciate ""Dirty Dancing's"" cult-like appeal.
""Road House"" stars Swayze as Dalton, a philosophical loner who also happens to be the best bouncer in the world. He's tapped to clean things up at the Double Deuce, a Texas dive where ""they sweep up the eyeballs after closing,"" but when his staggering bouncing skills prove too effective for some corrupt townspeople, the already pervasive violence escalates.
If you haven't seen it, ""Road House"" is the ultimate guy movie, a lazily written saga that can't go five minutes without a fistfight, explosion or prolonged glimpse of female nudity. It's chock-a-block with questionable one-liners, 80s-style sex scenes, overly obvious foreshadowing and musical performances from the Jeff Healey Band. It is probably my father's favorite movie.
If ""Road House"" is the ultimate guy movie, then ""Dirty Dancing"" is the fundamental chick flick, and these two films represent the most elemental differences and similarities between male and female film taste. Research has indicated that women typically pay more attention to emotional and thematic content, and as female viewers are living vicariously through Grey's Baby Houseman, they respond strongly when superhunk Johnny Castle lets everybody know that ""nobody puts Baby in the corner."" The same goes for males, who are more detail-oriented, and ""Road House"" allows men to vicariously seduce hot doctor chicks like Kelly Lynch and colorfully and creatively beat the living shit out of scores of people.
The two movies are structurally the same—an outsider comes to town, gradually carves out a niche for themselves, encounters opposition, and solves all of their problems with their signature skill (dancing or ripping out throats)—they just cater to polar opposite demographics.
You can't pigeonhole someone's tastes based on his or her sex, but each gender has certain tendencies that often show up one way or another. While Keira Knightley's ""Pride and Prejudice"" proudly sits alongside ""The Delta Force"" in my DVD collection, my tastes still run much closer to ""Road House"" than ""Dirty Dancing."" And whereas you'll never see the ""Dirty Dancing: Ultimate Edition"" DVD on my shelf, I understand its appeal and no longer form simplistic, ill-advised opinions about it. So, fellas, the next time your lady ropes you into watching ""Dirty Dancing,"" grit your teeth and curb any and all snide comments because after all, you can always force her to watch ""Road House"" next.
The reason you'll never see the ""Dirty Dancing: Special Edition"" DVD on Joe's shelf is that he hides it in order to preserve his reputation. Contact him at japudas@wisc.edu.\
