Product Details

• Actors: Patrick Swayze, Jennifer Grey, Jerry Orbach, Cynthia Rhodes, Jack Weston
• Directors: Emile Ardolino
• Writers: Eleanor Bergstein
• Producers: Doro Bachrach, Eleanor Bergstein, Linda Gottlieb, Mitchell Cannold, Steven Reuther
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered, NTSC
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Vestron Video
• VHS Release Date: October 13, 1998
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (446 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6300263673
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #76,930 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

As with Grease (1978) and Footloose (1984) before it, Dirty Dancing was a cultural phenomenon that now plays more like camp. That very campiness, though, is part of its biggest charm. And if the dancing in the movie doesn't seem particularly "dirty" by today's standards--or 1987's--it does take place in an era (the early '60s) when it would have. Frances "Baby" Houseman (Jennifer Grey, daughter of ageless hoofer Joel Grey) has been vacationing in the Catskills with her family for many years. Uneventfully. One summer, she falls under the sway (as it were) of dance instructor Johnny Castle (Patrick Swayze). Baby is a pampered pup, but Johnny is a man of the world. Baby's father, Jake (Law and Order's Jerry Orbach), can't see the basic decency in greaser Johnny that she can. It should come as no surprise to find that Baby, who can be as immature as her name, learns more about love and life--and dancing--from free-spirited Johnny than traditionalist Jake.

Dirty Dancing spawned two successful soundtracks, a short-lived TV series, and a stage musical. It may be predictable, but Grey and Swayze have chemistry, charisma, and all the right moves. It's a sometimes silly movie with occasionally mind-boggling dialogue--"No one puts Baby in a corner!"--that nonetheless carries an underlying message about tolerance and is filled with the kind of exuberant spirit that's hard for even the most cynical to resist. Not that they'd ever admit it. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

87 of 89 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best movie from the 80s, September 25, 2002

By 

Deanna (Maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dirty Dancing (Collector's Edition) (DVD)

In Dirty Dancing, Jennifer Grey stars as Frances "Baby" Houseman, a girl who goes on vacation to the Catskills with her father, mother and sister in the summer of 1963. She meets the handsome dance instructor Johnny Castle (Patrick Swayze), who works at the lodge where they're staying, and is smitten with him. When she volunteers to fill in for Johnny's dance partner, Baby experiences love and life firsthand from the free-spirited Johnny.

The DVD version of this movie is terrific. The clarity is amazing, the sound is crisp & clear and the bonuses are wonderful. With the bonus features, you get commentary from the movie's creator, a behind-the-scenes featurette (with no audio), the videos for "She's Like the Wind," "I've Had the Time of My Life" & "Hungry Eyes," biographies about the cast & crew (Jennifer Grey, Patrick Swayze, Cynthia Rhodes, Jerry Orbach, Jack Weston, the director, the producer, the writer and the choreographer), a short "Reliving the 60s" documentary, the theatrical trailer and a concert featuring the music from the movie.

If you love Dirty Dancing, I highly recommended getting this DVD. It would be a great addition to add to your collection!

49 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars If you own the Collectors, do you want this one? Read on., April 15, 2006

By 

Stephen "Podhi" Burke (Earth) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Dirty Dancing (Single-Disc Widescreen Edition) (DVD)

I give this movie and the DVD package 4 stars. The music was powerful and the love story between Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze was a powerful one and the acting performances by all involved were completely believable.

Now for the DVD itself. If you own the Collectors Edition and you're wondering whether or not you would want this version there should be only one thing to take into account....how good is your home theatre system?

If you have a 5.1-7.1 home theatre system then I would highly recommend buying this version, the DTS:ES 6.1 discreet audio track is more visceral than the Dolby Digital 5.1EX track and with almost twice the bit rate you're getting nearly twice the information. This means that you're listening to something that's more accurately reproducing the original studio masters of the audio with less compression than the Dolby track.

If you already own the collectors edition and you're watching your DVDs through either just your television, a two channel stereo or with a receiver that only supports Dolby Digital or Dolby Pro Logic/Pro Logic II then I would say to be sated with the version you already have. There is not much more that this DVD covers with the interviews and features that, after watching the collectors edition, you would care to see.

65 of 72 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE, January 6, 2000

By 

R. Penola (NYC, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dirty Dancing [VHS] (VHS Tape)

It is awfully hard not to get swept up into the nostalgic heat and sentiment of this unabashedly, and well-done, teen romance. It is, by turns, sexy, funny, melodramatic, jamming (what with that soundtrack chock full of some of the best pop hits of the 60s mixed with a few great new songs) and campy. Yet the overriding feeling of melancholy and wistfulness, portrayed with real talent by Jennifer Grey, as the perfect Baby, transforms this movie into something lasting, something to really love. Cynthia Rhodes is absolutely riveting -- as usual -- in the second female lead; she is a spectacular dancer and electrifying whenever she is on the screen. The aching feeling of first true love/lust/whatever, here directed at hunky Patrick Swayze, who is by the way an excellent dancer, comes to full flower at a Poconos resort. As all manner of soapy subplots move through their predictable paces, we are treated to the transformation of our young heroine and any number of delightful musical numbers, capped off by the irresistably romantic Time Of My Life -- that feeling of moving through a romance that has somehow changed your life is captured with a rare sweetness, and it stays with you.