25 of the most swoon-worthy romance movies of all time
By Amy Kaplan
Dirty Dancing
Nobody puts Baby in a corner! And nobody leaves Dirty Dancing off a best-of list!
One of the most recreated movie scenes in history is when Baby (Jennifer Grey) and Johnny (Patrick Swayze) reunite to perform the end of the season dance number. I dare you to find a woman who can’t recreate at least a part of it or who hasn’t dreamed of finding a guy who can lift her effortlessly like Johnny does to Baby.
Along with the iconic dance are memorable one-liners like, “I carried a watermelon,” and of course, “Nobody puts Baby in a corner.” Who can resist a love story where the ‘bad guy” gets tamed by the “good girl” and they live happily ever after? (We hope anyway!)
Dirty Dancing tells the story of “Baby” Housman who travels to the Catskills with her family for summer break and stumbles into a world of dance (and the arms of the rebel dance instructor Johnny). This coming of age story breaks Baby from the innocent life she had been leading when she must step in to for the female dance instructor when she must get an abortion (which is illegal at this time). Baby learns that those who may appear to be good people, actually aren’t and those rebels who appear to be bad influences actually change her life for the better. She learns to dance between the hips of Johnny in one of the most sensual scenes in a movie in a very long time.
Fun Fact: Swayze and Grey had just finished filming Red Dawn and were not friendly with each other, in fact, rumor has it that they hated each other!
Release date: August 21, 1987