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Film Analysis : Dirty Dancing, A Romantic Film

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Dirty dancing is a romantic movie set in 1963 and filmed in 1987. The summer before starting college, Baby, 17-years-old, goes on vacation with her family to the exclusive Kellerman's Mountain House Resort. Her dad, Jake Houseman, is a medical doctor, while her mom, Marjorie Houseman, is a housewife. Baby's older sister Lisa, is also along for the trip. Kellerman's resort is frequented by affluent families in the summer months. That fateful summer, Baby meets Johnny, a dancer and entertainer at the resort. Baby is mesmerized by Johnny from the beginning, but they are later brought together by unusual circumstances. Penny, Johnny's longtime friend and dance partner finds out she is pregnant, and Baby decides to help her by paying for her abortion and replacing her in the dancefloor for one of her gigs. As Johnny teaches Baby how to dance, they fall hopelessly in love. Socioeconomic class division is very clear in this film. In one of the beginning scenes of the film, the owner of the hotel, Max Kellerman, warns the dancers to not mingle with the costumers, while the servers, who are Ivy League students, are encouraged to flirt with the daughters. Kellerman encourages the young waiters to "show the goddamn daughters a good time, all the daughters even the dogs" by showing them the stars and romancing them however they want. Contrastingly, when laying down the rules for the entrainment staff regarding “the daughters”, Kellerman tell them to “Teach them the mambo, the cha-cha,

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