Dancing Beneath the Full Moon

It was 1987 and I can tell you it was a year that really motivated me. You might wonder what it motivated me to do. Well, let’s begin at the top. First of all, it made me want to blow up the incredibly frightening and most annoying “Predator’.

Schwarzenegger got my blood pressure up when he appeared in the ever-popular “RoboCop” with guns blazing.

That summer made me want to just dance and dance. It was the year of the fantastic movie “Dirty Dancing”. I fell in love with both Patrick Swayze and dancing in general. It was also the year when I realized that I was out of practice by doing one of Jennifer Grey’s fanciest moves and spraining my ankle.

I wanted to grab a gun and shoot Glen Close because enough was enough in the movie “Fatal Attraction”. It also took me a while not to flinch every time I saw a woman with blond curly hair on the streets of New York City.

I wanted to create fantasies of my own being inspired by “The Princess Bride”.

I knew that big investments were not for me when I saw what happened in “Wall Street”.

Cher made me dream about and thrill about romance and the full summer moon above in “Moonstruck”. I must have listened to Dean Martin’s song “That’s Amore” with a sappy look on my face singing along, “When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie that’s amore”. Don’t you dare laugh it was seriously romantic stuff.

One of my all-time favorite movies came out “Lethal Weapon” with Mel Gibson and Danny Glover and I fell in love with Gibson’s unkempt but handsome looks. Since then I have seen all of the “Lethal Weapon” movies many times.

I was extremely glad I was a bad swimmer and kept to the shore when “JAWS The Revenge” came out. I sure wanted to blow that shark right out of the water.

These are just some of the movies that came out that year and had an influence on me. It would take practically forever to mention them all. So with all of that going on you can imagine that it was tough for the Academy to pick the nominees for the 1987 Academy Awards which were held on Monday, April 11, 1988, at the Shrine Civic Auditorium with Chevy Chase as the host. All that’s left to say is –

The Winners Were:

Best Picture: The Last Emperor

Best Actor: Michael Douglas (“Wall Street”)

Best Actress: Cher (“Moonstruck”)

Supporting Actor: Sean Connery (“The Untouchables”)

Supporting Actress: Olympia Dukakis (“Moonstruck”)

Director: Bernardo Bertolucci (“The Last Emperor”)

Song: “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” (“Dirty Dancing”)

I would have liked to see “Dirty Dancing” with top honors but as you can see the choice was a much more serious movie and not among my favorites. I was thrilled about the fact that at least the song came from “Dirty Dancing” and we know that a great many of the other songs from the movie are still popular today.

Here is that last scene from “Dirty Dancing”

Dirty Dancing

If there is one movie I will never get tired of watching or listening to or dancing along with it’s “Dirty Dancing” starring Patrick Swayze. The movie opened to the public on August 21, 1987, all across the U.S. I remember the first time I saw the movie and instantly fell in love with it was on a hot, sweltering day in New York City and the ice-cold movie theater felt like a bit of heaven. Then the movie started and I was swept away to the Catskill Mountains of New York State where I spent my happiest childhood days.

You can imagine that “Dirty Dancing” was a smash hit and the music was incredible. The movie soundtrack was awarded multi-platinum. Among the hit singles were “(I’ve Had) the Time of My Life” which won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, “Hungry Eyes” by Eric Carmen, and as a surprise “She’s Like the Wind” co-written and sung by Swayze himself. Now this song will be even the sadder since Swayze passed away.

The movie was set in 1963 and told the story of a resort in the Catskill Mountains named Kellerman’s. Jennifer Grey did an amazing acting job portraying Frances “Baby” Houseman who develops a crush on the resort’s dance instructor Johnny Castle played by Patrick Swayze. When Johnny Castle’s dance partner becomes pregnant Baby replaces her and as unexpected things happen Baby and Johnny fall in love. As the story unfolds you find yourself laughing, cheering, wanting to dance, and also shedding a tear or two. The ending absolutely blew me away when a now-unemployed Johnny returns to Kellerman’s closing ceremony and places Baby center stage to “(I’ve Had) the Time of My Life”. It just made you feel so good all over.

I’m sure that I was among the many who after seeing this movie just wanted to keep on “dirty dancing” the night away. I must say I tried a few routines that Jennifer Gray made look simple. I still enjoy the movie and the music. The “Dirty Dancing” script was written by Eleanor Bergstein based on her own growing-up experiences. It was the debut of movie director Emile Ardolino. The choreographer Kenny Ortega, trained with Gene Kelly and later on directed the High School Musical movies. So if you’re in the mood for some great dancing head on over to YouTube put on the great “Dirty Dancing” hits and start moving. I’ll open up my window, turn up the music, and see if I can catch Swayze doing a few good moves across the stars.

Fatal Attraction

A great thriller came out on September 11. 1987 it was “Fatal Attraction” starring Michael Douglas and Glenn Close. It was a movie that scared me all about a happily married man who lets his guard down for one weekend and has a fast fling with an obsessed woman. I must say that Close played the role of Alex Forrester so well I was completely spooked. They sort of draw you into the movie because you think all right so this guy Dan Gallagher slipped a little and now he’s going back home and that is it.

His wife Beth played by Anne Archer calls from the country to let him know she’ll be looking at a house they want to buy there. Then comes another call and it is the obsessed woman who is not happy he has gone while she was asleep. Fool that he is, he returns to see her again and then the nightmare really begins. It is up to you to find out what unravels in the mind of a woman who does not want to take no for an answer.

The movie was a box office hit. There are quite a few scenes in the movie which are so disturbing that I would wonder why any man who has seen this movie would still decide to have an affair. Surely not if they really love their families. Of the most disturbing of scenes was the one where the man’s wife still doesn’t know about the affair and the family comes home from visiting the wife’s parents to find their little daughter’s bunny boiling away in the kitchen. I would recommend this movie to anyone who is a thriller fan just be prepared to be shocked.

I have this scene here for you and I will warn you it’s not for the faint at heart: