Got immature once more this weekend by watching a teen movie: Save the Last Dance. I always have a thing for dancing movies. Feel frisky and young after watching those snappy dancing moves. Can’t help wiggling and twisting afterwards.
The story is very formulaic and predictive. You can tell the results from the very beginning but the performance is not very corny. For pure entertainment and relaxation, watch it. For brain teasing, skip it.
It is about this suburban white girl Sara (Julia Stiles) who fights all odds to realize her dream of becoming a prima ballerina. The story starts with Sara’s first audition for the Juilliard School. She fails and her mom gets killed in a car accident when she rushes over to attend her daughter’s most important audition. Sara’s ballet dream shatters after mom’s death. She also lives under the heavy guilt of getting her mom killed because of her stupid audition.
After mom’s death, Sara has to move to live with her long-time estranged dad who lives in a run-down apartment in a Chicago black ghetto. The neighborhood is full of drugs, drive-by shooting and gangs. The school she attended is all black students. She is the only white girl and feels totally out of place until she is befriended by a black classmate Chenille and her brother - Derek. After the initial brief conflict with Derek, Sara becomes attracted to this smart and caring young man. Derek is a natural hip-hop dancer who teaches Sara how to do hip-hop after school. Sparks fly between them. Derek helps Sara pick up her dream of ballerina and ace in her second audition for Juilliard school.
Almost from beginning you can see the results but there are still interesting clashes worth watching through out the movie:
Black culture vs. white culture: white people say,” your coat is cool”, black people say “It ‘s slamming”;
suburban white girl vs. inner city black boy;
Elegant ballet vs. raw hip-hop dance;
Choice between paying debt for a gang friend and conscience;
Genuine love vs. oppositions from family/friends on their relationship: even Derek’s sister – Sara’s friend is against it. Black & white is like milk and oil. Can’t mix together. Although racial segregation and racial discrimination have been repealed from laws for more than half century, I can still feel nowadays in US black people and white people are kinda alienated in two totally different worlds. It is nice that the movie doesn’t shy away from the issue by sugar coating some naive interracial teen romance here. Instead the movie lets Chenille - Sara’s best black female friend and Derek's sister vent the complaint and frustration on this relationship, which makes deeper perspective on the black/white social issues.
Maybe it is a cliché, maybe not. Quite some black women feel somehow offended when they see a white woman dating a decent black man. For them, it seems that Sarah just creeps into their world and steals one of few decent black guys left after drugs, drive-by and jail-in. It is not just an insult to Derek's ex. It is for all the black women. I feel the complaint is legitimate to some degree.
Anyway, like all fairy tale love movies, Sara and Derek eventually rise to all the challenges and live up to their dreams. ~~~
The best part I like about the movie is the dancing part and sound track. They gel up two types of music: classical music and hip-hop one as well as two types of dancing together. It is pretty fun and cool. I even danced (or twisted my body awkwardly to be more accurate haha~~) to the music at the end. Oh, babe, save the last dance for me cuz it feels so good.
All or Nothing
Here's the
Chance of life
Get ready, set, fly high
Above the fear of your mind
Go for it, it's hit or miss
Too late for youto quit
You gotta show 'em how bad
You really want this
Live your dreams
It's not as hard as it may seem
You gotta work to get the cream
On your hopes you must lean
From your fears
You have to wean yourself
It's all or nothin'
Give your everything
You are, what you believe
You got to bring the heat
Set the pace
Competition take a leap
This is it, all eyes on you
So stay on point and prove
That you deserve
What's long overdue
Live your dreams
It's not as hard as it may seem
You gotta work to get the cream
On your hopes you must lean
From your fears
You have to wean yourself
It's all or nothin'
Give your everything
My heart is still recovering
From the heartbreak
Of another kind
I'm still drying my tears
Getting over my own fears
So I want to make
Sure this time
That I'm strong enough
To give it my all
Live your dreams
It's not as hard as it may seem
You gotta work to get the cream
On your hopes you must lean
From your fears
You have to wean yourself
It's all or nothin'
Give your everything
Live your dreams
It's not as hard as it may seem
You gotta work to get the cream
On your hopes you must lean
From your fears
You have to wean yourself
It's all or nothin'
Give your everything
Live your dreams
It's not as hard as it may seem
You gotta work to get the cream
On your hopes you must lean
From your fears
You have to wean yourself
It's all or nothin'
Give your everything
You know you've got
To live your dreams
So don't you be afraid
Just set the pace
And take the lead
It's your time to shine
Please believe
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