Patrick Swayze

Tough Guy Appeal or Boyish Charm? As The Plot Hole tips our hats to the memory of Patrick Swayze, we offer the male, and female perspective of his film career.

Take the Patrick part: a strong, proud, Irish name – full of fight and fueled by passion. The Swayze aspect is a whole other story: “Sway”… a slow, undulating movement – and that “Zeeee”, mmm, there’s smoldering style in that ze.

Of course, sex appeal wasn’t exactly corroding my thought patterns when I first took note of Patrick Swayze. I was pretty damned young when The Outsiders first graced the Beta player; young enough that my tenth through twentieth viewings of the film helped expedite recovery from my tonsillectomy.

As Darrel Curtis, Swayze portrayed a young man who wasn’t quite old enough to bear the full mantle of Man, but attempted to do so, in the hopes of keeping his family together. After the death of their parents, Darrel kept the home-fires burning for his brothers – attracting an assortment of stray teens to their family along the way. Inexperienced and overworked, Darrel’s patron status often verged on dictator – but we could certainly understand why, and more than sympathize. In S.E. Hinton’s book, the character of Darrel is a burdened one, but Swayze’s Darrel is more than burdened – he is outright tragic. As pages go by, we see Darrel working a job he probably would have, even if his parents were alive**, afterall, Clan Curtis wasn’t exactly from the greener side of the track. The weight of being the breadwinner of the family is palpable, and life beyond that threadbare family doesn’t exist. There’s no dating for Darrel, no thoughts or functions very far beyond keeping his brothers fed, clothed and in school.

It's all yours, redhead -ZB

In the film, however, is Patrick Swayze. That lovely body, those shining eyes -- there is little doubt Swayze’s Darrel could’ve been somebody. When Swayze’s Darrel begins to unravel in rage, it isn’t simply because he’s overworked, rather, it is the primal torture of standing by, sacrifices wasted, as his younger brother falls apart. Darrel, like so many other characters of Swayze’s career, weren’t better than anyone else. So often, his characters are boys next door who grew up and ended up doing exactly what they had to, to survive – whether it be shaking their moneymaker or routing out their murderer. One of the pains of an actor is failing to be separated from their act. I would imagine this was a common stigma throughout Swayze’s lifetime. Good men who skim just above the hardscrabble, and are reluctant to drag a decent lady down – it’s difficult to envision a real life Patrick Swayze who didn’t embody those values. Celluloid has immortalized him as a likeable guy. Even in Point Break – even as a bad guy – he was likeable.

Jerry Orbach, how could you do this to me -ZB.

The female perspective of Patrick Swayze cannot turn a blind eye to the crown jewel of his career: Dirty Dancing. But in my, personal, perspective, I believe men of the world get the details of this one a bit wrong. It isn’t the dirty dancing in the shimmy shack scene, not the lake scene, not even the climatic end-dance that sets the ladies’ hearts a-flutter. Oh, no…it’s the cabin scene, with Otis Redding in the background, that catapulted Swayze from a man you wouldn’t mind looking at, to the embodiment of lovelorn dreams. There was a delicious mixture in Swayze’s very posture – a confidence, yes, but a confidence chased with humble. When he tells Baby about his life as a JuJu Bean eater, existing upon the charity of wealthy, married nymphos, his eyes beam with honesty. Such a raw scene. Baby gushes that she doesn’t care, that she’s afraid she’ll spend the rest of her life never feeling for anyone the way she feels for him…

It’s brilliant. Bold. Loin-riling. He’s poured out his heart, and then makes a life-altering decision. Despite it all, despite the very world, he decides to take her. Strong hands, nimble movements, eyes that flash like a handsome schoolboy’s you were the first to notice. What woman wouldn’t fall in lust with that?

Patrick Swayze cemented a persona in our minds. Road House reinforced it… and everything after… well, he never really needed to prove himself again. Ghost was the women of the world being purely indulgent.

… but I think it’s too bad Patrick Swayze wasn’t allowed more time to indulge a bit more. In 2005’s Keeping Mum, we were afforded a glimpse of a comically sleazy Swayze. A fabulous turn that I would have loved to have seen more of. And I think we would have. If not for cancer, we could have seen more of the impossibly handsome – yet, in a bizarrely, seemingly attainable fashion – man poke fun at both his good looks and legion of swooning lasses.

Those gaunt, strained photographs aren’t going to stay in our minds for long. The imprint he left is an indelible one. We’ll recall him as a gentleman who, regardless of his situation, attempted to do the best he could… who was vibrant, healthy, rippling -- and damn – who could dance!

**note: It's been quite a while since I read The Outsiders, so, I'm going off distant (albeit beloved) memory.