It was sad to hear of Patrick Swayze's condition. In case you haven't, he has pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer is just about the worse kind you can get. The survival statistics are not encouraging. My father died of it. My uncle miraculously survives years after having a procedure to remove a big chunk of his pancreas due to pancreatic cancer. Every time I hear that phrase -- pancreatic cancer -- I get chills. Having seen what it does up close, to say I wouldn't wish it on anyone is one of the largest understatements I could make.
I started thinking about Swayze's career. He's made some iconic films -- Dirty Dancing, Ghost, and even Roadhouse and Point Break. A lot of them have been sort of B-grade, but they've hung around in the pop culture ether, become points of reference. There's even a comedic parody play that did well in New York and is now showing here, still I believe, that is an homage to Point Break.
When Dirty Dancing came out, I was dating a woman who related closely to the lead character, Baby, played by Jennifer Grey. She was young, beautiful, Jewish and stepping out. In some ways, I was her bad boy, as Johnny Castle was to Baby. I was a hard-ish living Irish boy from the, relatively speaking, wrong side of the tracks. Only the roles were kind of reversed. She taught me much more than I taught her. I was more of the naif.
When we broke up, I went into my Roadhouse stage, spending a lot of time in, relatively speaking, roughneck bars and getting in my share of scraps. A few years after Point Break came out, I first moved to Los Angeles. Sometime after that, following some moving around, I came back and stayed and took up surfing, something like Johnny Utah did. I had been into snowboarding prior to that and related to the adrenaline-rush ethos of that film.
It would be a stretch to say I had my Ghost era, but, suffice to say, I can relate. All those films have iconic moments in them that have become cultural touchstones. For this, Swayze, who might not be the world's greatest actor, but certainly found a way to be relatable in all his roles, can be proud. These are the ways pop stars become part of our social fabric. And Swayze certainly did. Whatever happens, he lived a life.
Here's wishing him and his family the best.
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There are 5 comments posted for this article.
I always liked the way he said "Hi baby, I love you," to his wife Lisa when he was on Letterman or Leno years ago. He seems like a real guy who is totally in love with his wife.
Posted on March 5, 2008 11:50 PM by Mel
I don't purport to know you, but based on what I do know of you I'm surprised to see you use 'iconic' when describing a movie. And this I'm glad to see. So the next time you see a film (yeah, I'm one of those who say 'film') remember that perhaps not at that moment but in hindsight you will think of those scenes from that actor or that director that were memorable and maybe even inspiring.
Speaking of celluloid, I watched Primary Colors again the other night (it was on one of those premium cable networks that I'm thisclose to cancelling because I don't watch them very often), I hadn't watched it since it was released 10 years ago, and it's still as awesome as I had remembered and perhaps even more awesome since I'm older and wiser now. I think I would take a bullet for Mike Nichols he's that great and Elaine May's words are like brain candy. I just want to eat them up. As far as performances go Kathy Bates seriously acts the paint off the walls and I realized that I am her character (as stupid as that sounds): all co-dependent, empathetic, gay, and painfully idealistic.
Posted on March 6, 2008 9:21 AM by Chris
Wow! Joe, that was really sweet, thoughtful and, touching. Roadhouse is one of the all time great yet, wretched guilty pleasures ever made! Thanks for reminding me. You made my night.
Posted on March 6, 2008 11:56 PM by Zan
I've seen Point Break at least 7 times, and cheesy as it is, has something that still fascinates me. When I ended up living in Los Angeles 10 years ago I never thought much about the movie . But, here I am once again living in South America, and each time I see the movie, it's like the old spell is there, somehere in Los Angeles.
Posted on March 7, 2008 5:29 PM by junn
Hi, I read your article regarding Patrick Swayze. I am sending the quote regarding his illness.
"In a statement published in People magazine, Swayze's doctor, George Fisher, MD, an oncologist at Stanford Cancer Center in Palo Alto, Calif., said, "Patrick has a very limited amount of disease and he appears to be responding well to treatment thus far. All of the reports stating the time frame of his prognosis and his physical side effects are absolutely untrue. We are considerably more optimistic."
No where does it state that he as a short time to live. Now unless you read another article, then okay. But this is the most current news about Patrick's cancer.
Posted on March 7, 2008 5:41 PM by Lee