Although the movie takes place in 1963, the song did not exist until the 1980s. Therefore the song is anachronistic; the song existed only after the story's historical time.
How can such a song choice for the movie be justified?
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An anachronistic song can be justified practically and commercially.
* The producers might pay less for the rights of a new song.(I am sure that Patrick Swayze's song "She's Like the Wind" is in the movie as partial compensation for his acting in the movie. Furthermore, I think he earned more money from that song than he earned from acting in the movie.)
* The producers can adapt a new song to the movie's dialogue and action.
* Movie audiences might like some new songs in addition to period songs.
* A popular new song might drive sales of the soundtrack album.
* An actor can be compensated by including one of his songs
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Now I will provide also an artistic justification for the anachronistic song "Time of My Life" in the movie's final dance scene.
The final scene is Baby's fantasy come true. Johnny has departed forever. However, he returns miraculously and performs a sensational dance with her.
A plausible argument has been made that Baby just imagined Johnny's return and the final dance. I do not agree with that argument, but it does provide a thought-provoking analytic exercise.
Although Baby did not imagine Johnny's return, she might have fantasized -- as she sat with her parents and watched the talent show -- that he would return. And then he did return! His return was like a miracle!!
The last scene is quite fantastic in the sense that it involved Baby's mental fantasy and also in the sense that it was unrealistic, miraculous.
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I have written an article titled Space-Time Portals in the Movie Dirty Dancing. There I suggested that Johnny's leap from the stage was a leap through a space-time portal, which is framed by the stage in the background. In a sense, Johnny is leaping from the 1963 stage into the 1987 movie theater.
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| Johnny jumping through a space-time portal |
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Not only does Baby's fantasy come true when Johnny returns. In addition, the fantasy of the movie audience's female viewers comes true. As they watched the movie for the first time, they too fantasized that Johnny would return. In my recent review of an article titled "Dirty Dancing as a Teenage Rite-of-Passage Film", I quoted the author Siân Lincoln's memory of watching the move for the first time when she was 13 years old.
[The movie had been] a hot topic on the school playground for months, and we were so excited to be finally watching it. I even bought a new nightdress for the occasion. ...Those teenage girls were "practically screaming" because Johnny's return was so desired and miraculous. The fantasy of those girls too came true.
I instantly fell in love with it, not least because of the presence of Patrick Swayze who, for me, played the "bad boy" role perfectly. (and whom I found so physically attractive). But I also loved the music, the clothing, the film's retro aesthetic, and of course the love story between Johnny and Baby.
I distinctly remember us girls practically screaming when at the end of the film Johnny comes back to dance with Baby and he utters the immortal line "nobody puts Baby in a corner."
I'm not sure how many times we rewound that scene that night, but it was plenty.
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The last scene is so fantastic that the story's basic realism is distorted. Therefore the song that is featured in that last scene does not have to belong to that place and time. Rather, the song can belong even to the movie audience's place and time. The song can be wonderfully anachronistic.
Family Guy made fun of the anachronism but you beautifully explained why it works
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