Taglines: The only person you need to be is yourself.
Sara Johnson dreams of becoming a professional ballerina. After the accidental death of her mother, Sara is forced to move from Lemont, a quiet Chicago suburb, to her father’s ghetto apartment on Chicago’s gritty south side. The new urban environment, very different than what she is used to, adds to Sara’s feelings of loss and frustration, and her misplaced guilt, which is caused by the fact that her mother had been en route to her dance performance at the time of her death. But when she meets Derek, a popular fellow student with a passion for hip hop dancing and a future brighter than his troubled past, her repressed ambition is released through a revitalized interest in dance.
Save the Last Dance is a 2001 American dance film produced by MTV Films, directed by Thomas Carter and released by Paramount Pictures on January 12, 2001. The film stars Julia Stiles and Sean Patrick Thomas as a teenage interracial couple in Chicago who work together to help the main character, played by Stiles, train for a dance audition. A direct-to-video sequel, Save the Last Dance 2, was released in 2006.
The film debuted at #1 at the North American box office making $27.5 million in its opening weekend. Though the film had a 44% decline in earnings the following weekend, it was still enough to keep the film at the top spot for another week. It grossed $91,057,006 in the US alone and $131.7 million worldwide.
About the Story
Sara Johnson, a promising dancer in high school, hopes to be admitted to study at Juilliard School and invites her mother to attend the audition. She fails the audition and soon learns that her mother was involved in a fatal car accident in her haste to get to the audition.
Sara is wracked by guilt and gives up on ballet. She moves in with her father and transfers to an urban Chicago school. Her father is a jazz musician who plays the trumpet and usually plays in nightclubs. At her new school, Sara is one of a handful of white students but quickly befriends Chenille, a single teen mother who is having relationship problems. Chenille invites Sara to a dance club called STEPPS, where she has her first experience of dancing to hip hop rhythms.
At STEPPS, Sara dances with Derek, Chenille’s brother and a student with dreams of ultimately attending Georgetown Medical School. He decides to help Sara develop her dancing skills by incorporating more hip hop into her style. Derek takes a reluctant Sara to the Joffrey Ballet and, afterwards, Sara confides in him about her mother and her dreams. Later, they return to the club and amaze others with their dancing. Having achieved his dream of being accepted at Georgetown University, Derek convinces her to follow her dreams of Juilliard. Eventually, Sara and Derek begin a relationship.
At school, Nikki, Derek’s jealous ex-girlfriend, picks a fight with Sara. Chenille tells Sara that she didn’t approve of the fight but can understand the bitterness since Sara, a white girl, is seen as stealing one of the few decent black men in the school. Because of this, Sara breaks up with Derek.
Meanwhile, Derek deals with his friend Malakai, who is heavily into the gang lifestyle that Derek is trying to leave. Derek accepts Malakai’s plea for support in a drive-by for the same time as Sara’s audition. Sara’s father has a heart-to-heart talk with her and encourages her to audition for Juilliard again.
After hearing what Chenille told Sara, Derek confronts her and admitted his true reasons for dumping Nikki. She admits what she did was wrong and encourages him to be with Sara. Chenille also warns Derek not to support Malakai knowing the consequences and he will lose his chance to attend Georgetown.
Derek turns his back on Malakai to attend Sara’s audition. He arrives at a crucial point to offer her encouragement and moral support. After her audition, Sara is accepted and she rekindles her relationship with Derek. Meanwhile, the drive-by becomes botched and Malakai is arrested. The film closes as Sara, Derek, Chenille, and their friends meet at STEPPS to celebrate Sara’s successful audition.
Save the Last Dance (2001)
Directed by: Thomas Carter
Starring: Julia Stiles, Sean Patrick Thomas, Kerry Washington, Fredro Starr, Terry Kinney, Bianca Lawson, Elisabeth Oas, Artel Great, Felicia Fields
Screenplay by: Duane Adler, Duane Adler
Production Design by: Paul Eads
Cinematography by: Robbie Greenberg
Film Editing by: Peter E. Berger, Jeff Canavan, Fritz Feick
Costume Design by: Sandra Hernandez
Set Decoration by: Tricia Schneider
Art Direction by: Diane Hughes
Music by: Mark Isham
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for violence, sexual content, language and brief drug references.
Distributed by: Paramount Pictures
Release Date: January 12, 2001
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