By Todd Campbell

Correspondent

Movies all have in some way given everyone some type of feeling – everything from the thrill of the action movie with a great chase to that special connection between two people that might make someone cry. There have been many actors and actresses who have been able to do this over the years. Someone who has been able to do exactly that was Patrick Swayze. As many know, for the past couple of years, Swayze has been battling pancreatic cancer. Unfortunately, Swayze lost his valiant fight against the disease earlier this week. Many know what it’s like to lose someone to cancer. I know since I lost my Mom earlier this year, where it played a factor in her passing.

To honor Swayze’s life, the Toddster has assembled a very special group of Patrollers to talk about their favorite Swayze films and the feelings and emotions that they might have had when seeing this great actor strut his stuff on screen. Hopefully, a few of these movies may have made you feel a certain way at one time or another. Enjoy!

 

MELISSA STAGNARO

“Roadhouse”

As a teenager, I couldn’t imagine a more perfect man than a handsome hero with rock hard buns, a penchant for philosophy, an oh-so-mysterious past and the ability to kill a man with his bare hands. Where did I get such a notion? From watching Patrick Swayze in “Roadhouse,” of course.

While my high school friends were mooning over “Dirty Dancing” and “Ghost,” I just couldn’t get enough of “Roadhouse.” For those sheltered few that haven’t had the privilege of seeing the 1989 film, it’s a sort of Old Western meet A-Team action flick which sees Swayze as a mysterious bouncer named Dalton who teams up with his mentor (played by the legendary Sam Elliot) to come to the rescue of a seedy bar and a small town being held over the barrel by a corrupt businessman.

I wore out my VHS copy of the movie long ago, but never fear, it still plays often enough on late night cable that I can get my fix when the need arises. Because, if I’m honest, that’s still pretty much my idea of the perfect man, at least in theory.

Whether it’s “Roadhouse,” “Dirty Dancing” or any other of his many works, there is no doubt that Patrick Swayze shaped many an adolescent fantasy, setting the bar high for all others who came after him. Men of his caliber, both on and off the screen, are few and far between.

My heartfelt condolences go out to the Swayze family for their loss. I hope they find some small solace in the fact that he will be remembered by many.

TYLER MURPHY

“Red Dawn”

The Red Dawn is filled with the silky plumes of gently descending soldiers dangling from their chute’s threads like well armed communist puppets.

The year is 1995 and the now-landing commandos can been seen gathering their ranks through the sixth grade math class window along the Oxford Middle School’s sports fields. Bullets fly from the Reds’ machine guns, shattering the glass and striking down my math teacher and several of the more obnoxious students. The survivors dive beneath our chairs and all appears lost when suddenly he appears in the doorway. It’s Patrick Swayze.

I stutter from below my desk, “My God Pat, the Commies are invading! What do we do!?”

“C’mon! We’re all going to die, die standing up,” he fiercely retorts.

I rise proudly from my desk and just as I’m about to join Patrick and head to the hills of McDonough to start a guerilla resistance against occupation, named after the Blackhawks, I’m suddenly interrupted by the most horrifying sound imaginable.

 “Uh, Mr. Murphy, you seem to be wandering. Maybe your attention would stay better focused if you showed the class how to do the next problem on the blackboard.”

Having watched the 1984 cold war propaganda flick the night before, I began to reintegrate from imagination to reality. In the movie, Swayze’s named Jed Eckert, the location Colorado, the school’s mascot the Wolverines, the U.S.S.R. currently nonexistent and my math teacher very much alive.

I’m convinced though that the personality traits of the actor and character were identical. If any actor could raise resistance to the Soviets, surely it must be Patrick Swayze, a hero in form and presence. “Red Dawn” is my favorite movie starring Swayze and the first I remembering seeing. Swayze, forever known to me in my younger years as “That guy in Red Dawn.”