The Sandlot

The coming of age theme is one that is seen quite often and in one movie I'd like to talk about in particular, The Sandlot. The similarities between this theme in the two movies is pretty clear. In Dirty Dancing we see Babe become Frances through dancing. She becomes her own person and really puts education down for Johnny and dancing. Which leads her to find herself and become someone she never thought she'd be and with someone she'd never thought she'd be with. Earlier in her life, she always listened to what her dad wanted and used him for guidance and then all of a sudden she starts to become her own person. In The Sandlot we see this same thing only this time with something other than dancing, that is baseball. In the beginning of the movie we see this somewhat nerdy kid who is un-athletic, that is Scotty Smalls or as known in the movie, Smalls. we see him first playing with some ball course he set up himself showing his creativity and smarts just like we saw Babe reading a book in the beginning of Dirty Dancing. But then Scotty changes, he starts to play baseball just like Babe gave up her reading to start dancing. Scotty starts thanks to his friend Benjamin Franklin Rodriguez, again just like Babe was influenced by Johnny. Scotty then becomes a more athletic character who focuses on hanging with friends and playing baseball. Something he more than likely would not have experienced if he hadn't moved to that town just like Babe more than likely wouldn't have experienced what she did if she didn't go to that summer camp.

In The Sandlot we get to see something that we don’t in Dirty Dancing and that is what happens after all is said and done. For Dirty Dancing we can only use our minds to predict what happens after the summer is over and I think for most of us with a more optimistic attitude would assume that Johnny and Babe stick together and live happily ever after and also continue to do what she learned to love at summer camp and that is dance. In The Sandlot we get to see Smalls really do what he learned to love that summer which is announce baseball. This is something that really would never have happened if he hadn't moved to that town.

All in all in both movies we see this theme of two young kids really molding themselves into adults through their experiences that they have. Before this they seemed to be lost and now they have found out who they are and want to be.