Life is too fleeting to be consumed by sadness, but when someone you have admired for so many years, and who has brought so much happiness to your ordinary life dies, it’s difficult not to feel a bit down for a while. Patrick Swayze was that kind of person.

Although most of us never knew him personally, he still had an impact on how we were entertained over the years through his many films and characters. He’s most remembered for two preeminent films, Dirty Dancing and Ghost, but for me his most impactful, humorous and just all around good time film was To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar (1995).

It’s nowhere near as ‘impressive’ a film as Ghost, but it has a sincere message all the same – inclusion, acceptance and forgiveness.

Along with Wesley Snipes, who plays “Noxema Jackson”, and a then new to the screen, John Leguizamo who plays, “Chi Chi Rodriguez”, Patrick Swayze plays, “Miss Vida Bohème”, the matronly drag queen who is on a mission to cross America in a broke down Cadillac convertible, heading their way to Hollywood, where she and Noxema (sharing a pageant crown) will vie for the title of the Drag Queen of America contest.

Throw in a storyline that is written on multiple levels, a cast of country bumpkin characters living in a dust bowl era town in the Midwest, campy lines and nostalgia à la Julie Newmar and Dorothy Dandridge, the powerful acting presence of Stockard Channing and Blythe Danner, and you’ve got a recipe for sheer dynamite!

It’s not a ‘thinker’ movie, but it has a lot to say about social injustice, misplaced stereotypes and not judging a book solely by its cover.

I’m sure that all the memorial stories about Mr. Swayze will mention over and over about Dirty Dancing and Ghost, but To Wong Foo should be a movie that you should go out and rent tonight. The gents are so into character that you completely forget you’re watching three Hollywood tough guys, and the movie may leave you viewing life and people who are different from you, in a completely new way.

If you’re thinking, ‘oh, great, just another drag queen movie’, I assure you, you are misinformed.
We’ll miss you Mr. Swayze, but your art will go on and on.
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Vida Bohème: "I feel like Miss Jane Mansfield in this car!"
Noxema Jackson: "Ohh, Jane Mansfield...not a good auto reference."