{"id":9408,"date":"2024-11-30T01:24:54","date_gmt":"2024-11-30T06:24:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=9408"},"modified":"2024-11-30T01:24:54","modified_gmt":"2024-11-30T06:24:54","slug":"footloose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/11\/30\/footloose\/","title":{"rendered":"Footloose"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Footloose<\/strong> (1984)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paramount\/Drama-Musical\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 107 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (language, violence, reckless behavior, sexual references, drug and alcohol use by teens)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Herbert Ross\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Dean Pitchford\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Becky Shargo (supervisor)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Ric Waite\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: February 17, 1984 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Kevin Bacon, Lori Singer, John Lithgow, Diane Wiest, Christopher Penn, Sarah Jessica Parker, John Laughlin, Elizabeth Gorcey, Frances Lee McCain, Jim Youngs, Douglas Dirkson.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Box Office: $80M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0 If you grew up in the 80s, chances are you\u2019ve seen the teen musical-drama Footloose<\/strong>. It was to Generation X was High School Musical and its sequels are to Generation Z. It became an anthem for fun-loving teens who just wanted their MTV. The soundtrack was a best seller with songs now heard on oldies stations. I dare say there are more than a few middle-agers out there that still want to kick off their Sunday shoes when Kenny Loggins belts out the number one hit theme song.<\/p>\n

Directed by Herbert Ross (The Goodbye Girl), Footloose<\/strong> stars Kevin Bacon (Diner) as Ren McCormack, a Chicago teen who moves with his mother (McCain, Gremlins) to the small rural town of Bomont located in the conservative Midwest. Dancing and rock music have been outlawed in Bomont at the behest of fire-and-brimstone preacher Reverend Moore (Lithgow, The World According to Garp) in response to a horrible car accident that claimed the lives of several teens including his own son a few years earlier. He blames it on booze and rock music.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Naturally, Ren sticks out like a sore thumb in Bomont. He dresses like David Bowie and plays his music at top volume as he drives around town. He\u2019s a rebel with a cause however. He\u2019s determined to do something about the ridiculous ban. In the meantime, he becomes involved with Moore\u2019s rebellious daughter Ariel (Singer of TV\u2019s Fame) much to the wrath of her jealous abusive boyfriend Chuck (Youngs, Youngblood). Not wanting to be known as the town reverend\u2019s daughter, she engages in reckless behavior like straddling two speeding cars while a semi bears down on them.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Ren’s attitude earns him a bad reputation around town. Some are out to discredit him. A student, in collaboration with a teacher, tries to plant drugs on him. He gets kicked off the school gymnastics team due to \u201cbudgetary reasons\u201d. His uncle constantly berates him for not fitting in. His only ally besides Ariel is Willard (Penn, The Wild Life), a good ol\u2019 boy with no sense of rhythm.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Ren gets the idea to hold a senior prom, but has to get the idea past the town council first. Reverend Moore sits on the council of uptight, conservative types who want to keep their town 100% sin-free. Bear in mind we\u2019re talking about a town where residents burn books they feel are unsuitable for their children. By way of illustrating their narrow-minded mentality, let me describe an early scene where Ren praises the Kurt Vonnegut novel Slaughterhouse Five as a classic. He\u2019s told that it\u2019s not a classic in Bomont. Somebody else goes on to say that Tom Sawyer is<\/em> a classic. Wait a minute, let me make sure I understand. A book that promotes racism and ignorance is okay, but a satirical novel about WWII isn\u2019t? What message are these people trying to send to their children? Their behavior borders on Nazism. This is what happens when church and state are allowed to mix.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Iconic though it may be, Footloose<\/strong> is far from perfect. It has plot holes big enough to drive a tractor through. Answer me this. How is it in a town where dancing is illegal, the kids dance like pros when the music comes on? Where did they learn their moves? In pre-Internet 1984, they couldn\u2019t look up videos on YouTube. Presuming Bomont doesn\u2019t have cable access, there\u2019s no MTV. Moore and the local police keep a tight rein on things. Where did they learn to breakdance? It doesn\u2019t make sense. Not that the law against dancing and music makes sense either.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Footloose<\/strong> really comes to life when Bacon shows off his dance moves. In the vernacular of 80s teens, it\u2019s totally awesome! In once amazing scene, Ren blows off steam after an angry confrontation with his uncle by dancing wildly (replete with gymnastics) to \u201cNever\u201d in a warehouse. The choreography in this scene is first-rate stuff. Footloose<\/strong> has a killer soundtrack that also includes Bonnie Tyler\u2019s \u201cHolding Out for a Hero\u201d played during a game of chicken between two tractors. The finale looks like a Broadway number with the town\u2019s teens dancing away to the title song.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Footloose<\/strong> is the movie that made Bacon a star and fashion icon. After it came out, a lot of teen boys were sporting spiky hair and skinny neckties. As far as performance goes, he\u2019s quite good as a teen rebel leading a charge against uptight adults. Singer is terrific as Ariel, the kind of girl every boy teen would love to date. That is, if they can keep up with her. She\u2019s spirited, strong-minded and gutsy. It doesn\u2019t matter to her that she\u2019s the daughter of the town reverend. She\u2019s still going to do what she wants without giving a second thought to what her father thinks. At one point, she tells him inside the church that she’s not a virgin. LOL! Moore looked like he was about to burst a blood vessel. That brings me to Lithgow who makes a great nemesis to the free-thinking Ren. He\u2019s a sanctimonious sort who can\u2019t see past his own selfish motivations until it\u2019s almost too late. He plays the role convincingly.<\/p>\n

\u00a0UH OH! I just found another plot hole. Moore doesn’t want his daughter to see Ren because he’s a bad influence yet he\u2019s okay with a first-class creep like Chuck. All Ren wants is permission to hold a prom, a rite of passage for generations of graduating high schoolers. They\u2019re entitled to it after 13 years of mandatory attendance. Chuck, on the other hand, is an asshole. He drives like a maniac, smokes pot before operating heavy farm equipment and beats up Ariel after she breaks up with him. I find it hard to swallow that Moore approves of this guy. As the town\u2019s self-appointed spiritual leader, he seems to know what\u2019s going on with the local teen population. How does he NOT know what kind of creep his daughter is dating?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Such matters are the things you won\u2019t want to mull over while watching Footloose<\/strong>. In fact, it\u2019s better if you don\u2019t. Focus instead on Ren\u2019s efforts to win over the uptight town council and show his classmates a good time. Sure, the outcome is predictable as all get out. Does it matter? Does anybody really go to see a movie like Footloose<\/strong> expecting surprise plot twists or an intelligent plot? That\u2019s an emphatic NO! I mean, you know that Moore will eventually change his views and end his crusade against fun. This isn\u2019t the kind of movie that begs deep analysis. It\u2019s just a fun, empty-headed teen movie with cool music and great dancing. A few scenes play like music videos, but this is a musical of the MTV generation. It\u2019s not the kind your grandparents forced you to watch on Sunday afternoons. If it has a message, it\u2019s that teens should be allowed to express themselves by dancing their butts off. I ask you, is there anything wrong with that? Again, it\u2019s an emphatic NO!<\/p>\n

NOTE TO READER: Don\u2019t bother with the 2011 remake. IT SUCKS!\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Footloose (1984)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paramount\/Drama-Musical\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 107 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (language, violence, reckless behavior, sexual references, drug and alcohol use by teens)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Herbert Ross\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Dean Pitchford\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Becky Shargo (supervisor)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Ric Waite\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: February 17, 1984 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Kevin Bacon, Lori Singer, John Lithgow, Diane Wiest, Christopher Penn, Sarah Jessica Parker, John Laughlin, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9515,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-musical"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Footloose-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9408"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9517,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9408\/revisions\/9517"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}