Footloose (Special Collector's Edition)

Rating:
Summary: Harmless and Inoffensive
Review: "Footloose" is the story of a big city kid named Ren MacCormack (Kevin Bacon) who's family moves to a small town where the local preacher has gotten music and dancing banned following the death of his oldest daughter after a night of partying. Ren of course falls in love with the preacher's younger daughter, Ariel Moore (Lori Singer), and converts her to the wild dancing life. Ariel already has a boyfriend though named Woody (John Laughlin) who stirs up trouble for Ren wherever he goes. Meanwhile, Ren attempts to teach his new best bud Willard (Chris Penn) how to dance so he can get a date to the dance that Ren is setting up with Ariel.

"Footloose" is the typical teenager and his friends against the world movie that gets made for every generation. Each generation's group of these movies tends to have its own little spin on the genre with "Footloose" and its kind featuring the musical collage. Not that this is a musical but that every movie from this generation always featured at least one series of scenes with the characters doing outrageously fun things while some sugary bubble gum song blares over the scene. The fact that "Footloose" is a semi-musical only increases its dependence on this technique.

The movie itself is the old harmless fun that most people opine is missing from contemporary films of this genre. "Footloose" does its best not to offend or make any kind of statement beyond "having fun is okay". For this you can't hammer it but you can't praise it either.

Rating:
Summary: Very classic movie and soundtrack
Review: As I said in the title, great nostalgic movie, story, acting, etc. I enjoy watching the movie over and over. I would give this 5 stars but I will give the DVD tech guys an F for not putting any features (besides ws format) on this. I think some trailers, interviews, and other stuff would have fit. They could have done a little segment on all of the songs featured here. Aside from this, great DVD.

Rating:
Summary: Holding Out for a Hero...
Review: Devised as a lengthened music video, Footloose was a film filled with catchy music, good-looking stars and a story that emphasized the relationship between the Hollywood movie and pop music. The story is about a teen from Chicago named Ren (Kevin Bacon) who moves to a small town in the Midwest and just wants to be accepted by the residents. Not long after moving there, he realizes that the religious congregation and the residents have outlawed dancing and rock music because of the evils that are associated with it. His quest, through the duration of the movie is to make dancing and rock music legal again and to hold a school dance for himself and the seniors of his high school. He has a lot of big city hangs ups to overcome as he tries to fit in to small town life. Ultimately he accomplishes what he set out to do and arranges to have the dance, but across the county line in another town.

This type of musical began with 'Saturday Night Fever' and continued the love of the Hollywood movie with a pop music soundtrack. It was not a musical typical to those of the '30s, '40s and '50s where the actors sang the songs, but rather referred to the actions of what was going on in the scene. Because of this, the film used diegetic sound, a term for saying that the film shows where the source of the music is coming from. There is always a radio or boom box present to add music to the scene and pinpoint the location of the music. For example, in one scene where Ren and Ariel's (Lori Singer) bully boyfriend Chuck (Jim Youngs) are having a tractor "chicken" contest (where one tractor races towards the other and the one who pulls out first is the chicken). Before the race starts, Chuck turns on the tape in the boom box and the song "Holding Out for a Hero" by Bonnie Tyler plays. It appeared that this contest was set up to see who would be her "hero." The song "Dancing in the Sheets" by Shalamar is coming from a boom box that Ariel and her boyfriend brought to a fast food drive-in. Everybody, taken by the beat of the song, begins to dance around. The finale was a big production number (if it could be called one) where their dream of dancing finally becomes a reality and at this time, the title song "Footloose" by Kenny Loggins was playing. Another type of sound used in this movie is nondiegetic where music is used to convey a mood or theme without showing where the source of the music is coming from. An example of this is the song "I'm Free" by Kenny Loggins where it is decided that the seniors of the high school can have the dance. The song begins faintly when the board is voicing their opinion that it is all right to have the dance. The most annoying aspects of this music is that every song was written by the screenwriter of the movie, Dean Pitchford in collaboration with some of the popular singer/composers of that time such as Eric Carmen, Kenny Loggins, Sammy Hagar etc. and all but the title song "Footloose" were written after the completion of the movie. "Mr. Pitchford on all the songs has given the score a more consistent tone than the typical soundtrack potpourri. The music is also a text book example of how Hollywood adapts the latest pop trends and technological developments to its own uses." (The New York Times March 4, 1984)

Footloose was marketed so heavily on MTV with its music videos that everyone who saw the videos ran out to see the movie. It wasn't a particularly good movie, but people liked the music. In actuality, it was the musical numbers that sold the movie. I enjoyed the music videos that I saw on MTV that promoted the movie Footloose. However, I did not actually see the movie until it came on cable a year later. The movie was a typical teenage plot with little or no substance, but was done in a way that appealed to children and adults. "Herb Ross brings to Footloose an adult sensibility often lacking in troubled teen pics, resulting in a film that could play off across a broad market place." (Variety February 15, 1984)

Rating:
Summary: A classic
Review: I saw this movie in the theatre on opening night. I still enjoy watching it. The acting in this movie is great, and the storyline is top notch as well. I think the movie represents the attitudes in small town America as they were. I know of many cases in real life that were a lot like this plot, but in real life the protagonists faired worse than Kevin Bacon. I have heard a lot of bad reviews about this movie from people who watch it today. Mostly because it is a "white" film with almost no racial diversity considering the subject matter. Well, you have to look at the social and cultural context in which the film was made to begin with. I happened to live in a small colorado town during my teen years and HELLO we only had 1 black family in the town. That was reality, as it was in many small towns. And as for the music, mind you, this was about 4 years before the forthcoming of the rudimentary forms of rap and hip hop. Micheal Jackson had more white fans than black, and most blacks listened to rock and roll. You cannot judge this film by modern standards and do it justice. I think that if you keep an open mind you will enjoy this film a great deal.

Rating:
Summary: One of my personal favorite movies from the '80s
Review: I was watching VH1 over the holiday weekend and came across a showing of "Footloose". "Footloose" is one of my favorite movies from the '80s. I actually saw the film in the theater with some friends. We wanted to see "Splash" but tickets for that movie was out so we settled on "Footloose". At the time I thought the premise of the film of a hip teenager rebelling against an ultra conservative town with its anti-rock music and dancing rules, was a bit farfetched, if not silly. I still do to this very day but I like this movie more now than I did back twenty years ago. It's amazing how much Christopher Penn has changed since then. Not to mention Sarah Jessica Parker (still with her "Square Pegs" look), and Lori Singer. Kevin Bacon remains the same today. John Lithgow gave me one of his best performances I had ever seen before that godawful sitcom he starred in years later. Dianne Wiest was also good in the movie. The stars of the film I thought were Kevin, Lori, Sarah, and Christopher. The music was great. I love Bonnie Tyler's "I Need a Hero" and John (Cougar) Mellencamp's "Hurt So Good". "Footloose" was one of those movies where music and film went well together. To the reviewer who thought this film deserved a PG-13 rating...um? Hello? There was no PG-13 back in 1984. It was either PG or R. I would hardly qualify "Footloose" as being R-rated material. Compare "Footloose" by today's movies, it is a tame comparison. Despite being cheesy at times, "Footloose" remains a blast to watch.