Footloose

Rating:
Summary: Music and Dancing: Hollywood Continues the Tradition
Review: Hollywood's love affair for dance and music movies has continued unabated ever since Fred and Ginger waltzed their way across the screen in the 1930s. In FOOTLOOSE, director Herbert Ross has successfully melded several movies in one: teen filled angst against society, dancing as a way of life, and the fitting in of a loner. Kevin Bacon is immensely appealing with his boyish good looks and bouncing feet as Ren, a teen who has moved with his family from the big city to the small town. In the past, Hollywood has usually portrayed the small town citizens as closed-minded hicks who somehow fear that the city slicker in their midst will expose their hollowness for all to see. But in this case, the only static that Ren receives is from the jealous boyfriend of a girl who likes Ren's big city ways. Christopher Penn starts out as one of those hicks who seems to dislike Ren, but soon finds that he has more in common with him than with his other oafish friends. Penn is particulary appealing as the left-footed fish out of water who needs to learn how to dance and sees that Ren can teach him that old one and a two. But it is the charismatic Kevin Bacon who carries this picture on his smile and feet. When Ren learns that dancing has been outlawed in his new small town home, he immediately begins a crusade to reinstall the legitimacy of rock and roll music. FOOTLOOSE has many scenes that showcase the talent of the cast's dancing. Bacon has most of the best scenes but Penn steals the show with his improved bumping, then strutting steps. Lori Singer is appealing as Bacon's female lead. John Lithgow as Singer's Bible thumping, rock and roll hating preacher father, exemplifies the hate-Elvis sector that ruled much of America's small town mentality in the fifties. The clash between the generations is highlighted not so much by the movie's use of dancing as an expression of rage against their elders, but by the concluding speech that Bacon gives that sounds as if Jimmy Stewart could not have done a better job in using the Bible as evidence that God does not disapprove of pop dancing. FOOTLOOSE is really an excuse for the cast to use dancing as a metaphor both for having fun and for expressing the same but far more muted rage that Marlon Brando snarled at his elders in THE WILD ONE.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty Cool
Review: This is one of those rare pop-corn ficks that just doesn't get old. A pretty straight-forward plot and theme pervade throughout the film, but it was executed so perfectly! First off, the casting was brilliant. Hip Chicago boy Kevin Bacon and the more practical Christopher Penn fit together comfortably like two pieces of a puzzle. John Lithgow completely nailed his character as an overbearing father/preacherman. The film has just the right combination of action (the tracter chicken game), romance (Bacon's determination to get the girl), and drama (the fight between the girl and her ex) to keep you interested. "Footloose" may be a little predictable from scene to scene, but it certainly holds up well compared to todays' pop-tart hollywood teen films.

thank you

Rating:
Summary: Footloose - MOVIE OF THE 80's and beyond
Review: I still can't understand why the studio that made this film has not put this 'classic' film on DVD.
Instead, they put such garbage as 'Jay and Silent Bob' and other MTV crap on that format instead.

Kevin Bacon is one of those actors who will never get any big time awards but, he is a big time actor. This is a simple story but, it is all about freedom and what is inside you.

If you have not seen this film, you should. It is a film with alot of good actors such as Kevin Bacon, Lori Singer, John Lithgow, etc. It also is a story which is timeless.

You can never outgrow this film and it's basic concepts.
Also, the sound track is fantastic.

Rating:
Summary: Flick full of fun and beat!
Review: This movie is about a boy who moves into a small town which has been on the silence of dance and parties since the time a boy was killed in an accident which shook the town, and blamed it on the drinking and drugs at the parties, dances that young people caused. Once ayoung man (Kevin) arrives in the god for saken dump (as he calls it) he notices the problems that the place has and decides to bring the dance he has long waited for to city hall. It is a problem due to that the hall has banned it, and so it takes off from there. I liked it and would recommend it to you people.

Rating:
Summary: Footloose
Review: I absolutely loved this movie. The music in this movie was fantastic and fit just right into every aspect of the movie. I could see this actually happening in a little town like Beaumont and I would like to think I would do the same thing. The relationships built from the beginning of the movie flowed together and the young actors did a great job. I think I loved this movie most of all for its 'non-perfect people', portraying people I could relate to. I hope you see this movie soon if you haven't already. I know you will love it too.

Rating:
Summary: REAL men can dance!
Review: This is that movie you just have to watch to remind yourself that freedom is alive in the world.

Kevin Bacon plays the part of Ren, and he does a goooood job at it. Ren is a liberal, upbeat, pop-infested teen from Chicago who moves out to the bible belt with a step-family. In the town, dancing is illegal due to influence from the Religious Right. But Kev--I mean Ren, is determined to win the youth back their freedom. He teaches them what the wonder of dancing is all about.

This is the movie for those of you who can't find a place to dance, especially in the modern America where all nightlife is closed off to teenagers and young adults. It will make you reminisce of a more permissive time when teenagers were treated with freedom and expected to pay back with responsibility. It also shows the pickle a community can get in when it passes too many laws "for your own good." We are more and more living in a society where the youth are losing their civil liberties, and I truly believe repression is at least partly to blame for all the acts of violence and angst in today's teen populace.

Watch this movie and I hope you will be convinced of the need to keep teens free from too many lifestyle restrictions. Besides, Kevin looks really good in this film, just like many of the Eighties teenage boys did.... :)

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: Favorite Movie
Review: This is one of my all-time favorite movies. Maybe because it is the first movie I ever saw in a theater or maybe because in the home I was raised in dancing was NOT allowed due to religious convictions so I could relate to the movie fully.
Dancing outlawed in a town??? Can this law be changed??? Is there a way around the law??? How does a person fight the board to make an allowance for there to be a school dance???
I watch this video at least once a year and still am not tired of it.

Rating:
Summary: Love to dance
Review: This is an exellant movie. Full of song and dance . The best part was the prom . All the things the kids had to go through just to be able to have it . The way the pastor (John Lithgow)thought that dancing was such a bad thing . Kevin Bacon did a wonderful job in this movie .

Rating:
Summary: Get up and dance!!!
Review: Footloose is probably one of my favorite top 5 movies of all times. As soon as I pop in the tape, my bad move lifts, and I get inspired to go work out! The music, the man, the mood! How can you not love it! The performances are believable, and coming from a small town, I can totally understand the preachers daughter! If you've never seen it, rent it or buy it, TODAY!