Footloose was released 40 years ago today. And I have never been able to sit through it. I remember my mom rented it for us to watch one evening and then we all got bored during the chicken race scene with the tractors. I was more fascinated by how Kevin Bacon’s Ren McCormack had the same problem with tying his shoes that I did sometimes they’d get caught in my bicycle pedals.
Footloose might have been one of those movies that would’ve been better had it not taken itself so damn seriously. Twenty years earlier, Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon would’ve made a silly beach movie like this as the stuffy adults don’t like that “rock-and-roll” garbage. Or Jim Backus might have looked like the father who is out of touch with his teen son, played by James Dean. And you could understand the disconnect and why it was there in Rebel Without a Cause which also includes a chicken race where an article of clothing causes a problem. I’m almost certain there’s a reason it’s not a coincidence.
The problem is that Footloose has adults who grew up watching Dean and those silly teen comedies. They listened to Buddy Holly and saw Elvis gyrate his pelvis around. They freaked out with excitement when The Beatles played on Ed Sullivan and listen to all the music of the era during the British Invasion to the Psychedelic Music Scene to the 1970s hard rock scene with The Who and Led Zeppelin and so on. Yet, the adults in the town of Bomont, which seems so unrealistic it makes the ones in Hallmark holiday movies look like documentaries, seem to come from another plane of existence. I mean, even my mom used to listen to The Doors back in the day and she is very conservative.
Bomont, which doesn’t look like a big town, apparently only has one church, with a fire-and-brimstone Rev. Shaw Moore (John Lithgow). Looking at the congregation, not a lot of people (less than 100) in the town go to church. So a lot of people apparently don’t care for church. There’s also not any black people of non-whites in the town. The movie was filmed in Utah, which explains a lot, but is supposed to be somewhere in the Mid-West (Indiana, Iowa, FantasyLand?) Bomont is a relatively small community which doesn’t make sense because it wouldn’t even have the high school it does. This is the first and very few scripts written by Dean Pitchford who is more successful as a song-writer. And there’s a reason to that.
The absurdity of a movie like this is the belief that in only a few years, Moore could force the town elders to outlaw not only dancing but all types of non-gospel music, take all the radios out of cars, confiscate all stereos and boomboxes and cassette tapes and records, and also turn the entire town or county into a modern-day Gestapo community. Seeing how a town this small in the Mid-West wouldn’t have a huge police department, how on Earth would they be able to maintain the enormous square miles.
I know, I know. People say don’t sweat the small details. But this movie is so horrible in its execution, it can’t be forgiven. Dancing has been outlawed but at the end when we see all the whitest of white kids do their own version of the Soul Train line dance, they’re not bad. But what makes be laugh the most is how Moore’s rebellious daughter, Ariel (Lori Singer) is able to perform the most dangerous acts whatsoever and no one bothers to notify the police. Ren gets cited for playing music too loud but Ariel does this wild stunt where she stands with legs spread on two speeding cars while a semi bears down with only her friend, Rusty (Sarah Jessica Parker), saying she’s crazy.
Ariel dates the local teen bully, Chuck Cranston (Jim Young), who has date-rapist written all over his face. Yet, Moore is letting this guy, this fucking guy, date his daughter. And he led a campaign five years earlier when his son was killed in a car accident, because he thinks dancing and rock-n-roll leads to drinking and drugs. And when Ariel plays a loud cassette tape at the local drive-in hangout, he shows up and looks at her as if he just caught them at third base rounding home. And Moore is so foolish that there’s a scene where it’s supposed to be explained that Ariel’s rebellion is because her family hasn’t gotten over the lost of the teen and she’s been whoring around town. Again, this is a town, community, county whatever where teens tried to sneak out to a concert and everyone knew about but no one tell Moore nor his wife, Vi (Dianne Wiest) about it how wacko Ariel is.
I know some movies juggle facts and realism around to tell a story. But there’s no way any of the characters here seem real in any shape or form. Ren is supposed to be from Chicago because in the MTV era of the 1980s, only big cities had access. And all major radio stations only have signals that don’t stretch out past the city limits. So, how is he able to know about all that music? Ren could very easily be from any other town in America and still have the same “WTF” expression upon hearing about the town’s crazy laws. Also, no one and I mean no one has ever said, “Jump back!” as a stunned expression before or since this movie came out.
And the character of Ariel is so off the wall, I find it hard that her parents haven’t noticed. Yet Moore only sees the errors of his way when the future Moms for Liberty decide to ransack the local library and burn all the books. You’d think a town this bizarre would’ve already burned down the library years earlier. So now, Moore has to do a hypocritical speech about how they’re getting the wrong idea from books, the same as people do from the Bible before they pass laws themselves. And there’s no real transfer as Ariel realizes Chuck is the bad guy and Ren, who’s balls she’s busted for the majority of the movie, is the one for her.
What’s even more comical is that Chuck and his friends would be so angry at Ren’s actions they would drive by where he lives and throw a rock through the window with the writing “Burn in Hell!” Then, there’s Ren’s crazy uncle whose home he and his mother, Ethel (Frances Lee McCain, having a more thankless role than Wiest), live. The uncle makes Ned Flanders look like Larry Flynt,. And it seems Ethel’s only existence in the movie is so that she can be eventually fired from her job because Ren wanted to have a dance.
Yet, all we’ve seen so far during this movie is just a normal teenager who wants to listen to music and dance in a secluded barn where it’s obviously NOT Bacon but a dance double. If this is teen rebellion, then, I’m sure a lot of parents would love it and ask for seconds. Maybe it was originally intended to be a lighter movie before Herbert Ross, who was known for being an harsh director who hated women, took all the humor out of it. Before him, Michael Cimino was being tapped to direct, which might have been worth watching even if it was pure drivel. Ron Howard was also being considered but he made Splash instead with Daryl Hannah who would be the Heather Locklear to Singer’s Heather Thomas counterpart. It’s probably no surprise Singer didn’t have a bigger career after this. Filmmakers could get Hannah instead.
Reportedly Pitchford was loosely inspired by a real-life incident in Elmore City, Okla. in 1980 where the town council had approved a prom. There was a local ordinance that had been on the books for decades that came about during the turn of the 20th Century because the clergy felt dancing would lead to excessive drinking. The council’s vote made national news in February of that month when the student body had requested a dance. Yes, it made national news in 1980. Ergo, does anyone think all that is going on in Bomont wouldn’t have been aired on CNN every hour on the hour?
Footloose in spired a 2011 remake which all I’ve ever seen is promotional stills and a short commercial of those kids boot-scooting in a country-western bar. If this is what they have to impress people, I’m not interested. Ren’s supposed to be from Boston. And it’s 2011, which has to make the premise even more unbelievable. There was also a musical adaptation which might have been better to watch on stage than on the silver screen.
As I’ve said earlier, I’ve never sat through this movie all the way through. However, I have seen every frame of this movie mostly because I find myself at odds on whether I should sit through it or just forget it. But I mostly stop watching eventually. I’ve even sat through insurance meetings that were 107 minutes likes this movie’s run time with more enthusiasm. Yes, it was popular and yes it made a lot of money at $80 million off a $7.5 million budget. He got two Oscar nominations for Kenny Login’s “Footloose” and Deniece Williams’ “Let’s Hear It For The Boys.” Pitchford co-wrote both songs. For a screenwriter, he makes one helluva song-writer.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 