Footloose (1984)

Directed by Herbert Ross

Released February 17th, 1984

Written by Dean Pitchford

Movie Synopsis Courtesy of IMDB

"A city teenager moves to a small town where rock music and dancing have been banned, and his rebellious spirit shakes up the populace."

I am going to start today's entry by going on a little bit of a rant here. That is because I can't stand (for the most part) remakes! Now I have never seen the remake of Footloose, I just want to put that out there so I don't sound like a hypocrite. What is the point of remakes?! I am not just talking about this movie, I mean all remakes. These movies were such a success because of the actors, the crew, the director, and the story itself. You do a remake and pretty much everything from the original is stripped away except the story line. So that means you could never make the remake as good as the original, and very seldom they are. It is rare for someone to say the remake was better than the original. So why bother? You want to know what I think? Money! That is the only explanation. The logic is that it was a success once and so it will be a success again. Same rational for sequels and trilogies, but that is a whole other argument. Executives and producers think that they can bring in the money by simply remaking a film because people who loved the original will come see the new one in order to compare the two. But it still is not the original! It loses the specialty of what made it so great. So what if technology is better now and cameras are higher quality, if a movie has withstood the times and is still considered a classic, then leave it alone. Don't remake it, let it stand on its own, in its own glory and success because clearly it is working.

Okay, rant over. Well this rant anyways.

Something that I really love about this movie is its use of montages. You know the one I am talking about, the famous warehouse dance scene. If you forgot about it, then here is a refresher.

The thing that works so well with this scene is the seamless nature of it. (About to go on a cinematography rant now). The lighting of this scene is so clever. The use of black lighting causes "Kevin Bacon" aka Ren to be seen in silhouette, which not only emphasizes the angst and anger in this scene, but it also helps hide the doubles. That's why I put "Kevin Bacon" in quotes. I looked it up and it turns out during this scene, there was a stunt double, a dance double, and two gymnastics doubles. But can you tell when those come in? Not really. I mean you can guess when they come in based on the moves he is doing, but you can't actually see a difference in the character. Which is the cleverness of the lighting in this scene. Along with the great job they did of finding doubles who look just like Kevin Bacon. It is also brilliant because of the seamless transitions from one location to the next. The editing and filming of this scene must have taken hours because you have to time everything perfectly in order to make sure that it doesn't look like Ren is jumping positions. Or so you can't tell the difference from when the doubles come in versus Kevin Bacon.

Now this is not the only montage in this movie, you also have the one where Ren is teaching Willard how to dance and then the one where they are racing the tractors. It is a typical theme in a lot of 80's movies to use montages. I think they were used more in this genre than in any other, but that is just my personal opinion. I mean take this movie for example, I have already named three montages already. Most movies now-a-days would probably only have one, if that. On top of that, most of the time there is a montage, it is for a sports movie or for a movie where someone is thinking about a loved one.

Speaking of Willard, can we just talk about his character for a second. He is always so goofy to me. But he also seems like one of the best guys to be friends with because he will defend your honor no matter what, even if that means picking a fight. Not to be mean, but he is kind of goofy looking too, so it makes it so strange to see a guy like him trying to pick a fight at the dance or at the bar. Willard is a perfect supporting character in this movie and I love every time he is on screen because he always manages to make me laugh. Especially, when he is trying his hardest to learn to dance.

Something else that makes me laugh, even though I love this movie, is the names of these characters. They throw me off every time! Willard, Ren, Ariel, Rusty, Woody, like what? Ariel for example, every time I hear it, I think I am watching The Little Mermaid.  And Ren, I have never heard that before. I know coming up with new names in movies is important, so every movie doesn't have the same Jack, Mary, Rachel, etc. but the fact that all of these are a little out there... Well it gives me a chuckle to say the least.

While we are talking about characters here, I am really not a fan of Ariel. I think it is probably a mixture of her name, how scary skinny she is, how much of a "rebel" she tries to be, and I don't know what else, but she always seems to rub me the wrong way. I can't explain really why, but she does. 

Tractor racing. Ah, what? Is this actually a thing? Now I did not grow up in a rural area, so it very well might be. But the first time I saw this movie I was thinking, do these kids have a death wish? You drive two tractors directly at each other and see who is the first person to chicken out and move out of the way. But what if you have two real "tough" guys? Then you either reck the tractors or you both get hurt. I don't get it. But hey, Ren wins in the end, so I guess it is ok?

The last thing that I want to say is that this soundtrack is one of the best. *I am listening to it now as I am writing this Blog; something I will be doing for all my entries. The songs fit so well with every scene they are in and they are catchy! Sometimes you get soundtracks that match well with the movie but you don't really listen to the music on your own. But with this soundtrack, I think most of these songs I have heard outside the movie. Clearly the title track, by Kenny Loggins, is a classic in terms of 80s music in general. 

To end this blog, I found this video that makes me smile. It is Kevin Bacon, back in 2014, recreating the warehouse scene and the end dance scene from the movie on Jimmy Fallon. It just brings so much nostalgia and proves that this movie is untouchable. You can't remake it, because the original is still popular and loved. 

Fun Fact: The dancing feet during the opening credit sequence had over 150 different pairs of feet that were of the cast and crew. Kenny Loggins was even in it with the golden shoes (Courtesy of IMDB).