Blu-Ray Review: ‘Footloose’ Lacks Dance, Bores With Hokey Melodrama

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CHICAGO – One of the easiest ways for a creatively starved studio to manufacture a box office hit is to bank on the nostalgia of a beloved cult classic. A remake will not only attract old fans but inspire new moviegoers to rent the deluxe edition of the original, now carrying the self important label of, “The Film That Defined a Generation.”

But will viewers raised on the kinetic rhythms of “Step Up” embrace Herbert Ross’ 1984 anti-musical? I doubt it. For all of its preachy monologues about the importance of dancing as a mode of self-expression, there’s not much actual hoofing in the picture. Long stretches of the picture focus instead on the broadly dramatized conflict between the puritanical book-burning adults of Bomont, Georgia, and the rebellious top-tapping kids led by a mysterious outsider from (gasp!) Chicago.

Blu-Ray Rating: 2.5/5.0

The plot reads like “Picnic” fused with a cheesy Avalon/Funicello beach picture, yet “Footloose” treats its silly formula as if it were serious melodrama. It was a tough sell back in 1984 for audiences to believe that a town, no matter how small-minded, would ban dancing after a night of teenage partying resulted in a fatal car accident. A ban on dancing in the street would be understandable, but this is ridiculous. It’s like banning houses after one burns down. Yet as teenage outsider Ren (Kevin Bacon) attempts to get the idiotic law overturned, the film doesn’t even bother to mine the profoundly uncontroversial premise for any tangible tension.

Though the local reverend (John Lithgow) spews a fire and brimstone rant in the very first scene, he quickly emerges as an emotionally damaged softie who’s overly protective of his daughter, Ariel (Lori Singer). Though Ren worries about whether he’ll be accepted by his judgmental peers, a witty retort instantly wins him the lifelong friendship of a formerly hostile kid (Chris Penn). Everything comes far too easily for these characters, yet the film still drags its feet toward its inevitable destination. None of this would matter as much if the dance numbers weren’t so fragmented and Dean Pitchford’s songs weren’t so forgettable. There isn’t a frame in this film that’s the least bit resonant or iconic, let alone generation-defining. Even Ren’s moody dance of frustration in the warehouse falls flat, particularly after it devolves into a stunt reel (for a vastly superior variation on this sequence, see “Billy Elliot”).

The deluxe edition of Footloose was released on Blu-Ray and DVD on Sept. 27, 2011.
Photo credit: Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment

At its very best, “Footloose” is harmless retro fluff that sets the bar relatively low for Craig Brewer’s remake. Only two performances save the picture from drifting into irrelevance. The first is by Dianne Wiest as the reverend’s wife who finally breaks her silence about his misguided beliefs. It’s as clichéd a role as any other in the film, but Wiest is utterly sublime, exuding a powerful presence without ever raising her voice. It’s easy to see how her grounded wisdom could sway the most fearsome of preachers, which makes one wish that Lithgow portrayed his character with a rougher edge. Equally stellar is the late, great Penn, who at 19 could immerse himself in a character with the same masterful attention to detail as his brother Sean. His wide-eyed innocence and mischievous grin are marvelously authentic, as is the anger that flashes on his face when a guy starts dancing with his girl (a giddy Sarah Jessica Parker).

Lori Singer and Kevin Bacon star in Herbert Ross’ 1984 cult classic Footloose. Photo credit: Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment

“Footloose” is presented in 1080p High Definition (with a 1.85:1 aspect ratio), accompanied by English, French, Spanish and Portuguese audio tracks, and includes five new HD featurettes, though the best tidbits remain in the extras recycled from 2004. A solid two-part documentary reveals that Pitchford loosely based the plot off a real-life occurrence in Elmore City, Oklahoma, where a law was passed in the 19th century that forbade dancing. It’s clear from the interviews with local citizens that the law was overturned without much of a fuss in 1980, thus making the film’s cartoonish depiction of fundamentalist hysteria seem all the more far-fetched. The filmmakers go on to argue that many other places in the country banned public dancing, but fail to offer any detail to back up their claim.
 
If the film had any generation-defining impact at all, it was because of its game-changing marketing campaign. “Footloose” had one of the first soundtracks that could be easily be lifted from the film and be placed on the radio, while entire sequences could be used as MTV music videos. Singers were cast as the “subconscious voices” for particular characters, such as Ren (Kenny Loggins) and Ariel (Bonnie Tyler). Since singing was not a requirement for the actual cast, they spent most of their rehearsal time dancing at the Paramount soundstage. Though the latest 12-minute Bacon interview doesn’t add much to his old audio commentary (also included on the disc), it is still fun to hear him reminisce about his intimidation filming the warehouse montage (where he was joined by 5 or 6 body doubles), and how the studio doubted that he had enough sex appeal. He briefly discusses his experience of enrolling in the local high school at the film’s Utah locale (to see if anyone would buy him as a teenager at 24), and says the town’s uptight Mormon community was a perfect fit for the production.
 
Bacon’s original screen test and costume montage are also included on the disc, as well as a retrospective interview with Parker and a heartfelt tribute to Penn (who Parker confesses was the “first love of her life”). Producer Chris Zadan joins Pitchford on an archival commentary track where they offer diverting trivia for fans, such as their method of using Karla Bonoff’s rendition of “Somebody’s Eyes” as a template for several key dance sequences during production. It’s clear listening to Bacon’s droll commentary that he hadn’t seen the film since the ’80s, and his comments generally mirror the cockiness of his character. A typical example: “I love scenes I’m not in where people talk about how cute I am.”

By MATT FAGERHOLM Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com matt@hollywoodchicago.com