Product Description

A portrayal of the timeless struggle between innocent pleasure and rigid morality. City-boy Ren McCormick finds himself in an uptight Midwestern town where dancing has been banned.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: PG
Release Date: 2-MAY-2006
Media Type: DVD

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2598 in DVD
• Brand: BACON,KEVIN
• Released on: 2004-09-28
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Collector's Edition, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 107 minutes

Amazon.com
Director Herbert Ross (The Turning Point) pulled a winning movie out of this almost self-consciously archetypal tale of teenage rock rebellion. Kevin Bacon stars as a hip city kid who ends up in a Bible-belt town after his parents divorce. An ill fit for a conservative community where rock is frowned upon and dancing is forbidden, Bacon's character rallies the kids and takes on the establishment. Between a good cast really embracing the drama of Dean Pitchford's screenplay, and Ross's imaginative, highly charged way of shooting the dance numbers, you can get lost in this all-ages confection, and you won't even mind Kenny Loggins's bubbly pop. Bonuses include one of John Lithgow's best performances (a bit reminiscent of Jimmy Stewart), and Christopher Penn (who sure doesn't look the same anymore) as a good-natured hick who learns to boogie. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

Footloose
The movie was shipped fast and received in very good condition. I will most definitely order from this sellar again

Still powerful after 2 decades+
I watched this movie in the 1980's, and loved it. The soundtrack from Footloose and Flash Dance were part of my workout routine at the time. (When I was thinner, and more fit.)

The story itself is perhaps a bit improbable. Imagine, a town banning dancing and rock 'n roll music?! Oh, but wait, remember how so many people in the 1950's warned against the evils of Rock 'n Roll? Maybe this story isn't so offbase.

This movie is really a story of adolescents struggling to find themselves, struggling with the good and bad, and finding a good way to express themselves.

I identified with Ren McCormick very easily. My adolescence was a struggle to express my identity. Unlike "the hero," my struggle was not quite so successful. Through this movie, I can enjoy a successful struggle, vicariously.

Over the years, I've played the CD of the soundtrack so many times that it wore out. I need to buy another CD.

I recently purchased the Special Collector's Edition of the movie... and it still touched me, after all these years.

One of my favorites
Footloose" is a fun and very lighthearted motion picture that promises a good time and delivers.

The film has a simple, if unlikely, plotline. Streetsmart but gentle teenager Ren MacCormack(Kevin Bacon) arrives from the big city with his mother in the backwater town of Bomont. Enrolling at the local high school, he is appalled to discover the town's adults have imposed a law on "public dancing" and rock music, as enforced and practiced by the local preacher(John Lithgow). Ren quickly sets about changing things, falling in love with the preacher's daughter Ariel (Lori Singer) in the process.

The story is a little unlikely yet it is perfectly suitable for the teenaged audience at which it is pitched. The script takes some time to explore its simple theme - dancing and rock music, and what they symbolise for young people. Three scenes help to lay this out. The first sees Ren dancing by himself in a barn; the town meeting where Ren presents his case to the townspeople and explains to them the meaning of the dance; and the final prom sequence in which the teens of Bomont revel in their newfound liberation.

As the leading man, Kevin Bacon carries off his role very well. Ren isn't really a macho hero revelling in coolness, he's a down-to-earth young man trying to the right thing by his peers. His romance with Lori Singer's character Ariel is formulaic but perfectly inoffensive.

The film could have perhaps done with a little more nastiness to fully contrast against Ren's earnest intentions. Even Ariel's brutish boyfriend(Jim Young) fails to inject much tension in this respect and the final fistfight between him and Ren comes across as being a bit lame.

John Lithgow's characterisation is very good but it is a little too subtle. As the town Reverend and preacher of all things pure and holy, his extreme views come across not so much as puritanical, just merely uptight. The change that eventually occurs in his attitudes is hinted at very early on. The result is that he is nowhere near is frightening or intimidating a character as he could have been. At the same time his troubled relationships with his rebellious daughter and quiet wife(Dianne Wiest) are very well written and acted. In these scenes he excels and his character's development seems very natural.

On the technical side, the film is well-shot and the gloriously Eighties soundtrack complements the proceedings very well, bringing the necessary exhuberance and bounce to the whole movie.

Whilst "Footloose" is certainly no masterpiece, it succeeds in being a lighthearted knockabout caper, and as such is a very enjoyable movie.