Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

In the late 70's and early 80's teen movies were a very liberal affair. In films like "Grease", "Fame", "Porkies", "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" and "The Big Chill", it literally was all about sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. Films that took you straight into teenage hedonism with a sense of total freedom and of course, unless you were watching the German teenage movie "Christiane F" (1982) or listening to Rap music of the time, there was nothing in the way of moral exploration or consequences.

In a sense it was all sugar-coated and dumb, but entertaining. Then, just like with the violent films of the early 70's killing off the carefree swinger spirit of the 60's, at around 1983/84, teen movies changed and began to portray and articulate the backlash of parental control and the evangelical oppressive establishment in suburbia, in the home, at school and in the church, which always has a tendency to oppress teenagers as potential perverts and write them off as lost souls if they falter. For me these aspects of evangelicism are what for me makes organised religion more than simply annoying but totally grotesque.

Sometimes those films were the voice of rebellion, sometimes they were there to reinforce oppression and encourage teenage subservience and a sense of powerlessness- and in-fact some of them are so humiliating and cold hearted, they're downright unpleasant viewing, but for me this is a well rounded, balanced, emotionally strong and positive example.

We see a few feet spot dancing at the beginning from a skirt lifter's POV in the title sequence. Then to juxtapose that, we see the various corners of a quiet, rural smalltown. No-one is out playing and its so quiet, you can hear the shouting from the church. The local reverend, like most American religious right figureheads is preaching furiously to his congregation. Now in Britain we do have loud religious preachers who call out to people in the street offering "Eternal Salvation". But people tend to ignore them and walk on- whilst in churches, sermons are usually the calmest events of the week. In-fact usually the noisy churchgoers are the ones that get chucked out.

But some of what he says is actually quite eloquent and topical. Especially when he talks of the Media selling the youth with the notion of "easy sexuality" where impressionable teenagers may not consider taking it slow and being sure the love is true and in any case they will be throwing away their innocence too early if they follow the lead or that as adults they'll be letting their sex drive 'drive' them completely. He seems to acknowledge the lust and sexually experimental mindframe of teen life as something teenagers need not be ashamed of as long as they can maintain self-control and remain virginal.

Then we get Kevin Bacon in his prime- new kid from the big city in a smalltown full of small minds. He has been sent to live with his uncle's family who reside here and enrols at the high school, where he immediately befriends Sean Penn's equally hot headed younger brother Chris and attracts the promiscuous attention of Lori Singer- the preacher's daughter, presumably the same preacher's daughter who was described in that N.W.A. song they tried to ban.

But as the new kid from the city he's not welcome and is immediately being picked on by school kids and teachers alike. He's kind of like Clint Eastwood in the Spaghetti Westerns. He's not going to be accepted, and is going to face violence, but he's going to come out on top in the end- except instead of guns he's going to do what Michael J Fox did in "Back to the Future" and what Patrick Swayze did in "Dirty Dancing" and use music and dance to beat them all. One problem- in this smalltown, music and dancing is illegal (though funnily enough the guns aren't).

We learn that this smalltown had previously been fairly more liberal. Dancing and music were perfectly legal and enjoyed and the local preacher had been a far jollier man. But that changed when his son and three teenage friends had gone out dancing and getting drunk and on the way home they all ended up dying in a car crash. Since then the preacher and his daughter have sunk into depression, and the town elders had become far more radical on cutting down on youth activities in an effort to prevent more reckless behaviour and tragedies.

It is up to Kevin Bacon and his friends Chris Penn and Lori Singer to bring back a long overdue spirit of joy and dance and freedom, and they work to legalise dancing and throw a big party, but they are up against great adversaries. It all sounds very contrived and mindless and eighties, like a far more melodramatic version of "The Breakfast Club" but in-fact it works brilliantly because of its characterisation.

John Lithgow is superb in the role of the preacher. I'd previously only seen John Lithgow in the comedy series "Third Rock From the Sun", which is the only American sit-com that I find hilarious. Here he plays a far more serious and grim character. He makes the melodrama of his character work. He is committed and both wise and foolish in his own way. He is a man of deep compassion and views himself as a saviour, whilst most teen characters see him as a mean old tyrant who won't let the kids have their fun.

He is extremely rigid and unshakeable for most of the film, but he is also dimensional. His daughter goes to the local diner place and he follows her there and is shocked to find her and the teenagers dancing (very badly) to (horrors of horrors) Shalamar (played on a measly cassette player which couldn't possibly have had the booming volume it did). He turns the music off and has a look of repressed anger and disappointment on his face. All he says to her is that he only came to make sure she had enough money for food. To the teenagers he is an extreme character, but he considers himself fair, and within the religious organisation, he's known to challenge his peers when he feels they are being too radical, as they propose to remove books from the library that they consider vulgar and corrupting.

Later on he walks in on his crowd who have already begun burning books and quickly protests. "The devil isn't in these books! (pointing to his heart) He's in here" and this ties in wonderfully with his opening speech on how he sometimes wishes that God would destroy all the vulgar literature and hedonistic music that was coming out in the 80's, but that would not make us stronger people. This quality is important, not only to give realistic human dimension to his character but to make his transition at the end more believable, since he is an indoctrinated and set in stone man of his morals. In a sense, in changing his attitude to the youth he articulates what was already there in his heart and wisdom. "If we don't trust our children, how will they ever become trustworthy?"

Lori Singer seems to lap up the occasion of playing the horny, butt shakin' preacher's daughter. She explodes with spunk and spontanaeity, frequently makes daredevil stunts and chases men like a dog in heat. She's a double sided character and one quickly learns that this bubbliness and wildness is a front, chasing happiness that she knows will not last. She's actually very depressed indeed. At home she is quiet and never smiles, her father's rigid disciplines and hawk eye makes her very uncomfortable. In a sense she is the main soul of the film. One of the key scenes of her duality is when they are returning from an out of town dance bar which they snuck out too, as they drive over the bridge, Lori tells them about the car crash gleefully, intending it as an entertaining gory horror tale. She tries to hide her pain but talking about her brother's death so malignantly makes it all surface, the pain of loss, guilt and repression and that no-one's letting her say goodbye and live with joy again.

Kevin Bacon is far more the style and attitude than the soul. He has that chirpy, carefree, energetic presence. He gives this heavy laden drama its needed moments of humour and relief and we root him on because he is so streetwise. He's in hick town and everyone looks at him suspiciously. He is not welcome "We ain't gonna tolerate no weirdness 'round here" He knows he is unwanted but doesn't care and takes precautions. When being introduced to the preacher and his associates he proudly declares his favourite book authors as those on the "to be burned" list, and it doesn't go down well. He wears his skin thick and ignores the criticisms of his uncle who tells him he is making a show of himself and his family and keeps blameing him when the teen thugs keep attacking the house with bricks.

The youth of the town trust their elders even as they occasionally rebel against them. Even the bullies and thugs of the town follow the lead of the older townsfolk in attacking Kevin, the undesireable outsider that no-one trusts. However Kevin is a bit more wise and knows the adults of the town are often full of irrational hate and will use dirty tricks against him. In the school toilet there is a pusher who forcefully tries to sell him some drugs, then the teacher bursts in and he immediately knows it was a setup to get him expelled and just in time he flushes the gear and gets off clean. But he can also be the negotiator as he adopts the voice of his generation in this generation gap. He knows he has to gain trust from the elders and find ways to speak their language, and he shows responsibility and open minded awareness despite his occasional dirty living.

"Footloose" has been remembered fondly like the other Teen Dance orientated films of the time such as "Grease" and "Dirty Dancing". But I'll let you know something- "Grease" and "Dirty Dancing" where the type of films which left me very, very cold indeed. I could rate them grandly on the level of dance choreography, but they both had an unpleasant tweeness about them, coupled with an underlying and unacknowledged humiliating and degrading aspect to the teen characters which was unpleasant.

This film is so unlike the above movies- it brims with fire and passion. The dancing choreography in the film is ironically its weakest point and looks terribly amateur, but the whole energy of it makes it compelling, the sweat, the physical violence, the daredevil antics, the teenage wildness. The cinematography is also great, very grainy and soiled, a sense of there being no clear skies, a sense of being dumped on by repression and being stained by sin, and a sense of fighting spirit like chucking mud when cornered, it makes the film look human. The music soundtrack is worth a mention too- its all hedonistic tunes -even the soul band Shalamar abandon the crooning here for the party track "Dancing in the Sheets"-, it's all rather like disco music except a bit more loud and energetic. Couple this with a screenplay that isn't afraid to aim for depth and melodrama and mood juxtaposition and brilliantly glues the chemistry between these characters and you've got one outstanding 80's teen movie.

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older