•Steve Spears
Monday, February 17, 2014 11:57am
Thirty years ago today, '80s nation was holding out for a hero. Thankfully, Kevin Bacon came along and everybody cut Footloose. The movie, about a street-wise city teen who moves to a rural town where dancing is outlawed, hit theaters on Feb. 17, 1984.
The movie turned Bacon, who'd
made some waves in Animal House, Friday the 13th and Diner, into a household
name. John Lithgow (Rev. Shaw Moore), Dianne Wiest (the reverend's wife) and
Lori Singer (as Bacon's love interest) also dazzled. And it transformed Sean
Penn's brother Chris into the world's most lovable dancing teddy bear. (And
hey, that's Sex in the City's Sarah Jessica Parker over there as
"Rusty." Awww, so cute.)
As much as Footloose is a
part of the '80s, it didn't receive the warmest reviews. Today, it still holds
only a 54 percent "fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes. And the Chicago
Sun-Times' Roger Ebert called it "a seriously confused movie that tries to
do three things, and does all of them badly. It wants to tell the story of a
conflict in a town, it wants to introduce some flashy teenage characters, and
part of the time it wants to be a music video."
The soundtrack was a best
seller, and AFI would later choose Kenny Loggins' title track as the 96th best
movie song. And remake in 2011 made ripples.
But what else do you remember
about Footloose?
FIVE THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW
ABOUT FOOTLOOSE:
1. Tom Cruise was the first
pick to play the lead role, Ren McCormack, but he was already filming All The
Right Moves. Rob Lowe also auditioned but an injury prevented him from taking
the role.
2. The role of the rebellious
Ariel attracted Madonna to the audition. Daryl Hannah was also offered the role
but turned it down to co-star in Splash. In fact, the list of actresses
consered for Ariel is long and distinguished: Meg Ryan, Heather Locklear,
Brooke Shields, Jamie Lee Curtis, Phoebe Cates, and on and on.
3. The story was based on
events in Elmore City, Oklahoma, where in 1978, a group of teens challenged a
ban on dancing that had been in place for nearly 90 years. Teenagers challenged
it.
4. Bacon, then 24 years old,
actually went to classes at Payson Utah High School as "Ren
McCormack," telling kids he was a transfer student from Philadelphia and
dressing pretty much as he did in the film -- with the kids mistreating him
pretty much as they did in the movie.
5. The dancing feet in the
opening credit sequence? Those are the feet of the cast and crew and more than
150 pairs of feet were shot. The dancer with the gold shoes? That's Kenny
Loggins.
[Last modified: Monday, February 17, 2014 12:02pm]
