Footloose

Like most children of the 90s I was raised on a healthy diet of classic 80s teen movies. Of course Footloose was among them. For those of you who are grossly ignorant, the premise of Footloose is a big city boy moves into a very small Southern town that has almost no separation of church and state. After a tragic accident that left five teens dead after coming home from a party where there was drinking and dancing the town council passes laws outlawing public dancing because of its corrupting influences. Big city boy has a problem with this along with a major jones for the town preacher’s wild child daughter, Ariel. So he calls the senior class to arms to fight against the conservative laws ruling the town.

When I first saw the preview for the remake I thought, “Wow. That looks oversexualized and unnecessary. I will be there.”

I entered the theater and hunkered down with my contraband snacks ready and willing to destroy it. I heckled it. I found a way to criticize every detail. When Kenny Wormald, who plays Ren MacCormack, stepped on screen, before I could acknowledge the burning hunk of man meat that he is, I thought accusingly “You’re not Kevin Bacon.”

 

 

I then laughed aloud when he pulled the tarp off his fixer upper car that was supposed to appear decrepit, but it looked like all they did was remove a wheel. They could have at least rubbed some dirt on it. This is how nit-picky I was being.

A few days later I watched the original since it seemed the fair thing to do before using it as the rubric by which the remake would be graded. I realized that a lot of what I was criticizing (the schmaltzy heart to hearts, the corny dialogue, how young Ariel looked) was actually a part of the original… which in itself can be a criticism. If you’re going to do a remake you don’t need to take it that literally. There’s really no reason to completely repeat a movie that has already been made.  It seems like every time a classic movie is remade the justification given is that they are making a version for this generation. Why can’t they watch the original? It’s not like it expires. The changes that were made were that it now takes place in present day so instead of cassette tapes there are iPods and cds. Ummm… that’s about it. Oh yeah, my favorite complaint. Does the town preacher really want to worry about his daughter dancing when he has bigger problems to focus on – like the fact that she dresses like a stripper. When she comes in after breaking curfew and her father (played by Dennis Quaid) is berating her for her lateness I couldn’t believe that the fact that she was wearing a third of a shirt and a shadow of a pair of shorts was never addressed.

 Okay I will give them credit for a few things. First, instead of playing chicken with tractors at Ariel’s boyfriend Chuck’s farm they go down to Chuck’s dad’s drag racing track and race ramshackle buses. Also it is not just Ren against Chuck. It’s Ren against Chuck’s entire racing gang – including a girl. It’s pretty exciting. I enjoyed and appreciated the creativity in that change. Second, many of the old songs from the original are remade or make reappearances. My favorite being the new softer version of “I Need a Hero.” One place I wish the original song had been used is during the iconic “Ren blowing off steam” dance in the warehouse. It’s tricky doing a remake. You’ve got to know where to use artistic license and when something is sacred. If you’re going to remake a classic, emotionally exciting scene like this you’ve got to find a song that tops or at least does justice to the original. I was disappointed by the unengaging, lyricless song chosen.

But let’s get down to the crux of the problem. There was one criticism that stood out after the others retreated sheepishly as they reappeared during my viewing of the original film: The attitude of the teenagers. They on a number of occasions embody the current concerning attitude of teenagers, a sense of entitlement to being immature. Most distressing is during the speech that Ren presents to the town council on behalf of the senior class. He speaks more about the rights of teenagers than the blessings and purpose of dancing. His defense is that they deserve this right to dance because soon they will be washed up, worn out adults like the committee before him and they should have these last few years to be stupid and happy. What a way to win them over. When the teens lash out at the adults in their lives it looks more like childish, unreasonable, and hormonally angry teenagers. What impresses me about the original and what I believe is a main factor in how it achieved the status as a classic is that it has a deeper theme of young people trying to figure out who they are and what kind of adults they want to become rather than fighting for their right to not have to grow up and take responsibility for their actions. On the other hand, when Kevin Bacon delivers his speech to the town council he is wearing a suit coat and tie and speaks with respectful force and does not use the argument that only they the teenagers deserve this. Also, in the modern version Ariel is constantly angry and disrespectful to her father. In the 1984 version we see her from the beginning trying to connect with and please her father and she begins to talk back to him out of frustration of being consistently never really being seen or heard.

I’ve said this before in a few different reviews, but when creating adaptations or remakes the number one goal should be preserving the first writer’s intentions. This may mean not preserving the original plot structure or not becoming so caught up in the recreating of the original that the underlying theme is lost. I believe that this is what happened in this remake. In an attempt to copy the first version to the letter, the creators lost the spirit of the characters’ crusade toward growth and wisdom and ended up with a storyline that celebrates teen insolence.