Footloose (1984) * * 1/2

Directed by:  Herbert Ross

Starring:  Kevin Bacon, Lori Singer, John Lithgow, Dianne Wiest, Chris Penn, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jim Youngs

Footloose is a long form music video.   You have the dialogue scenes, followed by songs by pop artists and dance numbers.    Released in 1984, Footloose was made at a time when some movies were made to sell the soundtracks.    Footloose is a slickly produced film for the 80's MTV Generation.    It looks good and some of the extended scenes could be music videos all by themselves.   The video for Kenny Loggins' title track was dance footage taken right from the movie.  As far as a story, it is rather wanting.

We meet Ren McCormick (Bacon), a rebel with a cause whose family moves from Chicago to a podunk Midwestern town named Bomont.    Bomont is not Ren's type of place, since rock music and dancing have been banned within the town limits thanks to a law pushed by Rev. Shaw Moore (Lithgow).   Rev. Moore's son was killed five years ago after returning from a dance.   To Rev. Moore, dancing and rock music lead to terrible things like drinking and driving.    If teens want to dance or hear rock music, they go to a club beyond the town limits and let loose.   

Ren challenges the law.   He wants the town council to allow a prom to be held in Bomont proper, all the while falling in love with the reverend's rebellious daughter Ariel (Singer) and avoiding Ariel's jealous boyfriend Chuck, who challenges Ren to a game of Tractor Chicken.    Ren also befriends Willard (Penn), a likable big lug with two left feet whom Ren teaches to dance in a montage over Deniece Williams' Let's Hear It for the Boy.   Is it mean to suggest cow tipping might be a step up for some of these folks?

We know what will happen.   The scales will eventually fall from the reverend's eyes and the finale will be an elongated dance sequence led by Bacon and Singer.    All of this is done with its own style and the performances are the best you can expect with such thinly written characters.    Lithgow's character isn't a total lout, but a scared, grieving man who is misdirected.   He has the most dimensions.   But, if you take away the quasi music videos and dance numbers, you would barely have enough here for a short film.    Maybe it might've worked better that way.    But, if you like the songs, and there are some pretty good ones here, then this is your movie.