Saturday, September 5, 2009

What Wendy Watched: Jack get back and pass me my leg warmers if you please

I spent the afternoon watching my 6.99 bargain copy of Footloose. As I started I realised that I hadn't actually seen it before even though if you had asked me I would have said I had (if that makes sense). That song sure is catchy though. And what a fabulously stupid and ridiculous movie it is. Kevin Bacon dances up a storm in an uptight small town community. There's fightin', swearin' and preachin' as well as a game of chicken on big tractors. This last scene is perhaps the silliest in the whole film. Meanwhile Kevin's hair is very spiky and his nose all button like. John Lithgow, Dianne Wiest must wonder what they were doing, while Sarah Jessica Parker is extremely un-Carrie Bradshaw-like as the friend of the lead character, who herself is improbably named Ariel. Is she the Little Mermaid? No, she's just a rebellious teen with 80s curly,flicky hair who falls for Kevin, his dancin' ways, his love of Slaughterhouse 5 and knowledge of Men at Work and David Bowie.

All in all very strange. This is all you really need to see I think.



Maybe next I need to watch Flashdance, then Fame, then Billy Elliot, then Strictly Ballroom and any other movie about dancing that you can think of. Actually, perhaps I should start at the beginning with Fred and Ginger in Top Hat or some such.

4 comments:

2paw said...

Love the film!! I am never quite sure when it is meant to be set, it seems to span many dance styles and why are their trousers so short and is that a Moonwalk too?? Poor Kevin Bacon, it all seems so unworthy of him now!!! I love old musicals. I hope Glee lives up to its promise.

Wendy said...

It was a weird time was it. I found that confusing as well - anytime from 50s to 80s. I don't think Kevin Bacon will ever live that one down!

Am so looking forward to Glee...not long now :)

matt said...

You should also watch the dance scene in Napoleon Dynamite and if they ever run John Safran's music jamboree, he does a footloose flash mob at his old conservative jewish school in Melbourne.

Wendy said...

I haven't seen Napoleon Dynamite but I do remember the John Safran flash mob. That was indeed excellent!