‘Footloose’ or — Pasolini’s ‘Theorem’ Set to Kenny Loggins?
‘Footloose’ (1984) concerns Kevin Bacon’s Ren, a young Christ-like figure (he apparently manifests into this reality without the aid of a corporeal dad) who systematically destroys the gender, social and religious representations of a familial/theological autocracy, including the complete annihilation of the authority of the father, by the sheer presence of his innate pan-sexuality. If this sounds familiar that’s because ‘Footloose’ has exact same plot as Pier Paolo Pasolini’s ‘Theorem’ (1968). I’m not kidding — they’re the exact same movie. It’s ‘El Cid’ (1961) and ‘Weekend at Bernie’s’ (1989) all over again.
Like Bob Fosse director Herbert Ross was, along with his wife, Nora Kaye, a dance choreographer as well as a filmmaker, which helps explain why the musical sequences here are so dynamic, energetic and immaculately constructed. Ross also had a relaxed, humanistic and old-fashioned (almost anachronistic) style which could account for why, despite all the 1980s trappings — highly produced pop-music, montages, Kevin Bacon, etc — ‘Footloose’ both feels and looks like an archetypal 70’s movie where excessive slick gloss is replaced by a more rustic naturalism meaning Ross’ film frequently has less in common with, say, Tony Scott or MTV, and more early Malick, Altman or even Cimino.
However, this naturalism presents Ross, and the viewer, with a massive problem — how to believably initiate a grown man to suddenly start dancing all by himself without annihilating the fabric of its own reality? The way Ross pulls this off is pretty impressive (it’s montage, flashback AND dance routine all rolled into one) as we feel Bacon’s sense of frustration building to such a degree that outside of A/ — gunning everybody down, or B/ — complete mental collapse, dancing is his only alternative. Again, this is Christ alone in the desert only here it’s Kevin Bacon in a garage with a boombox.
Once he fully claims his “power” he can then force America to undergo a process of continual destruction and renewal, of societal resurrection and the shedding of entrenched “norms”.
These norms include sexual rigidity as ‘Footloose’ is also a remarkably homoerotic movie. Bacon’s Ren might technically have a love interest yet it isn’t in the form of Ariel (Lori Singer) but Willard (Chris Penn). It’s Ren and Willard who engage in sex talk with each other, dance together and spray each other with liquid that issues from their hoses. The movie even ends with an all-male “orgy” with the climactic dance scene functioning less as a device to bring boy and girl ultimately together and more a celebration that such an erotic event has finally occurred. Indeed, Ariel’s only real function in the movie is to act as a sort of theological cherry-picking A.I. bot programmed in advanced hermeneutics to justify Ren organising his disco.
The film is also heavy with visual signifiers, the most sophisticated of which is the sticker for Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ on Chuck’s pick-up truck. This sticker immediately tells us several things about Chuck, and none of them are good. Firstly, we suspect he’s a hypocrite (do we REALLY believe this guy listens to Pink Floyd?) and, therefore, not to be trusted. Secondly, you can’t dance to Pink Floyd, which automatically makes Chuck a representative of death, of anti-life, so when he’s revealed as an abusive asshole we’ve already been primed for such an inevitable occurrence.
‘Footloose’ is a fascinating movie because it’s simultaneously incredibly straightforward (dancing is fun) and ferociously complex (a gender fluid secular messiah destroys an oppressive theocracy from within). But most of all it’s a highly entertaining (if patently ridiculous) movie filled with great songs, dynamic editing and tender-hearted direction so it’s probably best not too over-analyse it too much. That would be stupid.
