"I know you gotta do what you gotta do, but that ain't gonna stop it from happening."
"This is our time."
- Ren McCormack (Kenny Wormald) Footloose (2011)
Public opinion is an immovable, unshakable animal. It can either lift movies onto a pedestal (The Hangover, The Blind Side) or tear them apart and throw them into the abyss (Mars Needs Moms, Take Me Home Tonight). This is, in part, due to instantaneous social media like Twitter and Facebook. Today, a film's reputation can live or die online before a person even walks into a theater. The type of films with automatically bad reputations these days are remakes. Most people think of remakes as Hollywood scraping the bottom of the barrel, eager to find something easy to slap a brand name on. People are disappointed to see recast, retooled, reinvented versions of movies they knew from the past. Now, I'm not saying all remakes are bad. Many great filmmakers have helmed remakes - Martin Scorsese's Cape Fear, the Coen Bros.' True Grit, John Carpenter's The Thing (which of course also gets a remake/prequel today as well, Peter Jackson's King Kong, and Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds. Good remakes must always pay tribute to its predecessors (in subtle and tasteful ways) while also telling their own version of the same story. This is completely true of the 2011 version of the classic "fight-for-your-right" dancing movie Footloose, directed by Memphian Craig Brewer.
The original Footloose was released on February 17th, 1984 starring rising star Kevin Bacon, Lori Singer, Chris Penn, Dianne Wiest, (a young) Sarah Jessica Parker and John Lithgow. With an $8 million budget, the film skyrocketed to an impressive $80 million worldwide. The film's rockin' title song performed by Kenny Loggins and Deniece Williams' "Let's Hear It for The Boy" were nominated for an Academy Award (alongside Ray Parker Jr.'s "Ghostbusters"). A decade later, Footloose was adapted into a stage musical which revived popularity in the film. Actors like Bacon and Lithgow were asked if they would attend a few of these performances, which they genuinely enjoyed.
However, in Hollywood, many executives saw value in these dance films like Footloose, Dirty Dancing, and Flashdance and wanted to replicate them - as cheaply as possible. So movies like Step Up, You Got Served and Honey were made. Out of these, only Step Up found immense success and led to three sequels. In 2006, Disney Channel landed an unexpected cash cow with famed choreographer/director Kenny Ortega's popular TV movie High School Musical. With bright, happy young people dancing and grooving singing to hip music - it was a license to print money. Then came the repercussions - a remake of the John Waters film Hairspray (which was based more off of the Broadway musical), a remake of Fame (which, although the film was a box office success, went nowhere with the general public) and the popular TV show "Glee" (which is worshiped by the general public). Paramount still thought a Footloose remake had value and after Adam Goodman stepped in as the head of the studio, he wanted a new director.
The original Footloose was released on February 17th, 1984 starring rising star Kevin Bacon, Lori Singer, Chris Penn, Dianne Wiest, (a young) Sarah Jessica Parker and John Lithgow. With an $8 million budget, the film skyrocketed to an impressive $80 million worldwide. The film's rockin' title song performed by Kenny Loggins and Deniece Williams' "Let's Hear It for The Boy" were nominated for an Academy Award (alongside Ray Parker Jr.'s "Ghostbusters"). A decade later, Footloose was adapted into a stage musical which revived popularity in the film. Actors like Bacon and Lithgow were asked if they would attend a few of these performances, which they genuinely enjoyed.
However, in Hollywood, many executives saw value in these dance films like Footloose, Dirty Dancing, and Flashdance and wanted to replicate them - as cheaply as possible. So movies like Step Up, You Got Served and Honey were made. Out of these, only Step Up found immense success and led to three sequels. In 2006, Disney Channel landed an unexpected cash cow with famed choreographer/director Kenny Ortega's popular TV movie High School Musical. With bright, happy young people dancing and grooving singing to hip music - it was a license to print money. Then came the repercussions - a remake of the John Waters film Hairspray (which was based more off of the Broadway musical), a remake of Fame (which, although the film was a box office success, went nowhere with the general public) and the popular TV show "Glee" (which is worshiped by the general public). Paramount still thought a Footloose remake had value and after Adam Goodman stepped in as the head of the studio, he wanted a new director.
Enter Craig Brewer. He had directed the urban hit Hustle & Flow (which won an Academy Award for Best Original Song "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" by Three 6 Mafia) and the blues drama Black Snake Moan (starring Samuel L. Jackson, Christina Ricci and Justin Timberlake). Brewer had grown up being a fan of the '84 film, even going so far as to record the entire film on a Walkman so he could listen to it wherever he went. He could identify with Ren McCormack, the city boy who came down to the country and was chastised for listening to rock music. Brewer was offered the director's chair two separate times and turned it down both times. He didn't see the need to tell a story when he felt it had already been told better the first time. A few months later, he realized that there was another way the story could be told: bringing an emphasis on the overreaction of the Bomont townspeople and why they banned dancing. In the '84 film, audiences learn an hour into the film as to why public dancing is outlawed. He returned to Paramount and agreed to direct as long as he didn't have to make the cutesy Ortega musical version (there is only one instance of people singing in the original Footloose, in the church scene where the congregation stands and sings "What a Friend We Have in Jesus"). He asked the executives to go back and watch the original film to see how much they got away with in 1984. The executives agreed to let Brewer make the film his own way.
Kenny Wormald plays 18-year-old Ren McCormack who comes to Bomont, GA. He boards up with his aunt's family after a personal tragedy. As he soon discovers, the town is under strict laws prohibiting public dancing and loud music. This is due to a horrible accident that took the lives of five teenagers. The head pastor of the town, Rev. Shaw Moore (Dennis Quaid) - who lost a son in the crash - was behind the ban. Ren decides he is going to stick up for the beleaguered teen population and protest the law. As he does so, he falls in love with the preacher's licentious, sexually-driven daughter, Ariel (played to near perfection by Julianne Hough) which, of course, raises the ire of her father and her stock-car driver boyfriend Chuck (Patrick John Flueger). With nearly everyone in town against him, Ren becomes a rebel with a cause and must be true to himself in order to cut loose. Footloose.
The supporting cast is just as impressive - Miles Teller is a comedic wunderkind who must surely have a long and healthy career or I will be highly, highly disappointed. He brings the film a sense of light and fun in between the drama. In fact, if you are not smiling or laughing when (the original) "Let's Hear It For the Boy" comes on, you have no soul. Ziah Colon, who takes up the role of Rusty from Sarah Jessica Parker, is an absolute vision. She is just so much fun to watch and her scenes with Teller are genius. Like Quaid, Ray McKennon takes the relatively mild and thankless role of Uncle Wes from 1984 and brings a warmth and heart to the character in 2011. It really shows that Ren is not alone in his fight.
In the end, Footloose's message of fighting (either peacefully or violently) for your rights is an important one for the former generation and today's generation. Although dancing is a large part of the film's celebration, it also celebrates friendship and morality. If one takes both films with this in mind, there shouldn't be any hate or snarkiness. You should just be true to yourself and cut loose. Footloose.
"It seems that a lot of people are pointing the finger in your direction lately."
"And what have they said?"
- Wes (Arthur Rosenberg) and Ren McCormack (Kevin Bacon) Footloose (1984)
Song: "Footloose" by Blake Shelton
"'You deal with your pain in extremes,' the minister is told. The line is a key to Brewer's filmography: All the director's movies are about people who deal with their pain in extremes, and the plots chronicle the consequences of their coping." - Commercial Appeal
"Footloose is fancy-free, an iconic movie's tribute that could stand on its own two, tapping feet." - St. Petersberg Times
"Sure, it sings a familiar tune. But it's got a good beat, and you can dance to it." - Hollywood.com
"'Footloose' remake is almost paradise." - Boston Herald
"By the time four little girls teach a dorky guy to dance to (the original) "Let's Hear It for the Boy" I was a gelatinous blob of pure affection." - New York Post
"It's the single most harmless teen movie in the recent cinematic landscape, and also one of the most charmingly fun." - Movies.com
"Give credit to Craig Brewer, the filmmaker behind the new Footloose, for realizing a new step was in order." - Dallas Morning News
"It's a vibrant youth musical that will appeal to audiences who haven't seen the 1984 original. And it has enough charm and life to it to compete with the memory of the earlier version." - San Francisco Chronicle
"Brewer's hot-and-bothered remake uncorks the original's raging libido, and it's as seamy and sordid as that damnable PG-13 rating will allow." - A.V. Club
"Don't hate Footloose because it's a remake. The dance-movie-love-story-freedom-of-expression thumper is a rollicking good time." - Cleveland Plain Dealer
"It's as if Brewer is taking a stand for movies that look like movies instead of audience hipness barometers." - Movieline
"If you can leave your cynicism at the door then this is top-quality Saturday night popcorn entertainment." - Digital Spy
UPDATE
How the above picture was taken (from my Best of 2011 list):
"The first time I saw it was in July, when director Craig Brewer brought the film to town for a special sneak preview. I waited in line in front of a local DVD/Blu-Ray store at 8 AM, he came and brought donuts, recognized me BY NAME (nearly lost my $#*!) and handed out tickets. I drove over to the theater and waited across the parking lot outside of a Whole Foods Market sweating to death with only my laptop, a Mexican Coca-Cola and a small cup of Ben & Jerry’s. Finally, it came time to see the movie (before waiting in another line). Mr. Brewer came out to introduce it, told us some stories about how he was offered the movie and what the original Footloose meant to him. I saw it, I enjoyed it immensely. I thanked Mr. Brewer for the opportunity to see the movie early, got a picture with him and an autograph. Then came October 14th, when the movie was released to the general public. I didn’t have the money to go see it opening day, but I heard Craig Brewer was in town to open it up locally and I wanted to wish him good luck for the movie’s opening weekend. I went by the theater where he was, bumped into him and said good luck to him. He asked me if I was seeing the movie that night. I told him, I would love to, but I simply didn’t have the money. He says, 'No problem,' and he hands me a free ticket. Cue exuberance. So I brought my laptop into the lobby, sat at a table and started writing while he’s signing posters and posing for pictures with people. After about two minutes with no one coming in, he comes over and sits down and we start chatting. Then, his phone rings. He says, 'I’m sorry, I gotta take this.' He then looks at the screen and says, 'Look who it is.' He shows me the screen and it says 'Dennis Quaid'. Cue awesomeness. He gets to talking to him and I’m just sitting in awe."
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