Synopsis
In the small town of Bomont, Utah, rock music and dancing are banned, and have been for years, ever since a group of teenagers died in a car accident after a night out. When Ren McCormack, a city kid from Chicago, moves in with his aunt and uncle, he doesn’t just struggle to fit in. He can’t wrap his head around a town that has legislated joy out of existence. The local Reverend, who lost his son in that accident, has held Bomont in a tight grip ever since. But Ren isn’t built for quiet, and neither is the reverend’s daughter, Ariel, who has her own reasons for pushing back. What starts as a culture clash turns into a fight over who gets to decide what a town is allowed to feel.
Actors & Crew
- Kevin Bacon plays Ren McCormack. Born Kevin Norwood Bacon on July 8, 1958, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he left home at 17 to pursue theater in New York, training at the Circle in the Square Theatre School and winning an Obie Award for his off-Broadway work in Forty Deuce (1982). His film debut came in National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978), followed by Friday the 13th (1980) and Diner (1982) before Footloose made him a star.
- Lori Singer plays Ariel Moore, the reverend’s daughter. Born November 6, 1957, in Corpus Christi, Texas, into a deeply musical family, she made her solo cello debut with the Oregon Symphony at thirteen and was admitted to Juilliard at fourteen. She joined the cast of Fame in 1982 before beating out Madonna, Melanie Griffith, Michelle Pfeiffer, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Rosanna Arquette for the role of Ariel. She later appeared in The Falcon and the Snowman, The Man with One Red Shoe, and Robert Altman’s Short Cuts (1993), for which the ensemble cast won a Golden Globe.
- John Lithgow plays the anti-dancing Reverend Shaw Moore. Born October 19, 1945, in Rochester, New York, into a theatrical family, he graduated magna cum laude from Harvard in 1967 and studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art on a Fulbright scholarship. He made his Broadway debut in 1973 and received back-to-back Academy Award nominations for The World According to Garp (1982) and Terms of Endearment (1983). He later starred as Dick Solomon in 3rd Rock from the Sun and won wide acclaim for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in The Crown (2016), going on to win two Tony Awards, seven Emmy Awards, and two Golden Globes throughout his career.
- Dianne Wiest also stars. Born March 28, 1948, in Kansas City, Missouri, she studied theater at the University of Maryland and built an extensive stage career in New York, winning an Obie Award for The Art of Dining (1979) before her film work in movies like The Birdcage. On television, she won Emmy Awards for Road to Avonlea (1997) and the HBO drama In Treatment (2008).
- Christopher Penn plays Willard, Ren’s best friend and the cowboy who finally learns to dance.
Budget, Stats & Shooting Locations
- Released: February 17, 1984
- Rated: PG
- Budget: $7.5–$8.2 million
- Box Office: $80 million, opening in 1,384 theaters with a 14-week average run per theater.
- The high school and tractor scenes were filmed in and around Payson, Utah, and Payson High School. The church scenes were filmed at the First Presbyterian Church in American Fork, while the steel mill was the Geneva Steel facility in Vineyard. The Lehi Roller Mills served as the location where Bacon’s character worked — he briefly worked at the roller mill as research for his performance. The drive-in scenes were filmed in Provo at a former Hi-Spot burger chain location, and the bar scene was filmed at The Silver Spur bar in downtown Provo, since demolished for the Utah Valley Convention Center.
Rewatch verdict and Cringe Meter
Metascore: 42 (“Mixed or Average,” based on 12 critic reviews). User Score: 7.1 (“Generally Favorable,” based on 34 user ratings).
Vincent Canby (The New York Times) gave it a lukewarm review, noting the movie had a “Hollywood patina” and was “a Flashdance set in farm country,” though he praised the soundtrack and an appealing cast. Roger Ebert gave it 1.5/4, calling it “a seriously confused movie that tries to do three things, and does all of them badly.” Gene Siskel was kinder, writing that “Ren McCormick is appealing, Kevin Bacon is a legitimate good actor… I had a good time looking at Footloose.” Janet Maslin (The New Yorker) called it “a ‘Flashdance’ set in farm country, with tractors supplying the blue-collar chic,” adding that it “doesn’t expect to be watched closely or taken seriously” but delivers catchy music and pretty kids all the same. The soundtrack, meanwhile, was universally praised — Kenny Loggins’ “Footloose” and Deniece Williams’ “Let’s Hear It for the Boy” remain iconic to this day.
