Kevin Bacon has been in a ton of movies, heck the whole six degrees of Kevin Bacon thing is a thing for a reason. However, I would argue that out of all the roles, Kevin Bacon has played, Ren from Footloose is up there as one of his most well-remembered. Even if you do not remember the name, Ren McCormack, you at the very least will know that Kevin Bacon was in Footloose.
How to Download Footloose (1984)
Footloose was released on February 17, 1984. You can download or stream the film from a digital platform. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and make your choice. If you’re interested in other films with Kevin Bacon, check out our reviews of National Lampoon’s Animal House, A Few Good Men, Apollo 13, Friday the 13th, X-Men: First Class, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, or MaXXXine.
The Movie Review
While Footloose is known as a Kevin Bacon movie, this movie has an awesome cast. Lori Singer as Ren’s love interest Alice, Sarah Jessica Parker as Rusty, Alice’s friend, and the likes of Chris Penn and Jim Youngs are here as part of the very talented young cast of actors that bring this story to life.
The Conflict in Footloose
Footloose does have a pretty awesome villain in Reverend Shaw Moore who is actually Alice’s dad. Rev. Moore is played by John Lithgow who along with his wife Vi, played by Diane West are upholding the town’s ban on rock music, dancing and drinking. To be fair, Rev. Shaw has a legit reason for this and I do think that the movie does a good job of “humanizing” him.
Young Ren has just moved to this town and he is shocked to find out about this ban as he loves rock music and loves to dance. Ren meets Alice who is sick of her father’s over the top religious ways and she and Ren start to fall for each other. Look, the romance stuff here is never going to win any awards for originality, but it works.
The Fight for Music and Dance
Ren decides that enough is enough! Ren leads a campaign to get the ban on dancing and music lifted and his idea is that the high school can throw a prom party. As well as this, the romance between Ren and Alice is complicated by Alice’s jerk of a boyfriend, Chuck. I do not Chuck gets enough credit for being one of the grade-A assholes of the 80s!
Footloose – A Cheesy Yet Iconic 80s Film
Footloose is one of the iconic movies of the 80s, yes it is cheesy as hell, but that is a huge part of its charm. The iconic scene of Kevin Bacon dancing by himself in the old building is awesome. Speaking of awesome. Footloose by Kenny Loggins is up there as one of the most iconic movie theme songs of all time. Also, some people forget that Let’s Hear It For the Boy by Denise Williams was also written for this movie.
I just love this movie, it is so much fun, the perfect movie to fire up if you want to relax after a hard day. I also love how Footloose has been parodied to death! My all time favorite parodies have to be Pops singing Footloose in Regular Show and the whole thing where Peter Quill tells his friends the story of Footloose and makes Kevin Bacon out to be a huge hero. The little back and forth between Star Lord and Spider-Man in Avengers: Infinity War never fails to crack me up. If you want some 80s coming-of-age acting, you can never go wrong with Footloose!
