Jump back! I don't care if you try to deny it until you're blue in
the face, anyone between ages of 25 to 35 has undoubtedly seen
Footloose about 100 times. Every child of the 80's knows this movie
backwards and forwards: the songs, the steps, the bad fashions and
every goofy line of dialogue. The soundtrack album sold a gazillion
copies, guys wanted their hair to be as cool as Kevin Bacon's, and
next to Grease and Flashdance, it remains probably the last half-
decent musical to come out of Hollywood eversince. Critics weren't
kind, but who cares what they think? Let's hear it for the boy!
The plot of this movie is patently absurd. Apparently the only town
in the United States to have never heard of the Constitution, the
sleepy community of Beaumont has outlawed the evils of rock music and
modern dancing. Into this communist idyll comes spikey-haired Ren
MacCormack (Bacon), who likes to blare Quiet Riot from his VW beetle
and read satanic books like Catch-22. Soon, he rallies the other kids
in the town to his cause, including Ariel (Lori Singer), the slutty
daughter of the oppressive Rev. Moore (John Lithgow), and the battle
lines are drawn. Will Ren and his posse liberate Beaumont from the
tyrannical repression of the Reverend's crusade, or will Quiet Riot be
banned forever!? More a series of music videos strung together
than a real musical, Footloose was one of the only films post-Grease
to understand that modern teen audiences wanted their MTV on the big
screen, too, with something flashier and more hip than West Side
Story. Sure, Footloose panders shamelessly and the plot is silly to
anyone over the age of 16, but it isn't a great fairy tale? I defy
anyone to keep from cheering on Bacon and his gravity-defying hair in
the fight against patriarchal oppression and bad musical taste. The
film is also actually rather well directed by the late Herbert Ross,
the musical numbers spirited, and I still get misty-eyed by the sounds
of Kenny Loggins, Bonnie Tyler and Denise Williams. Footloose is pure
Fun with a capital F, so who cares that it's so stupid?
Video: How Does The Disc Look?
Presented in 1.85:1
anamorphic widescreen, this transfer is really disappointing. After
the very nice work Paramount delivered with Saturday Night Fever, also
making its long-awaited DVD debut with Footloose, I had high hopes for
this one. Unfortunately, the print is in poor shape, and it looks as
if Paramount invested little to clean up the source materials.
The film has a very dated, worn look, with plenty of dirt,
blemishes and other anomalies that constantly distract. Also poor are
the colors, which frequently appear washed save for the most vibrant
of hues in a few scenes. Blacks and contrast are adequate, and detail
mediocre; fine detail is all but lost in the darkest of scenes. I also
noticed a fair amount of edge enhancement and halos around highly
contrasted objects, and compression artifacts are surprisingly
frequent, such as on solid patches of color or excessively dirty
shots. Let's hear it for the boy, but let's not hear it for this
transfer.
Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?
Featuring a new 5.1 Dolby surround remix, to be honest I'm not a
fan of these 80's processed surround tracks. Since this film is all
about the music, let's start there. Some of the great early-MTV tunes
come across fairly well, with solid dynamic range and an overall clean
and distortion free sound. However, aside from the some fine stereo
separation across the front channels, the songs have been
"bled" to the rears, giving the soundtrack that weird echo-
ey vibe that sounds like those tacky surround modes on cheap A/V home
theater processors.
There is little true ambiance and no
noticeable discrete effects in the non-song scenes. Dialogue is nicely
reproduced and always discernible, but I found myself switching to the
alternate 2.0 Dolby surround track that is also included because it
had a more natural, less gimmicky sound. A nice plus to the 5.1 mix,
however, is the LFE channel, which does add some kick to the songs.
Although the remix is not a bad track in terms of fidelity, purists
will likely want to skip it and go retro on this one.
Also
included is a French 2.0 stereo dub, English and Spanish subtitles,
and English Closed Captions.
Supplements: What Goodies Are
There?
How's this for rubbing salt into the wound? No extras
are included at all, not even a trailer. Footloose may not be a
masterpiece, but it was a big hit and highly influential for
its time, so how about a real special edition sometime, eh, Paramount?
DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you pop the disc
in your PC?
No ROM extras have been included.
Parting Thoughts
I really was hoping for at least a
nice transfer with this one, but no luck. Footloose is a fun flick
that should have gotten better treatment, at least a real remaster and
some genuine supplements. For $24.95, it's not really worth the money,
so unless you just have to have the film, give it a spin as a rental
and cross your fingers for a future special edition.
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