MovieChat Forums > Footloose (1984) Discussion > Footloose defintely hasn't aged well

Footloose defintely hasn't aged well

posted 4 years ago by TMC-4 (19412)
9 replies | jump to latest

Ariel is beaten (and possibly raped?) by her jealous boyfriend. And the movie kind of glossed it over as most of the community is overly concerned about dancing being brought back into town. And there's if I'm not mistaken, a scene just after that particular beating where Ariel shows up out at a high school sports stadium to talk to Ren, and she's all bruised up with some bandages on her face.

Ren's main concern is about the possibility of being expelled for organizing a dance for the senior class instead of what just happened to Ariel. This is Ariel's main concern too, as well as warning Ren that her jealous ex is coming to beat him up as well. Then, the jealous ex shows up and threatens violence, and Ariel puts herself between them allowing Ren to escape while she gets beat again.

And for the sake of the argument, there's only one token POC couple that show up at the senior dance at the end of the movie.

[–] janoss (206) 4 years ago

Yeah. That's pretty much small town '80s. There were, and are, still plenty of towns that are like that around the country. Get 50 miles out of a big city and that's what you see. It really depends on where you live.
It's better now. Not perfect yet, but it's getting there.

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

Tell me where it is perfect?

Abuse still happens all the time all across the world and the same attitudes still prevail. Let's stop kidding ourselves about that. For as much as some people like to think that these are backwoods attitudes and trends the fact is that it's everywhere and people like to tell themselves the lie that it only happens far from them because they feel it releases them from any obligation to look into their own lives and their own communities.

This kind of bullshit gets very old, very fast.

[–] janoss (206) 4 years ago

It's a trouble. It depends where you live. I'm sorry that you think poor of small town life.
We take care of our own. If there is a trouble, we take care of ourselves. Issues such as rape and abuse are dealt with. Often with a strong hand. They don't re-occur. If the do, the hand is stronger.
It's just a small town thing. It used to be much worse. Now it isn't tolerated.
I was just saying that "That's the 80's." It's not that now. People get better. It's a process.

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

If anything your post seems like it's against small town life. I was actually defending it.

I guess people take from it what they will.

[–] Gd5150 (11015) 4 years ago

Because domestic violence doesn’t happen in the city.

[–] GordonGartrelle (1267) 4 years ago

Compared to A Lot, and I mean A LOT of movies that take place in the 80s, this one aged fine.

I think what may be confusing you about the story is that the actors were pushing mid 20's and showed every sign of it, so you may have expected more maturity.

The characters were high school students at most 18, so being a little confused and self centered made sense.

[–] Gd5150 (11015) 4 years ago

What’s funny is in Footloose it’s the right wing bible thumpers burning books.

Today it’s the Democrat party and their lemmings burning books.

It’s an outstanding illustration of how the Democrat party has gone completely off the rails.

[–] Oblivioid (1239) 4 years ago

This movie has aged just fine. It's not a movie about domestic violence and race. You seem to completely miss the point. While the premise is silly, the dramatic plot point is one of self reflection, which results in improved and evolved life outlooks for the main characters, especially for the good reverend John Lithgow.

[–] Artisan (3464) 4 years ago

I think the film stands up very well, in fact it stands up so well that the remake is very close to scene by scene. Life can be tough and it is a movie. What did you want exactly, watching Ariel get therapy and go through a Police investigation and court case over the abuse?