Wednesday 26 August 2009

Footloose (1984)

Alison and I are going to see John Lithgow in October. He's at the National Theatre reading P.G. Wodehouse. I told Nicola this news excitedly last week and went on to list many [possibly bogus] facts about Lithgow that include: "He's retired to Keighley!" I have no idea where I read this rumor, maybe I dreamt it, but I've told enough people now for it to be circulating as an actual rumor. A fact that is definite is that Johnny is most excellent at drawing, also he is pals with Jonathan Pryce- who also dabbles. All the actors I seem to like end up being friends with Jonathan Pryce, who is of course still numero uno with me and has been for coming up 10 years now (horror!)
Anyway, Nicola blocking out all blabbing from Amy made the connection in her chick-flick dominated brain that John Lithgow was mentioned and therefore Footloose was the film we should watch that afternoon when it was too hot to work.
When Andy returned from his week away from the house I said, "Hey Andy, have you seen Footloose? Well I HAVE." I then ranted for a good ten minutes about how I'd cooked my dinner and settled down to watch something while eating, glanced over the DVDs in the living room and realised after scanning them for a good minute or two (dinner is now cold) that there is not a single film there that I would EVER watch! Nicola and Laura's DVD collection is dire!! Dirty Dancting?! Flashdance!? Step Up to the Whatever- basically a million films about dancing...
The girls like 'lite' films, and a couple of days ago it was my choice and so looking at the selection of films I've brought with me to my new home I realised I didn't really have anything that would pass as 'lite' (How would you categorize The Elephant Man? -Romantic comedy?) so I chose Still Crazy (1998) and Nicola said when it ended "There was no romantic resolution!" To which I replied angrily; "It was never going to happen! She was always in love with Brian! And the resolution was that Jimmy Nail got to sing the song he co-wrote and Bill Nighy stopped being such a dick!!"
Anyway, back to Footloose. Kevin Bacon moves to a town where dancing is illegal. John Lithgow plays a preacher who hates dancing so Stan and Froggy and Kevin Bacon take him to see Singing in the Rain and they all dance home together.

2 comments:

  1. But really, the girl in this film is horribly thin and mannish. Even Sarah Jessica Parker appeared cute and feminine next to her.
    But back to the point, I found that if I phased out the rest of the film, ie plot, characters, dialogue etc. John Lithgow was incredibly attractive in those awful brown suits.
    I reckon there must be something wrong with my brain.

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  2. I have never seen Footloose and probably never will, so your little synopsis there is now my permanent mental picture of the movie. Works for me!

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