- Joined
- Jul 3, 1997
- Messages
- 66,715
- Real Name
- Ronald Epstein
Footloose
Studio: Paramount
Year: 1984
Rated: PG
Film Length: 107 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 16X9 Enhanced Widescreen (1.85:1)
Subtitles: English, Spanish
The music is on his side
This year's final quarter brings a handful of most
requested musical titles from Paramount's 70s and
80s catalog. Unfortunately, there seems to be a
bit of unevenness as far as the quality of these
releases. More on that in a moment.
As much as Saturday Night Fever became
a music stapele of the 70s era, Footloose
has become a classic for the 80s, with its music
loaded story of cultural differences, change and
acceptance.
Ren (Kevin Bacon) hasn't had an easy life. His
father has walked out on him and on his mother,
Ethel (Francis Lee McCain). With no means of support,
Ren and Ethel are forced to leave Chicago and seek
refuge with relatives in Bomont, a small town
somewhere in the Midwest. Things go from bad to
worse as he is immediately labeled as an "outsider."
Furthermore, the town is greatly influenced by a
powerful minister, Reverend Moore (John Lithgow),
who believes music and dancing is the ultimate sin.
You see, following an automobile accident five
years ago, in which several of the town's drunken
teens were killed, the council passed a law
forbidding dancing.
Still, Ren is a likeable person and he manages
to make a few friends including Willard (Chris
Penn), and most notably Ariel (Lori Singer), the
reverend's daughter. Ariel is beautiful but very
tough. Despite the jealousy her boyfriend, she
and Ren become an item, and together they fight
the town council and make a campaign to overturn
the rules against music and dancing.
How is the transfer?
Watching Footloose wasn't exactly the
experience I had hoped for. First of all, the
copy I received from Paramount was mostly defective.
Large blocks of artifacts showed up throughout the
film, and the picture froze up on me several times.
I am going to guess that these problems are limited
to the disc I received.
The other problem is that this transfer is pretty
lackluster. After looking at how perfect Saturday
Night Fever looked, and how decent Grease
came across on DVD, you can immediately see that no
great effort was put into the transfer of Footloose.
The biggest problem here is how aged the film
looks. As the film opens, we see Reverend Moore
giving a sermon. You can immediately see how dull
this transfer looks. Not only is there a lack of
picture detail, but the white church walls are filled
with noise. Look at the faces of the townsfolk who
sit in the pews -- you can see how dull the picture
has become. Facial tones take on that ugly red color
that make the entire film look dated. You'll see how
bad things look in another scene where Ren and
Willard are talking in the school's cafeteria. The
entire scene is dull, dark, and a little too red.
When you look at some of the darker scenes, such as
the one at the Hi-Spot hangout, you notice how much
picture detail is lost in all the surrounding
blackness. In addition to all of this, there's a
noticeable amount of film blemish littered all
over the print.
The 5.1 surround mix is about as uneven as the
transfer. Some of the film's energetic songs sound
better than others. At it's best, songs like
Holding out for a hero and Let's hear
it for the boys come across with nice bass-heavy
response and fairly good LFE channel support. Some
of the other songs sound nearly as good, but lacking
punch. The 5.1 mix does manage to effectively put
the song dialogue squarely in the center channel
with the front channels driving the music. Depending
on the song, the rears either effectively help
support the song or just add reverb echo. Otherwise,
during the film's action scenes, the rears fall
mostly silent.
You know, some may say that I am being too critical
of what I see and hear with some of these catalog
releases. While I certainly understand studio
economics, my fear is the approaching HD-DVD format.
If studios don't start doing a better job cleaning
up these films now, they are going to spending the
money to do it down the road. I could imagine how
bad a popular film like this one would look under
the magnifying glass of a High-Def format.
Special Features
When the studio lists Special Features as
subtitles, 5.1 surround and Widescreen -- you
know you are in trouble. The truth of the matter
is that there are no Special Features on this DVD.
What bothers me the most is Paramount's recent
lack of interest in putting trailers on their DVD
product. At the very least, every DVD should come
with the film's original trailer. Why? Because it
is an essential part of that film's history.
Final Thoughts
I suppose with some major catalog releases coming
out of Paramount's vault, the studio had to make
some important decisions as to which ones were to
receive the highest priority of restoration. Though
I absolutely agree that Saturday Night Fever
deserved the most attention, and was somewhat
disappointed by the transfer of Grease, I
can't help but feel more let down by the overall
transfer quality of Footloose.
Still, perhaps we should thank our lucky stars
that this film is finally available on DVD and hope
that in years to come, the film will finally be
done right on the next video format.
Release Date: October 8, 2002
