I thought this movie was set in the 50s?
I was shocked it was set in contemporary times (i.e. the 80s).
shareI asked the same and no one ever answered me
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MovieChat Forums > Footloose (1984) Discussion > I thought this movie was set in the 50s?
If you know/remember anything about the 80s it's pretty obvious it was set in early 80s. Hair style, cars, clothing, music etc... ugh, starting to feel really old. Confused what would make you think it was the '50s??
shareMaybe because the community was so isolated from the majority of people. I got the impression the whole area was from a different era (albeit by a few decades).
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You're thinking of Rebel Without a Cause, which Footloose pretty much is.
shareAs a past-pop-culture enthusiast (music/movies/everything), it's my understanding that the '80's was a very, very diverse decade, and a definite side of that was having holdovers from earlier decades (the '50's culture carried strongly into the '60's (which wasn't nearly as one-sided a decade as people make it out to be, either), and the '70's were relatively culturally stagnated from 1970 to 1979, for the most part. So by 1984, you had the sock-hoppin', car cruisin', drive-in-frequenting, rock & roll listening (think The Stray Cats and The Honeydrippers, for example) culture; the long ironed hair, bell bottom wearing, "groovy" culture (think Kool & the Gang or "Funkytown" by Lipps, Inc., for example); and the most recent addition, the thrift-store fashion wearing culture (think New Wave music, for example). I strongly feel that for the most part FOOTLOOSE happens to reflect the firstly-mentioned subculture, so I can completely see why you thought this movie was set in the '50's -- it might as well have been, but these things were so much still a part of things, still deeply ingrained into US culture in the '80's. For example, the way the girls in this movie style their hair, including hair ribbons, wear bobby socks, and checkered dresses, and the youngsters hang out at the local drive-in restaurant, complete with neon lighting. I think all of this nowadays gives FOOTLOOSE a certain nostalgic charm. (I also think it can be harder for a lot of people who didn't experience the '80's or earlier, but rather just the '90's and after, to relate to the movie or understand part of why youngsters let loose (pun intended) from the strictness/values of a lot of the culture through dance and popular music back then, thus seeing this movie as cheesy instead of meaningful, while I feel that it's meaningful as well as fun.)
There's a lot of 1950s fashion that came back in style in the 1980s. Certain colors/color schemes made a comeback. A lot of mens fashion in the 1980s drew on the 1950s. The cultural references and the music in this movie are pure 1980s.
"Forget reality, give me a picture"-Remington Steele
The 50s were popular in the 70s, like with shows like Happy Days and movies such as Grease. This carried over into the 80s, and the 60s were quite popular in the 80s. Like with Dirty Dancing and Hairspray, and The Monkees making a comeback. I was a kid and liked some of it, but also hated some of it because it seemed old. I didn't care about that when I was a teenager. I started liking pop culture from different eras. I think it just depends on what you like.
Some people have a prejudice against anything "dated"...does that mean movies and songs they like now will be hated by them once they are out of fashion? Maybe, and that is just wrong. Tastes can change, but to think something isn't good anymore just because it's old is silly.
Anything I could have said I felt somehow that you already knew
uh....how do you figure the 50's? all the girls were in jeans etc and there was nothing but 80's music lol
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One of the things that confused me is the reverends comment on Rock and Roll in the church. That is something you'd expect in the 1950s and 1960s. Not the 1980s. Especially considering the Disco era had just passed.
I feel that the town was meant to appear as if stuck in the past.
That's what put me off it when I saw it as a teenager. They just made the whole town controlled by one religious fanatic so the teenagers could dramatically win the "right" to dance around. Chock one up for mankind - right alongside ladies being able to vote.
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