Footloose is a 1984 American musical[4] drama film directed by Herbert Ross and written by Dean Pitchford.

It tells the story of Ren McCormack (Kevin Bacon), a teenager from Chicago who moves to a small town, where he attempts to overturn a ban on dancing enforced by the efforts of a local minister (John Lithgow).

While attending church, he meets Reverend Shaw Moore, his wife Vi and their daughter Ariel, who rebels against her father's strict religious nature and behaves recklessly.

Ren soon falls for Ariel, angering her boyfriend, Chuck Cranston, who challenges him to a game of chicken involving tractors.

On the drive home, Ariel describes how, five years earlier, her older brother died in a car accident after a night of alcohol and dancing.

Ren decides to challenge the anti-dancing and rock music ordinance so the high school can hold a senior prom.

The following Sunday, Reverend Moore asks his congregation to pray for the high school students putting on the prom, being held in a grain mill just yards over the county line and beyond Bomont's jurisdiction.

Dean Pitchford came up with the idea for Footloose in 1979 and teamed up with Daniel Melnick's IndieProd who set the production up at 20th Century Fox in 1981.

The producers were impressed with Cruise because of the famous underwear dance sequence in Risky Business, but he was unavailable for the part because he was filming All the Right Moves.

Lowe auditioned three times and had the dancing ability and the "neutral teen" look that the director wanted, but injury prevented him from taking the part.

[11] Bacon had been offered the main role for the Stephen King film Christine at the same time that he was asked to do the screen test for Footloose.

The film also stars Lori Singer as Reverend Moore's independent daughter Ariel, a role for which Madonna and Haviland Morris[12] also auditioned.

The re-release included four new songs: "Bang Your Head (Metal Health)" by Quiet Riot, "Hurts So Good" by John Mellencamp, "Waiting for a Girl Like You" by Foreigner, and the extended 12" remix of "Dancing in the Sheets".

The album includes "Footloose" and "I'm Free (Heaven Helps the Man)", both by Kenny Loggins, "Holding Out for a Hero" by Bonnie Tyler (co-written and produced by Jim Steinman), "Girl Gets Around" by Sammy Hagar, "Never" by Australian rock band Moving Pictures, "Let's Hear It for the Boy" by Deniece Williams, "Somebody's Eyes" by Karla Bonoff, "Dancing In The Sheets" by Shalamar, and the romantic theme "Almost Paradise" by Mike Reno from Loverboy and Ann Wilson of Heart (co-written by Eric Carmen).

[22] "Footloose" and "Let's Hear It for the Boy" both topped the Billboard Hot 100 and received 1985 Academy Award nominations for Best Music (Original Song).

[citation needed] "Footloose" also received a 1985 Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Original Song – Motion Picture.

The filmmakers felt that songs produced a stronger emotional response from people already familiar with them, which heightened the experience of watching the movie.

[citation needed] Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert called it "a seriously confused movie that tries to do three things, and does all of them badly.

"[30] Dave Denby in New York rechristened the film "Schlockdance", writing: "Footloose may be a hit, but it's trash – high powered fodder for the teen market...

"[31] Jane Lamacraft reassessed the film for Sight and Sound's "Forgotten pleasures of the multiplex" feature in 2010, writing "Nearly three decades on, Bacon's vest-clad set-piece dance in a flour mill looks cheesily 1980s, but the rest of Ross's drama wears its age well, real song-and-dance joy for the pre-Glee generation.