It’s easy to get all misty-eyed about the past. After all, we don’t call them the “good ol’ days” for nothing.
But memory is a funny thing. And sometimes we don’t remember things quite as clearly as we might think. Nor, for that matter, were the so-called good ol’ days always as “good” as we might be tempted to remember.
That can be especially true when it comes to our memories of pop culture. Take the curious case of Footloose, for instance.
A remake of the 1984 Kevin Bacon film opens in theaters today. And in the process of reviewing it, I thought it would be helpful to revisit the original as a frame of reference.
I did so with an unconscious assumption in play: that the remake would push the boundaries much more than the original did. After all, it’s been 27 years since the first Footloose came out. And we all know how much society’s mores and morals have slipped since then, right?
Maybe. Then again, maybe not.
Watching the PG-13 remake first, I was dismayed at how the new film pictured some high schoolers drinking, some having sex, some smoking marijuana and almost all of them swearing. Then there was the dancing, which definitely seemed more sexed up than I remembered in the original.
Turns out that last area was one of the few places that my assumption was correct.
The new version’s dance scenes are steamier than those in the 1984 version. But that’s about the only content category where things in the new version really “outdo” the original, so to speak. Sexual references, drug use, smoking, risky behavior, bad language—it’s all there in the first one (as well as a shower scene in the men’s locker room with some bare male backsides).
All in all, this “classic” film from my youth was a lot racier than I remembered.
Interestingly, the director of the remake, Craig Brewer, had exactly the same reaction. In an interview with Fox News, he talked about his conversation with the studio when it came to staying faithful to the original.
So I was like, 'you are cool with me having kids smoking pot, drinking, having underage sex and having boyfriends beating up girlfriends?' If that first Footloose came out now, it would be rated R. When I first submitted my movie it came back R. I had to change lines. [The original] was harder than people remember. It was actually shocking for me to watch.
Me too. While the new one might have dialed the sensual dancing up a notch or two, the original is probably grittier overall.
I think there are a couple intertwined lessons here. First, the past isn’t always as rosy as we remember. And when it comes to the “classic” entertainment of yesteryear, the movies and music some of us might recall fondly from our youth, we still need to have our discernment radar fully engaged. Just because it’s old doesn’t automatically mean it’s better.
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