FootLoose

Rating: Null/10 (9 May 2007)

Foot Loose is a film directed by Herbert Ross. It is a film in which we can see the difference of cultures and customs from one that comes from the city, to living in a small town. As mentioned in class, one can use the herocycle represented by Joseph Campbell to explain different steps in a film. To start off, this film represents the idea of not dancing. People are not allowed to dance in the town that young man moved into. He found this to be outrageous and this motivated him to do something about it. At times, of course, he thought about it twice because it could bring him problems. In the beginning of the film, one can see the separation from culture, which falls in the "crossing the threshold into the unknown" of the herocycle. One can see the dedication to religion, what seemed right, and what to do to be holy in this town. Throughout the film one can see trials that he faced that determined if he was accepted in this culture or not. For example, one trial that seen is when he races against another guy with trucks. This determined there braveness and manhood, it was determined by who "chickened out" and jumped out the truck as they came close to each other in crashing. Another part of the herocycle that I noticed was when he meets "goddess". This is interpreted as when he meets a love interest. He starts falling in love with the daughter of the minister of the town. This restricted him even more of his customs and his own culture. In one scene he starts recalling all the episodes he had to face when it dealt with dancing or music. He started getting upset at the customs in the town. Finally one can see the "Intia" in the herocycle; this is where he goes from ordinary to a hero, the turning point. He decides to make a difference and let everyone see that there is nothing evil about music or dancing. In one scene, everyone gathers for a meeting in reference to a dance show and here he perceives the role of a hero. Him being the "new" kid in town stands up for the class and defends the idea of dancing and the acceptance of a dance show.