Entertainment Swindon

If you are a proud member of GenX, then unless you’ve lived in a dark basement in the past 40yrs, you would have not just heard of one of the most iconic movies of the 80s, you’ll be a huge fan too! For me, I’ve lost count of the times I’ve watched this movie, and like you all, I can never sit still during the dance scenes or stop myself from singing out loud to the sound track Footloose by Kenny Loggins. Whats even more special about this movie is how its stood the test of time with even todays generation becoming fans of the movie too.

Last week Kevin Bacon, the star of the iconic teen movie Footloose returned to Payson High School where the movie was filmed to the delight of the fans of the movie and of course Kevin Bacon himself.

Bacon came to Payson after a massive effort by residents to have him come and commemorate the 40th anniversary of the film, plus to do so before Payson High School is demolished this summer.

Bacon was unfortunately unable to attend the prom as originally planned, but last week the school couldn’t believe how their hard work and planning paid off with the movie star attending a special event on the Football Field in front of over 1000 volunteers to help not only celebrate the movies anniversary, but to also support Bacon’s own nonprofit organisation Six Degrees. The volunteers assembled 5000 “Essential Resource Kits” that will be distributed to young people in need of resources throughout Utah.

With the 40th anniversary of the iconic movie that was released in 1984 which famously featured the High School, the students started a campaign that would lead to over a year of hard work and planning finally paid off.

For those who have been living in a bunker fearing Nuclear World War 3 would happen whilst Reagan was in the White House, or you’re just a member of GenZ, this iconic movie which starred Bacon played the lead role of Ren McCormack, who moves from the big city of Chicago, to a small town, where he attempts to overturn the ban on dancing.

In real life, the small town is Payson, Utah, and at the time, many of the town’s residents played extras in the movie, and have fond memories of it. Now, some 40 years on, after a year-long campaign by the school’s students, called #BaconToPayson, Kevin returned Payson.

Over the past year, the school, and the wider community have gone Footloose-crazy. The school has staged their own Footloose musical, had a Footloose film night, renamed the annual pageant after Kevin Bacon, and held a competition to write an essay to get the Hollywood actor to come to the town.

They have also partnered with Kevin’s charity SixDegrees, putting together 5000 care packages. According to the SixDegrees website: ‘SixDegrees is dedicated to creating dialogue, raising awareness, understanding, and empathy around causes that our communities care most about.’

And last, Bacon joined a team of 700 students and 300 members of the community, to help fill the care packages. He told the students: “You talked me into it. It’s great to see that kind of commitment to anything.”

He continued: “I also think that it’s amazing to see the power that this movie has had to bring people together.”

Last month, when Kevin accepted the invitation to visit the town he said: “I have been so impressed with everything that has been going on there with this crazy idea to get me back, so thank you, thank you, and I’m gonna come. I gotta come.”

As well as being a popular movie in 1984, the song ‘Footloose’ by Kenny Loggins was also a huge hit, reaching the Top 10 in the UK when it was released.

In 2011, the movie got a reboot, whilst not as good as the original, it gave a fresh face to the original and was admittedly an enjoyable movie, mostly I think from nostalgia and of course the sound track which I defy anyone to try not toe tapping to the title song. Rotten Tomatoes gave the reboot a 68%, so not a bad review from the notorious website known for telling it how it is about movies reviewed. The reboot even scored higher than the original starring Kevin Bacon which got just 55%, but like humans, even a website can have a bad day, so we can let that blip slid as we all know the original is best.

If you want to see the original, its available on Paramount Plus.