There are plenty of communities, especially in middle America and the south, where the minister has more pull than the mayor. It’s a realistic premise, IME – no music and no dancing because Preacher Man says so – whether or not you like the way the story plays out.
I also don’t like Ferris Bueller, movie or character. What was he rebelling against? What or who was keeping him down? He did whatever he wanted; why should I cheer for a sociopath?
Wasn’t Kevin Bacon’s first movie role as a camp counselor (at some kid’s camp where everybody gets killed by some homicidal maniac)?
“Footloose” was a step up.
It’s internesting how different things affect people’s suspension of disbelief. I have zero experience of US high schools (beyond TV and movies) and so wouldn’t / didn’t blink at this, but it’s obviously something that seems so out-there to you that it disrupts the (vey lightweight) story flow. (No criticism, just an obseration that I find interesting – I have much the same reaction to virtually any movie depiction of computers and the Hollywood Operating System). 
Just thinking, one of the plot points of the more recent Bring It On (2000) was that Eliza Dushku’s gymnast character has just transfered into a (smaller?) school that didn’t support a gymnastics team and ended up as a cheerleader, and not very impressed with the situation.
True, true… it was just that your OP objections and the other comment about dancing got fused together in my silly musings.
Which reminds me… old joke (relevant to Footloose)… Q: Why don’t Baptists have sex standing up? A: Because it might lead to dancing. 
I seem to remember a video with music from the movie, where the dancer was proceeding down a corridor as he danced. I cannot find it on youTube. Anyone got a link?
Regards,
Shodan
Are you thinking of the aforementioned Angry Dance? He dances angrily while running through a warehouse. Parts of it look like a corridor or sorts.
No, I don’t think that’s it. IIRC it was not in the movie, and the dancer was dressed in white. And the music itself was “Footloose”.
Regards,
Shodan
[Fry] You know, that dance wasn’t as safe as they said. [/Fry]
A remake with EXPLOSIONS!!!
(No, really! 2:23.)
Michael Bay directed the remake?
Yet you can accept Ferris standing on a float singing twist and shout in the middle of a chicago parade?
I can buy that it might have been like this all over in the 50’s, or here and there in the 80’s. But when has the magic of youth rebellion actually changed the calcified minds of old people on a timescale of less than decades? In reality, the grownups relax their standards because something worse has come along for them to fail to oppress, eventually.
Or teens driving a car that only a very few examples exist in the whole world. Or the entire city getting on the “Save Ferris” bandwagon. Or a senior dating a junior.
.
Yes, just like I can accept that James Bond can foil international plots and shag women single handedly. Part of Ferris’ character is being able to pull off shit like that. It makes sense in the context of the movie. On the other hand stuff like angry dance, not getting in trouble for the joint, and the gymnastics team doesn’t make sense in the context of the movie. It’s just weird, and makes me go WTF.
Besides, Ferris Bueller’s day off is a comedy and its not really concerned with making a whole lot of sense.
Best part of the movie.
Oh you wanna go up? Huh uh
whip crack
You wanna go down? Lets go down man!
:eek:
IIRC, it wasn’t just that dancing leads to sin; the kids killed in an accident, including his son, were coming back from a night of…you guessed it…dancing.