Four Degrees of Kevin Bacon

Six Degrees of Separation is a 1993 film, based on a hit Broadway play, inwhich a wealthy, cultured, and liberal-minded couple (Stockard Channing andDonald Sutherland) welcome a personable Black man (the young Will Smith) intotheir posh Manhattan condo. He’s articulate but bedraggled, claiming to be thevictim of a Central Park mugging. After some coy evasions, he admits he’s theson of superstar Sidney Poitier. Of course they urge him to spend the night.

 It all smacks of a con—especiallyafter they find him in bed, in the nude, with a second young man—but Smith’sPaul is not your average grifter. The film, which also stars Ian McKellen and astarry cast under the direction of Fred Schepisi, is fundamentally about thehuman need for connection, and about what human beings will do to create bondswith one another. It’s the source of the idea that (to quote Channing’sdialogue at one point) “everybody on this planet is separated by only six otherpeople. Six degrees of separation between us and everyone else on thisplanet.”  

The stage version of SixDegrees of Separation, from 1990, was nominated for multiple awards.The  film garnered fewer accolades,although Channing (repeating her stage triumph) was in the running for a BestActress Oscar. Part of the problem was that the movie version, despite somecreative directorial choices, still felt like a filmed play.  Also, the complex nuances of these charactersand situations probably didn’t come across to moviegoers.

 The same can NOT be said of a1984 film called Footloose, in which Kevin Bacon plays a teen fromChicago who teaches some small-town Texans about the joys of dancing. Here’s a musicalthat’s simple, straightforward, and just made for toe-tapping, starting withall those pairs of quick-stepping feet we see under the opening credits,grooving to the catchy beat of the title tune. Catching up with Footloose yearsafter its screen debut, my movie companion and I marveled at Bacon’s skill-set:aside from his personal charm and acting chops, he was apparently a terrific dancerand also a gymnast who could effortlessly twirl on the high bar. That’s when Iread that Bacon—whose movie fame was ensured by this role—had no fewer thanfour doubles on the set. These included a stunt double for fight scenes, adance double, and two gymnastics experts. So the parlor game about “Six Degreesof Kevin Bacon” (a cheeky variant on the Six Degrees of Separation memereflecting how the busy Bacon seemed to have worked with nearly everyone inHollywood) could be adapted to indicate how, in this film, Bacon waseverywhere, doing everything (with a little help from his friends).

 Though Footloose iseasy enough to follow (and easy enough to love), it is not totally lacking incomplexity. School dances are banned in this small town because of the effortsof the highly influential local pastor. But, as played by John Lithgow, he isnot merely a zealot or a prude. Instead he’s a man who has turned his sorrowover  a family tragedy into a crusadeagainst the elements he believes led to his son’s death. By contrast, his sexyyoung daughter (Lori Singer) has found her own dubious way of dealing withgrief. Naturally, she and Bacon’s character (not to mention his dancing andgymnastic clones) end up connecting, and you can count on an ending in which prettymuch everyone finds happiness.

 Which is certainly more thanyou can say for the ambiguous fadeout of Six Degrees of Separation.