sitabanu

Stevie Wonder (Songs in the Key of Life, 1976) remained the Music Maestro even after the King of Pop coronation (Thriller, 1983).

I was 27 when the one-and-only-Kevin-Bacon danced his way into the hearts of the then-still-corny-by-proxy-pop-music-not-rap-not-as-good-as Michael Jackson's 1983 Moonwalk. Just as Michael Jackson was the Moonwalk, Kevin Bacon was Footloose - two different pleasures enjoyed at different times in our lives because music and dancing became the best of friends and the best of lovers.

Stevie Wonder is The First Love. Same goes for Jennifer Holliday (And I'm Telling You), Minnie Ripperton (1981) and Mr. Robert Nesta Marley (1981).... First Love and First Dance. Michael Jackson is the First Dance. Sade reminded us "Its Never As Good as the First Time" taking me back to Stevie Wonder and the First Love and if one is very lucky another First Dance.

Footloose (1984) is the Last Dance before the party ends.

There is no point to the party of Footloose (2011), there is no sinner, man.

What can I say? As an African-American the experience of the Indian-American is an exercise in parallels in many ways. Still, 1975 America is like Australia for the aborigine and the Maori of New Zealand. So much horror has been done in the name of the Christian God that it begs the question why any non-European wears the cross. This was less a movie than an historical journey into the time when all aboriginal people worldwide were subjected to the death of their cultures to save the savage men, women and children by the most unforgiving and brutal heathens calling themselves called to do the work of god. How can one have an identity when the spirit is broken and the psyche is fractured? This is an abject lesson for humanity founded on the religious principle that debt is the best slavery and the seeking of everlasting forgiveness of those debts keeps strong the invisible chains of bondage. Know thyself must mean more than what the European wants you to know about your ancestry. For the people who thought the acting was not so good well somethings are better left for historic value and not subjected to Hollywood's version as in "Dancing With Wolves," although I loved Two Socks!

Watching this 'movie' was an awe-filled exercise in simulated audience participation. The viewer is quite aware - on one level - that it is a movie within a virtual reality show but on another level does prove - if one watches it to the end - that we are fascinated with pain as long as it is not our own to borrow a phrase from the writer. The truth of one statement certainly lingers..."Debt is better than any treaty," and finds its equally horrible juxtaposition that "Sin is nothing without judgment". I cannot say this was a likable movie and no doubt the lesson is as ironic as the statement "Being innocent didn't make anyone not get beat up." If nothing else the viewer goes on a philosophical journey into man's inhumanity to man's steps at civilization versus being civilized. Still appropriate and should remain so...but at some point won't we really have to get better at it?