From “Footloose” To “Tremors”: Kevin Bacon’s Best Movies

Incredibly, Kevin Bacon has maintained his heartthrob stature well into his 60s having first appeared on the screen in his early twenties in films such as National Lampoon’s Animal House, Friday the 13th, and Diner before his star-making turn in Footloose in 1984.

The versatile actor’s body of work (which includes plenty of critically acclaimed TV shows) boasts a number of distinguished performances, ranging from sobering drama to knockabout comedy, from psychotic killers and sadistic malcontents to benevolent souls yearning for the common good and outright heroes that appear larger than life.

Indeed, Kevin Bacon’s best movies see him as adept at chewing the scenery when a film requires it as bringing an understated emotional quality to a scene. Whether it’s a romantic lead or a formidable villain, a cop with a good heart or a cop with insidious intent, a friend or a foe, Bacon brings a credibility to every role that is never less than compelling.

What are Kevin Bacon’s best movies?

When we seek to unearth Kevin Bacon’s best movies we’re obviously drawn to the highly decorated movies such as the Oscar-winning Apollo 13 (for which he won a Screen Actors Guild award) or the powerful dramas, The Woodsman and Mystic River (which both earned him rave reviews from critics). Of the latter, The Spectator’s Mark Steyn wrote: “The true Eastwoodian performance in this film is that of Kevin Bacon, who makes no attempt to descend to the histrionics of [Sean] Penn and [Tim] Robbins and blows ’em away with his minimalist cool.”

But with such a range of films during his career, it’s hard to dismiss guilty pleasures (like the critically maligned yet crowd-pleasing Footloose), exploitation (such as cult favourite Friday the 13th), or entertaining science-fiction (Hollow Man, Flatliners). He was also terrific as part of a wider ensemble in films such as For A Few Good Men and JFK.

But there’s only room for 10, so let’s see which ones I decided to include…

10. Footloose

Dir. Herbert Ross (1984)

An iconic 1980s film that helped make Kevin Bacon a superstar, Footloose might be a muddled affair (about teens rising up against conservatism in a small Oklahoman town that has banned dancing) but was a mega hit at the box office and features some of the decade’s most memorable cinematic moments such as Bacon’s character teaching Chris Penn’s Willard how to dance to “Let’s Hear It for the Boy” by Deniece Williams.

9. The River Wild

Dir. Curtis Hanson (1994)

Curtis Hanson directs this action-adventure featuring Meryl Streep as an experienced river guide who is joined by her son and husband for a trip down the Salmon River in Idaho. It isn’t long before Kevin Bacon’s sadistic criminal Wade and his friend Terry (John C. Reilly) have joined them. Needing to escape the authorities with a bag of loot, the pair kidnap the family in order to get down the river safely.

8. Murder In The First

Dir. Marco Rocco (1995)

A heartbreaking story of petty criminal Henri Young (Kevin Bacon) who, having been driven insane by the inhumane treatment and conditions of Alcatraz prison, becomes the unwitting pawn in a politicised legal battle between an ambitious public defender (Christian Slater) and the state. Bacon is magnificent as Young is this dramatisation of a real life case.

7. Stir Of Echoes

Dir. David Koepp (1999)

Stir of Echoes is an absorbing ghost story featuring Kevin Bacon as father and husband Tom Witzky who begins having strange and disconcerting visions after a hypnotherapy session. As hallucinations begin to get more sinister, his family life breaks down as Witzky becomes increasingly aware that a murder may have taken place and the soul of the deceased is trying to reach out to him.

6. Mystic River

Dir. Clint Eastwood (2003)

Bacon is the glue that binds a stellar trio of actors (including Sean Penn and Tim Robbins) who each become corners of a triangle surrounding the tragic death of a young girl. Penn, the grieving father and ex-con seeking revenge, Robbins, the ambiguous suspect with a tragic past, and Bacon, the detective piecing together the evidence. It’s a slow-burning drama that is lifted by the performances.

5. Diner

Dir. Barry Levinson (1982)

Bacon is Timothy Fenwick, Jr., one of a group of long-term school friends who meet at the eponymous diner in late 1950s Baltimore ahead of one of the group’s wedding. They’re each ascending into adulthood with varying degrees of relationship, financial and social success in a story that writer-director Barry Levinson bases on his own experiences of growing up in the area during the period.

4. The Woodsman

Dir. Nicole Kassell (2004)

A sobering film about an unforgivable crime and its perpetrator – Kevin Bacon’s Walter – trying to rediscover a life post-incarceration. Based on Steven Fechter’s play, Bacon is brilliantly poised as a tragic figure whose past rightly haunts him and yet sympathy is not readily gained. Chilling and complex, this drama peels back the layers to discover the monster beneath the mask.

3. Apollo 13

Dir. Ron Howard (1995)

One of Kevin Bacon’s biggest box office successes, the multi-award-winning Apollo 13 (which was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture) sees him join Tom Hanks and Bill Paxton for the ill-fated NASA space mission. Bacon plays backup Command Module Pilot Jack Swigert, forming part of a stellar ensemble that also includes Gary Sinise, Ed Harris and Kathleen Quinlan.

2. Sleepers

Dir. Barry Levinson (1997)

Kevin Bacon chills the blood in Sleepers as a corrupt prison guard at a juvenile detention centre in 1960s New York. Relentlessly abusing young boys, including systematically raping a group of friends who later, as adults, exact their revenge, this malevolent force of human evil is truly one of the most memorable – and shocking – performances of the actor’s career.

1. Tremors

Dir. Ron Underwood (1990)

When it comes to Kevin Bacon’s best movies, Tremors comes out on top thanks to the delicious pairing of the actor with Fred Ward. These blue collar buddies become the unlikely heroes in this fun comic monster movie about the terrorised inhabitants of middle-of-nowhere town Perfection, Nevada. The charismatic duo lead the town’s survivors as the stranded group try to fend off hungry worm-like creatures that stalk them from under the ground.

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