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Boogie Nights (1997)
Starring Mark Wahlberg, Burt Reynolds, Julianne Moore, and Heather Graham. Cinematography by Robert Elswit. Edited by Dylan Tichenor. Produced by Paul Thomas Anderson, Lloyd Levin, John S. Lyons, and Joanne Sellar. Written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.
In the late seventies pornographic films weren’t the nonstop loop of back to back sexual acts like the videos of today. At that time there was more of an artistic approach to porn; sex with a story so to speak. Eddie Adams, soon to be known as Dirk Diggler, is a waiter at a local night club and is rumored to have a penis unmatched in size. Word spreads as quickly as legs and he soon finds himself in the middle of the adult film scene.
He is hailed as the industry’s best new commodity and he is showered with sex, parties, drugs, and money. But things change with the passing decade. Video cassettes are the wave of the future and porn production costs are cut dramatically. The demand for a star is no longer there and Dirk and his associates are just excess baggage.
The story is loosely based on the life of porn star John Holmes, which was also depicted in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Dirk Diggler Story”; a short film he shot in 1988. Anderson has admitted to always having a fascination with pornography. His family was one of the first that he knew of to have a VCR in their home and he had had hardcore sex films at his disposal from the age of ten.
This callused approach to sexuality is apparent in Boogie Nights. The sex isn’t the focus of the film, the characters are. The film’s nudity is wisely trimmed down to a minimum but similar to the perceived violence in David Fincher’s Se7en, the effect leaves the audience thinking that they have seen more than they have.
Boogie Nights is A Star is Born set in the sex industry. Instead of the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, we have the sex and drugs of the San Fernando Valley. This breakout project has been compared to Robert Altman’s Nashville on numerous occasions. Both films are similar in theory and execution and both films have earned each respective filmmaker much critical acclaim.
Anderson has also demonstrated skill with ensemble films, a forte of Altman’s. Boogie Nights is a beautiful mixture of comedy and drama with characters that range from naïve and blissfully ignorant to introspective and deeply troubled. The film was considered by many to be one of the best of 1997 and by some to be one of the best of the decade.
Budget: $15,000,000
Total US Gross: $26,410,771
Genre: Drama
Runtime: 152 Minutes
US Release Date: 10/10/97
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Awards: Academy Awards: Nominated for best supporting actor, best supporting actress, and best original screenplay. Golden Globes: Won for best supporting actor. Nominated for best supporting actress. Writers Guild of America: Nominated for Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.
Tagline: Everyone Has One Special Thing.
Quote: “I got a feeling that behind those jeans is something wonderful just waiting to get out.”
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