PTA’s first masterpiece….
With Oscar glory seining inevitable for Paul Thomas Anderson (from hereon known as PTA) latest film, ‘One Battle After Another’ now is a good time for one of his early masterpieces ‘Boogie Nights’ to be released on 4K UHD.
What’s Boogie Nights about?
Having dropped out of film school he had already made an impressive debut with 1996’s ‘Hard Eight’ but the release the following year of ‘Boogie Nights’ really made clear that here was an original, ambitious and hugely talented director with a self penned script abut an idealistic porn producer Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds) that aspires to elevate his ‘art’ when he discovers a hot young male star Eddie Adams (Mark Wahlberg) given the moniker of Dirk Diggler.
The casting…..
It was an audacious film daring to take a look at the underside of Hollywood and its adult industry based in The Valley starting in 1979 with the advent of video. PTA had assembled a great cast led by Wahlberg with a handful of largely average films this was a chance to prove himself beyond his Marky Mark rap persona. He was lucky to have got the role as it was DiCaprio’s first but he was unable to do it because he was making some film about a giant ship that sinks. Joining Wahlberg would be a superb cast of actors that included Julianne Moore, Luiz Guzman, John C Reilly, Don Cheadle , Heather Graham and William H Macy. All were excellent and many would become part of his regular stable of collaborators.
The Burt Reynolds controversy….
But its Burt Reynolds appearance that really stands out. At this point in his career he was regularly appearing in what can best be described as ‘utter shite’ – a litany of forgettable films in the late 80’s and early 90’s had eradicated the fact that when given the right material he was a good actor – his role in Deliverance (1972) had clearly demonstrated that he could act. And after seeing the film the Academy Awards agreed handing him his first (and only) Oscar nomination. Unfortunately he blew his chances when, having seen the film, he expressed his regret about accepting the role (Did you not read the script Burt?), refused to engage in promotional interviews, fired his agent and did everything possible to distance himself from the film as though he was embarrassed by it. This was an actor who prior to making the film had appeared in ‘Cop and a half’, two Cannonball Run films and three Smokey and the Bandit films! And yet despite the Oscar snub he did win a Golden Globe for the role and made a speech pretty much denigrating Hollywood for forgetting about him and expressing concern that the blue rinse brigade who now made up his fan base would run out of the cinema after seeing the film. But Boogie Nights would however be rightly nominated for three Academy Awards – Best Supporting Actor (Burt Reynolds), Best Supporting Actress (Julianne Moore), and Best Screenplay – written directly for the screen (Paul Thomas Anderson). Julianne Moore also received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
Those memorable moments….
For what was only his second feature film it’s a bravura piece of film making – a scene where a character kills two others before turning the gun on himself still shocks as does the final scene (but for a different reason) where Wahlberg talks to himself in a mirror before unzipping his fly to reveal an enormous, albeit prosthetic, penis – it’s a kind of homage to a similar scene in Scorsese’s Raging Bull as is a one shot that, like Goodfellas, tracks through restaurant kitchen and upstairs into the nightclub. Quite some feat for only PTA’s second film.
Much of the film was inspired by true life events from adult performers lives riddled with tragedy that saw murder, suicide, drug abuse and robbery. In fact PTA used several real life porn stars in the film as well as some of the cheesy dialogue lifted from their films.
Running at 155 minutes Boogie Nights is an epic film taking in a wide range of damaged characters and marked the arrival of a major new talent and this brilliant transfer has a small but excellent array of bonus features that include:
- American Cinematheque Panel Night 1(NEW) – Paul Thomas Anderson and John C. Reilly
- American Cinematheque Panel Night 2(NEW) – Paul Thomas Anderson
- Commentary: Director Paul Thomas Anderson
- Commentary: Don Cheadle, Heather Graham, Luis Guzman, William H. Macy, Julianne Moore, John C. Reilly, Mark Wahlberg, and Melora Walters
- Additional Scenes (29:15)
- Scene 3: Ham and Cheese
- Buck and Amber in the Van
- Brock and Chico
- The 2ndAwards Ceremony
- New Year’s Eve
- Fire with Fire: The Brock and Chest Story
- Maurice and Rollergirl
- Mixing “Feel the Heat”
- Under the Table
- Becky/Jerome/Car Crash
- Michael Penn TryMusic Video (3:16)
- The John C. Reilly Files: Outtakes and Extended Sequences (34:54)
- Swim Trunks
- Waiting for Todd
- Mixing with Nick
Though the deleted scenes add some context to elements of the story, it’s clear they were cut for time as much as anything but it’s the PTA and cast commentary that are worth the price of the disc alone with some fascinating insights. Boogie Nights was the beginning of a succession of excellent films with the epic ‘Magnolia’ that featured Tom Cruise in probably his best ever performance. ‘Punch Drunk Love’ was next (that proved Adam Sandler was a far better actor than comedian) and after that was the masterpiece ‘There will be Blood’. It’s proof enough that PTA is long overdue Oscar recognition and Boogie Nights is an essential buy.
related feature : ‘Pleasure’ – 2022’s most controversial film
related feature : Terry Stone talks ‘Rise of the Footsoldier’ franchise, porn stars and THAT wig!
related feature: Burt Reynolds – OBITUARY
Here’s the Boogie Nights trailer…..
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