The first half of Boogie Nights (1997) feels like a never-ending party. Paul Thomas Anderson’s second feature film – written and directed when he was just twenty-six – depicts a hedonistic, drug-fuelled ’70s California.
The film opens with a dizzying (and dazzling) nightclub sequence, introducing us to pornographer Jack Horner (played by Burt Reynolds), pornstar Amber Waves (Julianne Moore) and seventeen-year-old kitchen porter Eddie Adams (Mark Wahlberg). These three leads are accompanied by an ensemble of colourful characters. Highlights include Heather Graham as a teenage pornstar who refuses to take off her roller skates, and Don Cheadle as a porn actor who dresses as a cowboy and has an obsessive interest in stereos.
[Eddie’s] success is charted in a funky, quintessentially 70s montage where we see him shed his teenage timidity and become a real star.
The first portion of the film treads a somewhat familiar path. Eddie is lured into the porn industry by Jack, leaving behind his unhappy family life to reinvent himself as a porn starlet: Dirk Diggler. His success is charted in a funky, quintessentially ’70s montage, where we see him shed his teenage timidity and become a real star – rave reviews are read aloud, he wins big for successive years at the Adult Film Awards, he dances to Disco music, and buys his own flashy house and car.
We see the found family is an attempt on the part of its members to fill a void.
One of the most interesting elements of the movie is the quasi-family which the characters form. When Jack and Amber sit opposite Dirk and Rollergirl in a diner booth, it is striking how much they look like the typical nuclear family. Jack is obviously the charismatic patriarch, and puppeteer of all his younger stars; whilst Amber is the loving mother Dirk never had: “She’s a mother to all those who need love” Jack proclaims of her. “Are you my mom?” Rollergirl asks Amber in a later scene, whilst high on cocaine. “Yes honey,” Amber responds. The flipside of this ‘found family’ is the real families which the stars have left behind. In one of the most memorable scenes of the film, Amber sobs outside of a courthouse after she is denied the right to see her son. We see the found family as an attempt on the part of its members to fill a void
Paul Thomas Anderson is brilliant at balancing the youthful, vibrant energy of Boogie Nights with a darker seediness.
Paul Thomas Anderson is brilliant at balancing the youthful, vibrant energy of Boogie Nights with a darker seediness. Take the party sequence at Jack’s house: bronzed figures recline in the sun, ‘Spill the Wine’ by Eric Burdon & War crescendos whilst the camera follows a woman diving into a pool – no one seems to care when “some kid looking for their mom” calls on the telephone. A pleasure-seeking free-spiritedness pervades. Then the camera cuts to the upstairs of the house: a young woman has overdosed on cocaine. Blood is on her face. Ultimately, the scene is played comedically, so the shift in tone isn’t jarring; but the image of her body spasming is poignant, it cuts through to the reality of hedonist lifestyles. The man who has brought the woman to the party – the Colonel, who finances Jack’s films – later admits to being a paedophile.
An unsavouriness underlines much of the film, Even Jack shows his inclination to prey on young and vulnerable youths. But Jack’s unsavouriness is accompanied by an endearing passion for filmmaking. “This is the film I want them to remember me by,” he says at one point, “I’m a filmmaker,” he insists at another. Anderson complicates the moralities of Boogie Nights’ characters. The disturbing underbelly of the porn industry is subtly exposed, but does not overly dominate the tone of the film; it retains its sense of fun, as well as a genuine respect for the craftsmanship and creativity of Jack and his crew.
In a present society where porn has become so accessible, and a major aspect of mainstream culture; It is an interesting film to revisit
All in all, Boogie Nights is an epic, and impressive movie, which performs a clever balancing act between comedy, violence, fun and emotional depth. In a present society where porn has become so accessible, and a major aspect of mainstream culture; It is an interesting film to revisit. It’s definitely not for family film night, but if you get the chance to see it alone, or with more suitable companions, I’d strongly recommend you do.
“Burt Reynolds” by Alan Light is licensed under CC BY 2.0.