It’s Los Angeles, 1977, and adult film
director Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds) meets Eddie Adams (Mark
Wahlberg), a well-endowed dishwasher in a nightclub. Jack recruits
Eddie to be his newest star and Eddie, hungry for fame, quickly
agrees, changing his name to Dirk Diggler. Soon Dirk is the
hottest star in the porn industry, alongside Rollergirl (Heather
Graham), a high school dropout who never removes her roller
skates, and Amber Waves (Julianne Moore), the veteran star who
pines for the son she's not allowed to visit. On the fringes,
Little Bill (William H. Macy) fumes while his wife cheats on him
in public, and Buck Swope (Don Cheadle) tries to escape the stigma
of being a porn actor. The good times roll, but before long Dirk
falls victim to the pressures of stardom and a drug habit that
ruins his career while Jack struggles with porn’s conversion
from film to cheaper videotapes. Director Paul Thomas Anderson’s
breakthrough film is an exhilarating ride along the underbelly of
the 1970s inspired by the films of Altman and Scorsese, featuring
colorful camera work, a dynamic soundtrack, and excellent
performances from the entire cast, most notably Reynolds in an
Oscar-nominated comeback role.
Ranked #2 in Entertainment Weekly's "10 Favorite Films of
the '90s" - "...Bravura....An ecstatic act of
filmmaking..."
"...A hilariously engaging and at times bleakly disturbing
chronicle..."
"...With its ceaseless music, large canvas, shrewd
casting, flawless ensemble acting and the dexterity of its
whiplashing mood switches, the movie recalls Robert Altman's
NASHVILLE..." -- 4 out of 4 stars
Theatrical release: October 10, 1997. Filmed on location in the
San Fernando Valley. BOOGIE NIGHTS premiered at the Toronto Film
Festival September 11, 1997. Writer-director Paul Thomas
Anderson's original screenplay for BOOGIE NIGHTS was 300 pages
long, with a running time of more than five hours. BOOGIE NIGHTS
originated from a short film Anderson made as a teenager entitled
THE DIRK DIGGLER STORY. The opening sequence of the film is a
continuous three-minute shot that introduces most of the main
characters. Much of Dirk Diggler's (Mark Wahlberg) character was
inspired by the real-life porn actor John Holmes, including the
Brock Landers films, which were based on a Holmes character,
Johnny Wadd. Anderson's first choice for the part of Dirk Diggler
was Leonardo DiCaprio, who opted to star in TITANIC instead. Don
Cheadle's character, Buck Swope, was inspired by the Robert
Downey, Sr., film PUTNEY SWOPE. A scene where Jack Horner (Burt
Reynolds) is seen wandering through a porn warehouse was shot in
an actual porn warehouse, Gourmet Video in Van Nuys, California.
The scene in which Jack Horner and Rollergirl (Heather Graham) go
out with a video camera in the back of a limo looking for men off
the street is based on an actual porn movie entitled ON THE PROWL.
A number of real-life adult film stars appear in BOOGIE NIGHTS,
including Nina Hartley, Tony Tedeschi, Lexi Leigh, and Veronica
Hart. In the studio scene where Dirk Diggler and Reed Rothchild
(John C. Reilly) attempt to record an album, the song they perform
is "The Touch," which is an actual song from THE
TRANSFORMERS animated movie. In the climactic scene with the
firecrackers, actor Alfred Molina does not respond to the sound of
the explosions because he had an earpiece feeding music directly
into his ear. The reactions of the other actors are genuine. Paul
Thomas Anderson's father was Ernie Anderson, known as Ghoulardi,
host of a Cleveland horror-movie program.
Director Paul Thomas Anderson's second film is a sprawling,
polyphonous drama set in the seedy greater L.A. porn scene during
the late 1970s and early 1980s.
"I've got a feeling that behind those jeans is something
wonderful just waiting to get out."--Jack Horner (Burt
Reynolds), upon first meeting Dirk Diggler (Mark Wahlberg)
"Aren't you gonna take your skates off?"--Dirk Diggler
to Rollergirl (Heather Graham) "I never take my skates
off."--Rollergirl "You're not the boss of me, Jack!
You're not the king of Dirk! I'm the boss of me! I'm the king of
me. I'm Dirk Diggler! I'm the star!"--Dirk Diggler to Jack
Horner "That's not an MP, that's a YP--your problem. Come up
with the money or forget about it."--Record producer to Dirk
Diggler and Reed Rothchild (John C. Reilly) "I am a star. I'm
a star, I'm a star, I'm a star. I'm a big, bright, shining
star."--Dirk Diggler (the last lines of the film)
"...[A] wild, virtuosic, ecstatically outrageous
epic....Mark Wahlberg comes through with his first full-scale
performance: ingenuous, sultry, starmaking..."
"...The kind of grimy, intense, passionate film we
identify more with the 1970s than with today's slick
productions..."
"...BOOGIE NIGHTS has the quality of many great films, in
that it always seems alive..."
