DC Film Society: Adam's Rib October 2018

Modern Classics: Boogie Nights

Boogie Nights (1997) – written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Produced by Paul Thomas Anderson, Michael De Luca, Lawrence Gordon, Lynn Harris, Lloyd Levin, Daniel Lupi, John S. Lyons and JoAnne Sellar. Key Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, Burt Reynolds, John C. Reilly, Don Cheadle, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, William H. Macy, Heather Graham, Luis Guzmán, Nicole Ari Parker, Thomas Jane, Nicole Ari Parker, Robert Ridgely, Nina Hartley, Alfred Molina, Melora Walters and Phillip Baker Hall.

The late Burt Reynolds nearly passed on Boogie Nights. He reportedly said no the first seven times he was offered the role. That’s not much of a surprise. Reynolds had many talents, but choosing scripts was not one of them. According to Variety, he turned down James Bond, Han Solo, Michael Corleone, Randall McMurphy (in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest), and what became Richard Gere’s role in Pretty Woman. Sally Field wrote in her new autobiography, In Pieces, that Reynolds told her to pass on Norma Rae, for which she won her first Oscar. Thank God Reynolds eventually ignored his judgment and that the eighth time he was offered Boogie Nights, he finally said yes.

Reynolds was one of many stellar actors writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson brought together for this masterpiece. Many of them, such as Wahlberg, Moore, Hoffman and Cheadle, were emerging talents, but Anderson was also wise enough to sprinkle in the old hands, including Reynolds, Ridgely (in what would be his final film) and Hall. Last year, Orrin Konheim and I crafted our top 50 film ensembles, and Boogie Nights was in my top ten. The performances are also a reason why the film ages so well. In 1997, a year that also included Titanic, L.A. Confidential, As Good As it Gets, Good Will Hunting, Jackie Brown, and Eve’s Bayou, it’s Boogie Nights that remains an enduring classic.

Boogie Nights is set in the world of 70s and 80s pornographic movies, which scared some moviegoers off and may have prevented it from garnering all of the acclaim it deserved. But saying it is “about” pornography is only scratching the surface. There is nothing titillating about Boogie Nights. For most of the characters, porn is just a job. Ironically, the one person for whom it is more than a job, at least initially, is Jack Horner (Reynolds) who aspired to have porn movies work as actual films. Anderson said he based Jack in part on Gerard Daminao, who “was the best of the hardcore directors, and he went through a period of believing he could make art films about sex.”

Horner is one of many characters who want something they can’t have, be it a business, a relationship with a son, a music career, or to find love. One of porn’s main functions in Boogie Nights is walling off these people from “respectable” society, forcing them to create their own little world, one in which they thrive but can’t escape. Many critics and fans noted that Horner creates a makeshift family, with himself as a benevolent father, Amber Waves (Moore) as the mother, and the rest of his cast and crew as the sons and daughters. This is especially true with their new discovery, Dirk Diggler (Wahlberg). The father-son relationship between Jack and Dirk drives many of the key story points.

Anderson crafted that story beautifully, establishing who the characters are while creating an arc for each of them. He sets up a series of party scenes, as beats to set and then change the story, to serve as milestones where we can see where these characters are, and to put them in spaces where they can all bounce off each other. Anderson puts so much detail into the characters, which the actors bring to life so vividly, that I believed a whole movie could have been made about any one of them.

In Grantland’s excellent oral history of Boogie Nights, Anderson’s agent said that “Paul visualized the whole movie. He had everything, all the camera moves, the lighting.” As a director, Anderson is in complete command, whether in Scorsese-esque tracking shots, 360 degree turns to give the audience an entire view of a room, zooming in on specific actions or moving the camera with the characters. He also works in period dress and music just enough to evoke the 70s and 80s while stopping just short from parody.

Anderson’s mastery and artistry come through the clearest in the scene near the end of the film when Diggler, Reed Rothchild (John C. Reilly) and their crazy friend Todd (Thomas Jane) visit with the completely unhinged Rahad Jackson (Alfred Molina) ostensibly to sell him drugs but actually to rob him. I have written about Anderson’s use of music and Molina’s performance before, so I won’t take a deep dive here, save that it could be a short film by itself. Anderson uses all the tools, be it his actors, camerawork, editing, or music, to build up the tension to a point where you are just waiting for it to explode.

With all of Anderson’s mastery behind the camera, he also knows when to give his actors space. When Scottie J (Philip Seymour Hoffman) breaks down in self-loathing after his ham-handed attempt to seduce Dirk, Anderson keeps the camera on Hoffman, so the scene becomes a raw nerve. Anderson does the same when Amber (Moore) breaks down after losing her child custody hearing, or when a desperate Dirk returns to ask Jack for help.

Boogie Nights launched many of these actors to stardom. Wahlberg was a famous rapper and underwear model but now was a bonafide leading man. Julianne Moore had leading roles in indies and smaller roles in Hollywood films, and garnered a Best Supporting Actress nomination for Boogie Nights, the first of five in her illustrious career. She finally won in 2014 for Still Alice. Philip Seymour Hoffman became a critically-acclaimed character actor and then a leading man in his own right, winning Best Actor for Capote a few years before his untimely death. John C. Reilly proved there was no better sidekick, and that he excelled in both comedy and drama. He got an Oscar nomination for Chicago, but now may be better known for his buddy movies with Will Ferrell. Cheadle proved he could carry a film with Hotel Rwanda, for which he received an Oscar nom and also became key parts of the Oceans and Avengers franchises.

When I first saw Boogie Nights, I figured it would launch a comeback for Burt Reynolds, the same way Pulp Fiction had done for another 70’s star, John Travolta, three years earlier. Reynolds has the same swagger and charm he had in his heyday, but tempers that with an undercurrent of anger and melancholy. His Jack Horner rules his little kingdom, but by the end knows that he will never be a true filmmaker. Late in the film, the camera follows Jack as he walks through his warehouse. By now videotapes have replaced film, and Jack goes by stack after stack of videos. Jack is more prosperous than ever, but Reynolds, just through his posture and his walk, shows a broken, empty man. Robert Downey, Sr. said, “Other than in Deliverance, Burt Reynolds has never been as good.” I’d go a little further, leaving out the Deliverance part.

Unfortunately, Reynolds had a love-hate relationship with both Boogie Nights and Anderson, with much more on the hate side. He reportedly came to blows with Anderson on the set. Producer JoAnne Sellar remarked that, “He (Reynolds) was absolutely perfect for Jack Horner, but I don’t think he understood what he was getting involved with at the time.” Newsweek critic David Ansen added that “Reynolds thought he was in a dirty movie and wanted out and wasn’t happy.” When the movie opened, Reynolds at times acted proud of the film, but many other times slammed it in the press, claiming he had never seen it. Reynolds was recognized with what would be his only Oscar nomination, for Best Supporting Actor, and at one time was considered the favorite. That changed as Reynolds shunned the promotional work that comes with a nomination and continued to criticize the film publicly. Robin Williams ended up winning for Good Will Hunting. Wahlberg later said that, “He (Reynolds) would've won the Oscar had he not dug such a hole for himself.”

Reynolds, by his own admission, missed many opportunities in his career. Anderson said of him, “He (Reynolds) told me, ‘I was an actor first. I became a celebrity second.’ Sort of this weird sort of parallel to Jack Horner, the character he plays, who's always insisting he's a filmmaker.” Another way to look at that quote is that once Reynolds became a celebrity that subsumed him being an actor. He too often picked projects where he could coast on his likability and not films that would challenge him. Still none of that matters when you go back to Boogie Nights. Reynolds may have passed on other great films, but that does not take away from his brilliant performance in this one. Whether he liked it or not, for that one brief shining moment 21 years ago, Burt Reynolds was glorious.

Adam Spector
October 1, 2018