Boogie Nights (1997) Porn Biz Noir

“There are shadows in life, 
baby.''
(Jack Horner)

Written, produced and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson (Hard Eight (1996), There Will Be Blood (2007)). Cinematography by Robert Elswit, Music by Michael Penn.

The film stars Mark Wahlberg as Eddie Adams/"Dirk Diggler", Julianne Moore (The Big Lebowski (1998)) as Maggie/"Amber Waves," Burt Reynolds (Deliverance (1972)) as Jack Horner
Don Cheadle (Devil in a Blue Dress (1995)) as Buck Swope, John C. Reilly (Hard Eight (1996), Gangs of New York (2002)) as Reed Rothchild, William H. Macy (Fargo (1996), Hit Me (1996)) as "Little" Bill Thompson, Heather Graham as Brandy/"Rollergirl", Nicole Ari Parker as Becky Barnett
Philip Seymour Hoffman (Hard Eight (1996), The Big Lebowski (1998), Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)) as Scotty J., Luis Guzmán as Maurice Rodriguez, Philip Baker Hall (Hard Eight (1996), Hit Me (1996)) as Floyd Gondolli, Thomas Jane (The Punisher (2004), Give 'em Hell Malone (2009), Dark Country (2009)) as Todd Parker, Robert Ridgely as the Colonel James, Robert Downey Sr. as Burk, Nina Hartley as "Little" Bill's wife, Melora Walters as Jessie St. Vincent, Alfred Molina as Rahad Jackson, and Ricky Jay as Kurt Longjohn.

Burt Reynolds as Jack Horner

Mark Wahlberg as Eddie Adams/"Dirk Diggler"

William H. Macy as "Little" Bill Thompson

Don Cheadle as Buck Swope

Heather Graham as Brandy/"Rollergirl"

Julianne Moore as Maggie/"Amber Waves,"

Philip Seymour Hoffman as Scotty J

Boogie Nights begins at the height of the "Porno Chic" Era before the "Golden Age Of Porn" began to lose its luster. The era stretched from 1969 to 1984. It was a time when sexually explicit films went mainstream, got a mentioned and joked about on late night talk shows and when even some of it's slang terns became part of the national lexicon.

During the gradual demise of the Motion Picture Production Code independent film directors and producers began to push the envelope of what was allowed to be shown. Their films were labeled Exploitation because they exploited the new found freedom. In the hierarchy of Exploitation films dealing with sex the stages were Nudie Cuties, Sexploitation, Roughies, Rough Core, and finally the White Coaters. White Coaters functioned as the old Public Service films showing what was forbidden in the guise of doctors studies and cautionary warnings about sex. The next step was plain straight Hard Core loops that were common at smokers and stag parties.

 "Porno Chic" Era began when leading pop artist Andy Warhol directed and released Blue Movie (1969) an artistic cut above a plain Hard Core loop, and that was followed by Mona (1970). They were the first two adult erotic films depicting explicit sex to receive wide theatrical release. Notable hits of "Porno Chic" were 1972's notorious Deep Throat starring Linda Lovelace directed by Gerard Damiano, and Behind The Green Door starring Marilyn Chambers, followed by 1973's The Devil in Miss Jones also by Damiano, and 1976's The Opening of Misty Beethoven by Radley Metzger. Warhol had once stated that Blue Movie was an influence for Brando's Last Tango In Paris (1972) an international hit that was nominated for two Academy Awards and which won seven other US and international awards.

The Story

1977, Torrance, California. Eddie Adams, loser. Still living at home with his mom and stepdad. His real dad skipped out years ago. Mom's a whack job, abusive. Stepdad is a classic wimp. Eddie works as a busboy/dishwasher at a nightclub called the Resada. The club is owned by Maurice Rodriguez a player who rubs shoulders with California pornographers.

Rumors are going around that Eddie has a "big" package.

The package

Anderson probably based Eddie on John C. Holmes or Johnny Wadd . Holmes was renowned for his unusually large penis. It was supposedly the longest, thickest, hardest, and longest lasting in the adult film industry. It was rumored to be between 10 and 13 inches.

"John Holmes was to the adult film industry what Elvis Presley was to rock 'n' roll. He simply was The King." (Cinematographer Bob Vosse in the documentary Wadd: The Life & Times of John C. Holmes).

So these rumors of Eddie's junk get to the ears of a porno filmmaker Jack Horner. Horner auditions Eddie with one of his porn actress proteges Roller Girl. Roller Girl always has sex with her skates on, it's her trademark. Jack lives with porn actress Amber Waves. Amber eventually also becomes a filmmaker in her own right. Anderson may have been basing Jack and Amber on porn pioneers Michael and Roberta Findlay.

Sex with Roller Girl

Horner likes what he sees. Eddie after partying all night finally gets home only to be smacked around by his mom, who in the process trashes his room. Eddie having enough of that noise, splits for Jack's place in the San Fernando Valley.

Joanna Gleason Eddie's Mother

Jacks place is a sort of halfway house for porn stars and various other flunkies. A modest flop with a pool.

It all goes well at Jack's place. Eddie befriends other actors in the biz. His porn biz name is Dirk Diggler. He becomes something of a phenom with his big tool. Dirk's able to buy house and a '77 Chevy Corvette. With fellow porn actor Reed Rothchild he stars in a series of action hero porn flicks. Dirk even wins a sort of porno Academy Award

With fellow porn actor Reed Rothchild he stars in a series of action hero porn flicks. Dirk even wins a sort of porno Academy Award

Here again Anderson borrows from the John Holmes template. Holmes starred in a series of adult films built around a private investigator named Johnny Wadd.

The film nicely delves into the various idiosyncrasies of the "artistic" personnel of the porn biz. The small vignettes are very entertaining. Porn star Buck Swope is a stereo salesman on his day job, he longs for his own store eventually. We see him doing his sales pitch, and later watch his travails when he applies for a loan. Later he gets a Tarantino-esque Deus ex machina that solves all his problems.

Buck Swope: See this system here? This is Hi-Fi... high fidelity. What that means is that it's the highest quality fidelity.

A few more vignettes depict the problems between Little Bill Thompson and his nymphomaniac wife. Little Bill constantly finds her having sex with strangers. In one sequence he finds his wife (played by real life porn star Nina Hartley, who started in the biz when she was 25 in Educating Nina (1984)) having sex out in the driveway surrounded by onlookers.

Little Bill: What the fuck are you doing?
Little Bill's wife: Go away, Bill, you're embarrassing me.

Little Bill walks away and is confronted by cinematographer Kurt who wants to discuss a new zoom lens.

Little Bill with Ricky Jay as cinematographer Kurt Longjohn.

Kurt Longjohn: Little Bill.
Little Bill:  Hey. Kurt. What's up?
Kurt Longjohn: What's wrong with you?
Little Bill:  Ah... my fuckin' wife, man, she's over there... she's got some idiot's dick in her, people standing around watching - it's a fuckin' embarassment.
Kurt Longjohn: Yeah. Yeah. I know. Anyway, listen:
Little Bill:  - yeah.
Kurt Longjohn: For the shoot - I wanna talk about the look. I wanted to see about getting this new zoom lens...
Little Bill:  Right.
Kurt Longjohn: I wondered if we'd be able to look into getting some more lights, too, y'know...
Little Bill: Jack wants a minimal-thing...
Kurt Longjohn: Right, well, very often, minimal means a lot more photographically than I think, well... than I think most people understand...
Little Bill:  I understand.
Kurt Longjohn: No, no. Hey. I know you understand, I was talking about some other people.
Little Bill:  Well, I think what Jack is talking about is minimal, not really "natural", but minimal...
Kurt Longjohn: Okay... fine... I was just saying...
Little Bill:  I understand...
Kurt Longjohn: - 'cause I'm trying to give each picture it's own look...
Little Bill:  Can we talk about this later?
Kurt Longjohn: Oh, yeah... you have to go somewhere... or...?
Little Bill: Well, no, yeah... I mean...
Kurt Longjohn: 'Cause I was hoping to, y'know, for the shoot tomorrow, we could send Rocky down and he could pick it up...
Little Bill:  Kurt.
Kurt Longjohn: No. Hey. Gotcha. You've gotta go somewhere so - hey - what the fuck? It's only the fucking photography of the movie we're talking about.
Little Bill:  My fucking wife has a cock in her ass over in the driveway, alright? I'm sorry if my thoughts aren't with the photography of the film we're shooting tomorrow, Kurt, OK?
Kurt Longjohn: OK. No big deal. Sorry.

Things go well until they don't At the end of the '70s, during the 1979-1980 New Years Eve party Jack Horner's assistant director, Little Bill Thompson, once again discoverers his porn star wife having sex with another man. Thompson loses it shooting them both dead and then blowing out his brains. Happy New Year!

Dirk and Reed begin heavily using drugs with "Peruvian Marching Powder," aka cocaine their preferred brand. The narcotics begin to affect his performance on the set. Horner seeing the writing on the wall hires a new stud. In 1983 after a big pissing match with Jack, Dirk is fired.

"You're not the boss of me"

Dirk: 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. It's my big dick and I say when we roll.

Dirk and Reed get a bright idea to start rock 'n roll careers but are stymied when they can't come up with the $5,000 scratch they need to get their recording tapes from the studio.

Dirk:  Look, man, all we need is the tapes, all right?
Recording Studio Exec: No, you don't get the tapes until you've paid.
Dirk: In our situation, that doesn't make any fucking sense.
Reed Rothchild: Look, we can not pay for the tapes, unless we take the tapes to the record company, and get paid.
Dirk:  Hello? Exactly.
Recording Studio Exec:  That's not an MP, that's a YP, your problem. Come up with the money, or forget it.
Reed Rothchild: Okay, now you're talking above my head. I don't know all of this industry jargon, YP, MP. All I know is that I can't get a record contract, we cannot get a record contract unless we take those tapes to the record company. And granted, the tapes themselves are a uh um oh, you own them, all right, but the magic that is on those tapes. That fucking heart and soul that we put onto those tapes, that is ours and you don't own that. Now I need to take that magic and get it over the record company. And they're waiting for us, we were supposed to be there a half hour ago. We look like assholes, man.
Dirk:  Let me explain to him in simple arithmetic. One, two three! Because you don't fuckin' get it, Burt! You give us the tapes. We get the record contract. We come back and give you your fuckin' money. Have you heard the tapes? Have you even heard them? We're guaranteed a record deal. Our stuff is that good!
Recording Studio Exec:  Now I get it. Now I understand. You want it to happen... but it's not going to happen. Because it's a Catch-22.
Dirk:  What the fuck does that mean? What is a Catch-22, Burt?
Record Producer: Catch-22, gentleman. Think about it.

[pause]

Dirk: You know what I'm thinking about, man? I'm thinking about kicking some fuckin' ass!

It all of course goes Noirsville. The porn industry is changing. The advent of cheap videotape, low production costs and the adult bookstore home video market destroys the Grindhouse Theater business. Why go into dubious neighborhoods and sit in dank dilapidated theaters with sticky floors when you can beat off in the sanctity of your own home.

Philip Baker Hall as Floyd Gondolli, 

Floyd Gondolli: This here's the future. Videotape tells the truth.
Jack Horner: Wait a minute. You come into my house, my party, to tell me about the future? That the future is tape, videotape, and not film? That it's amateurs and not professionals? I'm a filmmaker, which is why I will *never* make a movie on tape.

Porn once again regressed basically to simple direct to video "loops" once known as stag films. With all aspects of the business  changing, Jack has go with the flow. He has to abandon film and begin shooting on tape. Former high priced porn stars are replaced by amateurs, high concept films are replaced with gimmicky hooks, and everyone has to cope with the new reality.

Noirsville

Nina Hartley as "Little" Bill's nymphomaniac wife

John C. Riley as  Reed Rothchild

The big reveal

Burt Reynolds gives one of his best performances since Deliverance. I've never cared for the majority of all his good ol' boy, corn pone shtick movies, that seemed to be his go to persona, between these two films. I'll admit maybe I missed something but that is because Burt being in a film was never a drawing card for me. I have enjoyed a few of his Westerns. Notable in the ensemble cast are, Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, Heather Grahame, Don Cheadle, John C. Reilly (Hard Eight (1996), Gangs of New York (2002)) as Reed Rothchild, William H. Macy, and Ricky Jay.

The rest of the massive also acquit themselves admirably, they give humanity to countless similar real life Sexploitation/early Porn makers who nowadays are mostly just forgotten names on IMDb lists if the titles even show up. (Note IMDb must have a filter in their search a lot of titles will not come up when you use IMDb's search, however the links appear when you do a Google search).

Doing research for Noirsville during the 1960-70 Transitional Noir period, I've come to recognize some of the early Sexploiraion "Noir" directors and talent that spearheaded and forged what was to come. The very composited fictional people that Anderson depicted in this film.

Directors, the Findlay's with their art house beat generation roots, Herschell Gordon Lewis, Lee Frost, Barry Mahon, Anton Holden, Joseph W. Sarno, and Kemal Horulu are some of my faves. Sexploitation actresses of note were, Janine Lenon in Aroused, Roberta Findlay, June Roberts, Fleurette Carter, and Victoria Astor (Hot Skin and Cold Cash). Some actors that impressed were Bob O'Connell as the demented mob boss in Some Like it Violent, Joe Santos in Flesh and Lace and mob pickup men Wes Bishop and Stefan Zema in The Pick-Up.

For a film about the Porn Industry there is not a whole lot of nudity or sex, you have to go to the source films for that  commodity and particularly those from the vintage year of 1969 . That was the year where full frontal nudity and simulated sex first was allowed. It would be today's equivalent of and NC-17. Boogie Nights is not even a hard "R." Where in real Sexploitation  it was all about the most you could get away with, Anderson is just telling an interesting story of Bizarro Hollywood.

Anything more than the "T&A" in Boogie Nights would earn it that economically disastrous, for the box office, NC-17 rating. The prosthetic wiener of Dirk isn't real, lol.

Anderson does give us a quite a bit of style, and some homages to other films. Entertaining 8/10