The Classic Tale Of The Highs & Lows Of The 1980’s Pornography Industry, Boogie Nights, Finally Arrives on 4K!
The porn industry is like any industry; it how ups and downs, high profit eras and low profit cool downs, as well as times of massive industry transformation. One of those, for the porn industry as it was for the greater film industry, was the change from film to video. All of a sudden, smut films were cheap to make, and the expected standards of a proper “adult film” shifted, tossing the entire industry into chaos.
It is against this backdrop that director Paul Thomas Anderson sets his story, of a young naive man who finds success, failure, love and hate as the world’s most popular adult performer. Boogie Nights, while technically PTA’s second feature, was his first real exposure to wider audiences. What he crafted was a winding tale of a rise and fall of both an industry and a man, as well as the strength of a found family, even if it is made up of broken people.
Boogie Nights is a bit of an emotional rollercoaster for the audience as well. The first half is all about ascension; young actor Eddie Adams (Mark Wahlberg) ascension from homeless nobody to king of porn “Dirk Diggler”; Seasoned director Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds) ascension from small time filmmaker to making “real movies”, as he sees it; the entire porn industries continued ascending success through the late 1970s. The first half (or as it is split in the film, “the ‘70s”) is all about success, excess and indulgence. Why worry about tomorrow? We’ll always be beautiful, rich, and care free!
And then, the ‘80s start with a bang; more precisely, 4 bangs, which equal 3 bodies. In the split second of the new decade, everything has changed, for the worse. What sets Boogie Nights apart from other “rise and fall” narratives is it really falls. We watch as everything that can go wrong for our group of misfits goes wrong, in usually the most brutal ways.
We watch as young Dirk becomes a jaded coke head, screaming at those he once loved, peeling away his own life and success one line at a time. We watch as Jack is forced into “the future”; his money man taken away on child pornography charges, Jack becomes what he always feared, a smut peddler who shoots quick and dirty, any aspirations of filmmaking gone with the advent of tape. We watch as Amber Waves (Julianne Moore), mother to all who need, loses her visitation rights for her young son. We watch as Rollergirl (Heather Graham) is subjected to sexual humiliation by her former high school tormentor.
A family that once seemed unbreakable is now scattered across LA, each of them dealing with their own personal rock bottoms. It isn’t until Dirk finds himself in the middle of a robbery gone wrong that he finally realizes what he needs once again; family. After putting us through heartbreak after heartbreak, PTA allows Boogie Nights to end on a softer note, showing that this crew, who appeared slightly predatory at first, is really just a community of lost souls, looking for acceptance, be it in the bedroom or in each others hearts, and the strange little gang of humpers and lovers is all the family they have.
All of this works, of course, because of the bevy of incredible performances. With only a handful of performances under his belt, it is genuinely incredible what Wahlberg is doing here, playing what might be the best “naive” performance ever. Eddie/Dirk is all cock, no brains, easily manipulated and always looking to please, at first others and then himself. Wahlberg plays both sides, young and doting and then jaded and paranoid, with ease, creating a character that is pitiable, enraging, charming, and overall sympathetic.
Playing father figure to this lost boy is Jack Horner, played by Burt Reynolds. Jack might be the best performance Burt ever gave, all of his years of gusto and charisma distilled into a quick witted porn director who wants more than anything to be taken seriously as a filmmaker. He is a man who projects strength, but is tired of the life he’s built, always wishing that life had taken a different way.
That is the magic of Boogie Nights; a collection of top tier talent, and an all star collection of character actors, all bringing to life a world that is nothing more than a seedy underbelly to most. PTA created a film about a community that almost all look down. It’s a film that views them through empathetic lenses, but never becomes preachy in its approach. It is a film about people going through tremendous highs and terrible lows; it just so happens they make porn.
Specs:
Boogie Nights looks better than ever in 4K. Rather than an overly polished look, like you can see with some of the restorations, Boogie Nights keeps the grit and the seams, but cleans up the picture and colors, making for a gorgeous presentation.
For extras, Boogie Nights does not disappoint. This release includes two new interviews with Paul Thomas Anderson at the American Cinematheque Panel (Night 1 also includes John C. Rielly), 2 different commentaries (one with PTA; the other with the cast), a whole bevy of deleted scenes, equalling 30 minutes of cut footage, a music video from Michael Penn, and a collection of outtakes and extended sequences from John C. Reilly.
Boogie Nights is an out-and-out classic. Viewed at first as a bit of a “Scorsese xerox” at release, the proceeding years have been good to Boogie Nights, giving audiences time to see that this is something truly special, and a clear cinematic indicator of the creative powerhouse Paul Thomas Anderson was destined to be.
Available on 4K disc now!
