Classic Movie

Big cocks and rollerblades

	If William Shakespeare ever wanted to make a film about the Golden Age of Pornos, it would’ve been Boogie Nights!

Boogie Nights (1997)

The plot: It’s the chest-baring ‘70s and Eddie Adams (Mark Whalberg) is a 17-year-old high-school drop-out, reduced to bussing nightclubs and performing sexual acts down alleys. However, when he chances upon leading porno maker Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds in a grey wig), his multi-inched superhumanly-charged ‘lurrrve’ pump is unleashed, and he’s transformed into DIRK DIGGLER - the adult industry’s HOTTEST screen Lothario. Then, as the ‘80s rears its hairsprayed head, things start to tumble real bad...

So what happens? While Singin’ In The Rain satirises the transition from ‘silents’ to ‘talkies’, Boogie Nights (sort of) commentates on the move from ‘film’ to ‘home video’ - but amplifies it through a drug-fuelled backdrop of visual sleaze and burnt-out FAME. Powder flies up noses, financial backers do porridge for kiddy fiddling, spangled porn-stars lose custody battles and desperate Digglers ‘launch’ off-key pop careers. Hell, the last one worked for Rick Astley…

Why’s it a classic? In the aftermath of Pulp Fiction, writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson carves out a multi-narrative epic, full of slick and dangerous nutbags, each played by a top-drawer superstar: William H Macy, Heather Graham, John C Reilly, Julianne Moore and Luis Guzman all dazzle as their loins hit overdrive. Just imagine Saturday Night Fever pumped up with tongue-in-cheek depravity, while stylishly borrowing from Tarantino, Scorsese and a heap of other cool-as-f**k arthouse ‘makers. If William Shakespeare ever got reincarnated as a swanky-hipped man with a big budget, and he wanted to make a film about the golden age of pornos, you can bet your nutsacks it would’ve been Boogie Nights.