thoughts about Boogie Nights.

Boogie Nights is one of Paul Thomas Anderson's early films. Is it as good as There Will Be Blood, probably not. Yet it is a very entertaining film. I watched it for the first time tonight and it flew right by. I read the screenplay yesterday and it was a very quick read. Especially the first fifty pages or so. The action, the story, and the characters make it compelling to read and watch. I so wanted to know what was going to happen to Dirk Diggler. Was he going to get killed? Was he going to OD? He was an interesting character. The whole film is interesting. I don't think there has been a serious film made about the adult film industry. I saw a documentary about the porn industry a few years ago. It made me look at the adult industry differently. And this film brings up those issues in a dramatic narrative. The drug problem is obvious, the other problem that affected the adult industry during the years of the film doesn't get mentioned, and the problem was HIV/AIDS. Many adult performers died of not only cocaine overdose, but HIV/AIDS. It's a recurring problem in the adult industry. Recently there has been some legal cases about whether the adult industry should be regulated more. For example having adult performers be tested for STDs and have women where goggles during performances.

So far there hasn't been a resolution. In the next year a committee in CA will rule about what measures the adult industry should be required to take to stop the spread of STDs.

Well, back to the film. The film is rather straight story about a kid with a "donkey dick" who is discovered by Bert Reynolds' character. He becomes a big star and his ego gets the best of him. He falls from stardom to poverty. The film makes quick work of his decline. Several pages and scenes are omitted from the film. There is little mention of his time as a male stripper or his corvette being wrecked around a pole. Perhaps it would have been more exposition for the scene where they try to rob the guy with fake coke. I felt like that scene is just kind of added on similarly to an early Tarrantino film. It's entertaining, but I felt the scenes to build up that scene should have been built up more. It makes more sense.

I will watch the film again before I write the critique for the paper. Perhaps I'll get a big idea? Maybe not.