showgirls is the second major outing for the production team of pual verhoeven , director , and joe eszterhas , writer .
their last effort , basic instinct , played like the most sumptuous of classic hitchcock , with a dash of raw sex and sensuality that made it come across with a hit like curry-spiced tabasco sauce ; a dish not to everyone’s taste , but certainly a well-crafted movie .
possibly that movie’s greatest strength was that the most important events happened offstage , prior to the movie , during the movie , and after the movie . . .
and that , after bringing all the plotlines together neatly , it left the viewer with full knowledge of what * would * happen in the characters’ future , so there was no need to film it .
there was actually about four hours’ worth of screen story there , but eszterhas found ways to get it all on-screen in two , by leading his audience into analyzing what was really going on ; and by still holding their interest with clever misdirection and false trails .
the major elements that made basic instinct work so well are present in showgirls .
we have attractive , sympathetic , but still highly repellent characters ; we have shows for the eyes and the ears , plotlines that play on several levels , we have beautifully delineated characters who are drawn from life and very believable , and we have a story of an innocent ( who may not be so innocent ) who’s trying to play straight , trying to improve her station in life , who slips into behaving the way those around her do . . .
but recovers with a flourish , and quits a winner .
in this sense , the movie is a bit of a departure for verhoeven , who’s not known for treating his characters well ; but nomi , the part played by elizabeth berkley , definitely opts out of the game in a positive way , and we’re left feeling good about her future .
this is not one of the great movies , but it’s far better than we’d been led to expect by all the negative pre-release publicity .
verhoeven got his first oscar nomination in 1971 , and in the last quarter-century has pushed farther and farther , experimenting with the socially-acceptable limits to movie-making .
his most recent three movies , robocop , total recall , and basic instinct , have been a progression of back-door access to american culture , moving from the fantastic through the merely psychotic to the underlying basic drives ; and now he’s exploring the sleeze .
this movie may be the first movie ever made for which the director’s contract contained a specific provision that he would not have to deliver an r rated movie .
( verhoeven had to cut several parts of basic instinct to get an r rating , although his original version is available on video . )
many reviewers have taken the politically-correct stance that any movie which uses naked ladies as scenery is a bad thing ; but they miss the fact that this movie is not about naked ladies , it’s about people in an environment where naked ladies are common , and why such an environment should exist .
it’s about the scum who use other people as power-trip toys , and the need to escape their power .
it’s about a world where sex is nothing and normal human values don’t pertain ; and the lack of sexual excitement and passionate heat in even the most blatant scenes is something of an accomplishment .
an nc-17 movie which isn’t sexually exciting says a great deal about the phoniness and emptiness of a social stratum where sex has been robbed of any kind of beauty , power , or value .
the one scene in the movie that * could * have been a good sex scene , berkley and maclachlan in a swimming pool , is not exciting , because by then we already know his character is a callous manipulator .
if anything , it’s a rape scene with a victim who’s been duped into cooperation .
you don’t make a movie about the history of black people in america without using a few black actors ; you don’t make a movie about world war ii without a few guns going off and a few people getting killed ; and you don’t make a movie about las vegas showgirls without showing a few las vegas showgirls . . .
and in an awful lot of vegas shows , an awful lot of ladies wear very little clothing .
this is a legitimate portrayal of a rather seamy side of the entertainment industry , in a town where sex is simply a negotiable commodity .
showgirls de-glamorizes the las vegas show and sex industries with great effectiveness .
nomi is played , in a very good performance , by elizabeth berkley , who gives us a solid picture of a woman with limited talents who’s at the end of her rope , desperate to live a life better than the one she’s known .
she has nothing to market except her body and her limited dancing ability , and is trying desperately not to to be a hooker , trying to be something better than she seems destined to be .
when nomi realizes she’s gone too far for too little , she catches herself just in time to save the most essential part of who she wants to be .
gina rivera plays molly , a dressmaker and costumer who befriends nomi , providing her with what may be the one solid , positive relationship in nomi’s entire life .
molly is the one who makes the difference , and provides the role model and framework nomi needs to verify the value system she’ll be using for the rest of her life , and nomi’s feelings for molly are the spur that forces nomi’s decision .
gina gershon plays cristal , an aging , but still very attractive starring dancer , a reflexively competitive manipulator who’s become a villainess by internalizing the ethos of the crooks and scum around her .
gershon plays cristal as a cross between ava gardner and raquel welch ; a fading talent made bitter by self-awareness .
her character is very well drawn and performed ; in a major scene in a hospital room , she acknowledges what she is , and , in essence , passes the torch to nomi .
the relationship between the two of them is the most honest one in the movie , and provides part of the impetus nomi needs to follow a different path .
it is no accident that the three important parts in this movie are women of different stripe ; molly is an honest , hard-working person who means well , and nearly dies because she confuses the glitter and the image with reality .
cristal is a talented dancer who’s compromised her ideals and sold herself to be a co-operating part of the system , exchanging self-respect for the species of stardom that can be had in las vegas .
nomi believes she can make it without selling herself , succumbs to a degree , and then realizes she can make it without selling herself , and doesn’t need las vegas or its brand of ” stardom . ”
the male parts in this movie are simply props ; they exist only to demonstrate and explicate the cultural milieu against which showgirls exist .
kyle maclachlan , whose single best previous work was as an inhumanly emotionless cop in the hidden , gives us a nicely reptilian bit of pond scum on two legs , camouflaged as a nice guy .
glenn plummer plays a dancer who’s working as a bellboy , and provides a bit of alternate perspective .
plummer’s character is the only one in the movie who’s maintaining an interest in dance as a performing art , but even he’s succumbed to the cult of manipulation .
plummer’s character is the closest thing to a sympathetic male character in the whole movie .
some of jost vacano’s cinematography is fantastic , and one particular delineation of nomi’s character alteration , a no-dialog scene using nothing but color changes in the lighting , is utterly terrifying .
this movie is rated nc-17 due to language , sexual situations , full frontal nudity , violence , and probably the costuming as well .
i don’t see a way this particular story could have been told well without it , and i regard it as a legitimate exercise in movie-making .
but don’t go see it if you’re not in a tough mood ; the only person it’s possible to like in this movie ends up in an i . c . u .
on life support , and there is probably not one character in this movie you’d enjoy meeting in person .