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Dom Robinson reviews

Boogie Nights

Distributed by

Entertainment In Video

Boogie Nights tells the story of seventeen-year-old busboy Eddie Adams (Mark Wahlberg, brother of New Kids On The Block member Donnie and once better known as rapper 'Marky Mark' who had a single Top 40 hit in 1991 with "Good Vibrations" when it made No.14) working in the kitchen of the Hot Traxx nightclub in the San Fernando Valley in 1977, who is discovered by veteran adult movie-maker Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds, putting in an engaging performance which makes you wonder why he's spent the last decade throwing his career down the toilet) after he learns of Eddie's "talent", which is alluded to by one's "donkey-dick" reference.

Yes, Eddie has a great big penis and it's no secret. It's also going to net him a lot of money once he enters the adult film world as Dirk Diggler, but with the freedom that money provides comes responsbility - something he steers shy of as his social circle expands to include narcotics which disappear up his nose faster than the friends he acquires once he becomes too big for his boots and his career takes a devastating tumble, leading him to wonder if he'll ever find a way out.

If there's one thing this film does have in spades, it's a great cast. (Julianne Moore) plays Amber Waves coming to Eddie's aid as an experience porn star who becomes his first on film and sees him as someone she wants to 'mother' over. William H. Macy has made a career of being the 'down-trodden man', this time being no different as one of Horner's employees with an unfaithful wife - another porn star, but one who doesn't care whether it's for money or pleasure as she sleeps with every guy in town, even right under her husband's nose. Her character is played by a real porn star too, Nina Hartley. The cast also includes Lost In Space's Heather Graham as another porn star, Rollergirl, John C. Reilly as Eddie's best friend Reed Rothchild and Alfred Molina in a cameo as a manic drug dealer with a firecracker-loving friend and a bouncer who makes Vanessa Feltz look anorexic.

Well, with a film that expertly weaves together many separate storylines, surely nothing can go wrong? Sadly, it can. While the picture is anamorphic - giving an extra 33% of resolution - and fairly free of artifacts, it's in the completely wrong theatrical ratio! The film was shot in Panavision with a ratio of 2.35:1, yet the image presented here is cropped to 1.85:1 (not 16:9 as quoted on the box) which destroys just about every well-composed scene from the stunning sweeping opener, a one-take shot that introduces us to the town that Dirk Diggler inhabits, to even basic static scenes that cram several key people into the 2.35:1 frame, which, when cropped, loses some of them so you don't get to see the reactions of everyone at that point. Oh, and the title of the film, emblazoned in a big neon sign at the start, is no longer what it reads above, but is: "oogie Nigh" !

To add insult to injury, the anamorphic version also suffers from the fat-heads syndrome that plagued Wag The Dog, a more complete description of this problem being available with that review. To add insult to insult to injury, a pan-and-scan option is also available when playing the film but since it just selects the central 4:3 portion of the widescreen image, it's a waste of time. ("gie Nig", anyone ?).

The average bitrate is 5.19Mb/s, occasionally peaking over 7Mb/s.

The sound quality, like the film content, is spot-on though. It's presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 and contains one classic track after another as the film runs from the late 70's to the early 80's including Best of My Love (Emotions), Brand New Key (Melanie), Lonely Boy (Andrew Gold), Fooled Around and Fell in Love (Elvin Bishop), Jesse's Girl (Rick Springfield), God Only Knows (The Beach Boys), 99 Red Balloons (Nena), Livin' Thing (Jeff Lynne) and my favourite from the whole film, Mama Told Me Not To Come (Three Dog Night).

It also includes a score from Michael (brother of Sean) Penn, of whom my only experience is his unsurpassable 1990 album, March, featuring the radio hit, No Myth. However, Mr. Penn gets cut off his prime at the top and tail of the movie. At the start, his opening coda has been excised altogether. In the US release it is played while the New Line logo appears plays for nearly a minute before the Emotions kick in, while the logo has its own music burst followed almost instantly by the aforementioned "oogie Nigh". At the end of the closing credits, the music cuts out moments before it's meant to, but that's not the only DVD track which loses out as there's eight more to come.

Extras :

Chapters :

There are 26 chapters spread throughout the 148 minutes of the film, but while it captures some of the major scenes, it's still not nearly enough. Don't go looking for a trailer amongst the extras as you won't find one.

Languages & Subtitles :

The language and subtitles are in English only. Residents of other countries will have to take their cues from Dirk's body-language if they can't understand the plot.

Interviews :

According to the packaging there are interviews but I couldn't find them. What I could find though are eight brief clips lasting between 16 seconds and 1:11 composing of random stop-start soundbites from Wahlberg, Moore, Reynolds, Reilly, Graham, Macy, Cheadle and director Paul Thomas Anderson. However, none of these give you any real insight to the film and every single one sees the interviewee getting cut off in mid-flow!

Other extras :

Director's commentary with additional words from the principal characters mentioned above? No.

Nine deleted scenes not included in the final version of the film? No.

Cast and crew biographies? No.

A music video by Michael Penn, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson? No.

Well, do these exist? Yes and they're on the American release. From this DVD, you wouldn't even find that Anderson wrote and director the 1988 film, The Dirk Diggler Story...

Menu :

The menu system is colourful and easy to navigate what's there, but that won't take long. It's also static and silent.

On inserting the disc, you see the Entertainment In Video logo and the copyright info, before the menu appears. Clicking on "Play Movie" brings up the New Line Cinema logo with its own music, as previously mentioned, before the film starts.

Overall, while the film itself is a classy mix of top-notch script, acting and directing, the sloppy presentation of the DVD has more bungles than an episode of Rainbow and as such cannot be recommended when the American release contains so much more, not to mention the film as it's meant to look.

VCI re-released Shawshank Redemption after initially leaving the public wanting a widescreen version. Buena Vista re-released Armageddon after trying to palm off a non-anamorphic flipper. So, Entertainment In Video, please restore the balance and re-release Boogie Nights with the respect it deserves. 

FILM	 		: *****
PICTURE QUALITY 	: **
SOUND QUALITY		: *****
EXTRAS			: ½
-------------------------------
OVERALL			: ***

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1999.

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