You bet your a$$ it has. It all but swept the 20/20 awards in 2017. The 20/20s are essentially meant to fete those films which, in retrospect, were the best of its year. So. 20 years after BN was released, the members of the 20/20 Awards named it Best Film of 1997. PTA won Best Director, and Julianne Moore and Phillip Seymour Hoffman won for Supporting Actress and Actor in their respective categories.
Definitely one of my favorite films of all time. The whole sequence when Dirk and his crew go to sell drugs to the kingpin has got to be one of the most uncomfortable moments in movie history. As a viewer you're on the edge of your seat feeling claustrophobic the entire time.
And that moment during "Jessie' s Girl" where Wahlberg drifts off and smiles to himself...that's when I really saw the redemptive aspect of the whole film. The five minutes between that smile and Jack's forgiveness almost feels like a gift to the viewer. Truly great film.
St.Louis77 David Amazing sequence there in that third act. The guy high on crack and what he would do or say next. The music which was phenomenal there.
It seems like Siskel didn't have much of an argument as to what he didn't like the film, and don't really think he got the point. Ebert was right on this one.
Siskel was pretty conservative, I think. He was able to praise a movie like Goodfellas, despite its moral bleakness because that movie does not regard its characters with love and affection. Boogie Nights is about characters who live in a world of sex and drugs, and it does treat them with love and affection. I don't think Siskel could fully get behind that. Ebert is on point.
Thank YOU! I hated Roger Ebert, and this right here is a great example why! He was such an obnoxious asshole who thought his opinion was the only one that mattered, and would badger anyone who disagreed with him. And, hell, I don't agree with Gene here, lol. I love this movie! But at least Gene was intelligent, polite and well spoken in his reviews! #RIPGeneSiskel!
Siskel really missed that one. That film was a brilliant and compelling observation on peoples need to feel relevant. Using the 70's and an industry that requires no skill is the perfect metaphor for vacuousness and self delusion.
This movie does have a point. It is a movie about family. A "family of freaks" who sustain and rely on each other through the soaring highs and crushing lows of the porn industry. This meaning is solidified in the absolutely magnificent and emotionally cathartic "God Only Knows" musical sequence, followed by the steadicam long-take through Jack Horner's house.
@Elliot Markwardt That's what makes this a great movie to watch if you're feeling bad about your own life. A few hours of this and your attitude changes to "well, at least I'm not like..."
Elliot Markwardt this analysis of the ending is the most common one I see and could actually agree with. Yeah, everything’s better now than the shit they all went through, but have they really learnt anything? Have they grown in anyway? Will they continue to grow or will they just regress? Another line I notice in the ending as well which pretty much sums up the characters is when Jack asks Rollergirl to “clean” her room: “Move all the dirt to one side, so one part looks clean and the other looks dirty.” Pretty much all the characters have pushed the drugs, egotism and narcissism to the side as a bandaid fix, but actually haven’t gone to the root symptoms to get rid of them for good.
And the characters are repeatedly shown to be just plain stupid with a childish ignorance about them. Note when Dirk says to an interviewer, "What can you expect when you’re on top? You know? It’s like Napoleon. When he was the king, you know, people were just constantly trying to conquer him, you know, in the Roman Empire. So, it’s history repeating itself all over again." Not to mention his stupid karate moves he does and when he screams at Jack, "I know fucking karate!" when he most certainly does not.
A pointless movie isn't necessarily a bad one. Siskel is judging the movie as if it were styled after an epic with a resolution that brings both closure and redemption, but most peoples' lives aren't epic. And this is just a movie about peoples' lives. I know a movie made about me would not have a conclusive 'point'.
Most stories don’t really have a point, they’re about the journey, not the destination. Siskel seemed to really lack understanding about that facet of storytelling.
The movie ends with an explicit reference to Raging Bull, so Siskel might ask himself what the "point" of Raging Bull is as well. The ravages of time is an evergreen theme for movies and literature. At the end of Boogie Nights, we see most of the characters building their lives outside of the porn industry, except Dirk. Dirk is the protagonist, he gets the "happy ending", but we know, beyond the bounds of the movie, his ending will be anything but.
@@DeflatingAtheism yes, the Raging Bull homage is so good and it wasn’t even intentional apparently! Both ending to ‘Bull’ and ‘Nights’ see the protagonists washed up and well past their prime, but trying to grasp something to cling onto their former glory and reflect on the journey. Neither Jake LaMotta or Dirk Diggler actually become better people at the end, they’re merely the exact same as they were at the start of the movie.
You bet your ass Ebert was right! Anybody that would disagree with a movie that was extremely very well made like Boogie Nights is crazy. Siskel just did not understand the uniqueness of this film but Roger Ebert was brilliant enough to consider this one of the best movies of 1997. My thumb is up for you! ~Dutch
Boogie Night was undoubtedly a great movie, but watching this clip I cant help but be reminded of how much we lost with the passing of Siskel and Ebert: always informing, thought -provoking and , entertaining. Theres no critic today who even comes close.
I heard that Donnie got the part by telling the director, who was leaning toward Leo DiCaprio, for the part, went with Wahlberg after he told him that he "has a good 21/2 inches on Leo"
The only professionals on TV today who actually remind me a little of Siskel & Ebert oddly enough are Wilbon and Kornheiser on PTI. They take their jobs seriously, know what they are talking about, will sometimes have opinions others disagree with, and are always intelligent and entertaining.
Funny thing about that song is it originally featured in Transformers the Movie back in the late eighties. I recognized it straight away as I watched it so many times as a kid.
I actually saw Boogie Nights in the movie theater. The drug deal scene with Alfred Molina was startlingly intense. The firecrackers were so loud that everyone in the audience flinched when they went off. That scene, for me, was the realization i was watching a downright brilliant movie.
Same here dude, I'll never forget sitting there in the theater in 1997, and jumping every time a firecracker went off, there was so much tension on that scene... I haven't seen tension like since Halloween 1978
@@Whatchamawhozit Oh it was unbearable! lol. I also remember being absolutely fascinated that one of the scene's most jarring moments is dead silence. When one of Rahad's "Super Cool" mix tapes suddenly stops and another starts turning over. With all that geeked up tension mixed with the firecrackers, the deafening music, Rahad's coked up rage about anyone choosing what songs he listens to and then....SILENCE. It just sucks the air out of your lungs, It felt like a race car plowing into an immovable object . I remember the audience give out this awesome collective gasp. The whole thing was just too damn cool. And in case you were wondering, I am indeed jealous you got to see Halloween during its initial theatrical run. One of the top horror thrillers of all time. But I wouldn't exist for another few years lol. Hell I had to sneak into Boogie Nights because I was waaay too young. I bought a ticket to another movie and just kind of slipped in. I think it was that terrible Mr. Magoo movie that starred Leslie Nielsen.
I think Ebert beccomes angry at Siskle, because for a film critic fail to recognize how brilliant the Boogie Nights is .. is inexcusable, and Ebert is infuriated.
The movie's "point" (as pointless as "looking" for a point actually IS in this GREAT film) is that these people live a life that will burn out. The characters (and real life porn industry folk) probably know this deep down. THE ENTIRE 70s decade was a vacuum of drugs, despair & burnt out post hippie culture (a period that Gene Siskel romanticizes with his Travolta 3 piece disco suit that he bought at auction). Hell, Eagles wrote an entire album (Hotel California) about this very subject! But what this film does is take several recognizable characters whom are all running away from their actual lives and give them their 15 minutes of sex disguised as entertainment glory & then slow painful real life fall back to earth (maybe actually a quick painful fall back to earth). PT Anderson does an incredible job of intersecting these stories into a path of precipitous decline. John Lennon said in his last interview the day before he died "hey, wasn't the 70s a drag? Let's make the 80s good". This movie was the evocation of THAT idea.
I was there, and yes, there was a lot, of shallowness, a lot of "I wish this was still the sixties," and so forth..That's part of what Punk rock arose to destroy. Regardless, the mid to late seventies, post Viet Nam pre AIDS, was in many ways an American high point. No war, an economy and set of institutions that took care of people. Old discriminatory laws had fallen away. Cheep education, very few homeless, and yes, a combination of acess to birth control and no incurable STDs that made sex pretty easy to obtain. And porn, for the first and last time, that actually had a plot.
Yeah, even though the film is about “family” and how people looking for fame can soon find it fleeting, the background setting of the 70’s porn industry in the “Golden Age” is actually a huge driver behind the characters. After obscenity laws related to censorship were watered down in the early 70’s, porn suddenly had an upsurge that propelled explicit X-rated titles to compete against “mainstream” movies. Porn stars regularly appeared on talk shows and were treated as celebrities in an era that’s hard to imagine today. By the 80’s however, video cassettes, hard drugs and the arrival of HIV/AIDS began to diminish the industry and it’s stars back to the shady underground, even taking a few lives of the burnt-out stars. I like how Boogie Nights touched on that era and the history behind it in progressing the rise and fall story, and it’s crazy that people would literally go out to the cinemas to watch a skin flick alongside mainstream non-pornographic films playing, now you can do it at home in the shady dark corners of the internet.
This was a tremendous movie. Every time I watched Siskel & Ebert, Siskel was often the more critical one when it came to good movies. What's to complain about this movie? Great cast with great individual stories. Great screenplay, great music in the film. The scene Ebert is talking about with the kid throwing firecrackers, is one of the best, on the edge of your seat, 10 minutes in movie making. Excellent movie.
This is a film that draws you in subtlety. But once you are in, you are in. You find yourself hooked and you don't even know it. I felt like I was at the partys at Jack's house. I felt almost like the characters in this film were people I knew. They were real. It was really amazing how the film grabbed you and brought you in. If you haven't seen it. I would recommend it because you will trip on its impact on you
+Onmysheet He does nothing of the sort...he just talks over Siskel. Of course Ebert, Mr. Russ Meyer, loved the movie. Head to head Siskel regularly out-argued Ebert.
Ebert always had better taste than Siskel. Watch the Taxi driver review they did in the 1970s. Ebert of course recognized what a great movie it was while Siskel whined about the violence.
Sorry, but this is why Roger Ebert is far more recognized as a great movie critic than Gene Siskel. The firecracker scene is one of the all-time great moments in cinema
Slipser Slipman Ebert also gave a thumbs down to Die Hard and A Clockwork Orange, but a thumbs up to Space Jam and Home Alone 3. Needless to say, he wasn’t perfect.
The cast of "Boogie nights" was astonishing, and they deliver one of the best ensemble performances in the past two decades. Curiously, my favorite performance was delivered by veteran adult film actress Nina Hartley, as a self-absorbed sexual libertine whose hapless husband (William H. Macy) was always walking in on her having sex with some other guy. But what's initially premised as a running gag in the film goes tragically awry in a most startling and unexpected way, in a brilliant twist that shows off director Paul T. Anderson at his very best.
Holy shit, that is William H Macy... I never even realized, I just always thought of the character and not the actor. That's amazing, what great acting as always from Mr. Macy
That scene shocked me as well when it happened, but it’s a good halfway point in the movie where the arousing excitement of the first half “climaxes” before descending into the uncomfortable second half of the movie.
The cast is incredible, I don’t think I have seen a movie with such a talented cast- julianne moore, william macy, philip seymour, don cheadle etc… and Burt Reynolds and walhberg what a performance.
The best actors never play what the script has already written for them. Jack’s lines already had sleaze written into them, so Reynolds made the right choice and chose to add warmth and charm to the character instead.
Exactly, this film is about desperation, it is a human drama, and dark comedy, something that is very difficult to get on film convincingly. If Siskel didn't see that, he had no business being movie critic. Very few films compete with Boogie Nights, from 90s Happiness is similarly brilliant, but not many more
What Gene is criticizing is exactly why it's so memorable. I think he wanted a conventional rise and fall story arc. It doesn't quite give it to us. This is why PTA is such an original if often confounding filmmaker. The Master is another great example. Going in, you think it's a takedown of Scientology. Well it is--sort of. But rather than a story in which Juaquin Phoenix's character gets brainwashed and loses his identity, the opposite happens. He TRIES to let himself get brainwashed but in the end he just can't and kind of ends up adrift more or less how he was when he started. Dirk Diggler is the same way--he's sort of changed by his experiences, but not really. We expect Boogie Nights to be a morality play but while it hardly endorses life in the porn industry, PTA refuses to take the obvious route. He seems to say this world has been both good and bad for these characters and there's no simple affirmation or denunciation to be had. Given that Dirk wasn't the brightest bulb and his mom was psychotic, was his life really going to be much better if he never became a porn star? Debatable. PTA is the master of ambivalence and ambivalence can be frustrating but it's also perhaps more honest to real life.
I saw it in theater in 97, but watching it 10 years later left much bigger impression, and now, 20 years later this in my top 10 of all time, right there with Fargo, Goodfellas, Royal Tenenbaums, The Tenant, Spoorloos and so on
@@valgehiir Amazing how different peoples opinions can be. I dislike all of your faves, but really despise The Tenant. What a totally useless piece of shit. Like many films of the 70s, it was about nothing. I asked myself,"But what am I watching here?" and the answer was nothing, true of so many films of that decade.
@Elliot Markwardt Really you would love The Passenger by Michaelangelo Antonioni with Jack Nicholson, come to think of it also that POS Last Tango. You know I realized Andy Warhol was very influential on 1970s cinema.You should try his 4 hour Chelsea Girls from 1966. It is on youtube.
This movie shows us the human side of the porn world of 40 years ago, long before it became a giant internet industry. The story of this little production family, headed by Burt Reynolds, is told with great integrity by the director and cast. You become invested in the characters and care about what happens to them. And finally, if you are a younger viewer, it will give you some good examples of what party life in the ‘70s was like.
From the first time I've seen this film, it's been one of my favorites. Everyone is so good in it especially Burt Reynolds, William H. Macy, and Don Cheadle.
+Joe John when The Col goes away after the whole underage thing burt renyolds needs to turn to a new source of finance since his backer is now gone the new backer is implied to be with the mafia based on the subtle dialouge and he forces jack horner to move to video
Pat Greenhough actually that was similar to what happened to cause the wonderland murderers that John Homes was involved in. John Holmes is the real life inspiration for the Dirk Digler character. John Holmes conspired with a group of guys who lived on wonderland to rob an underworld figure of LA(the Molina character was based off). After the robbery, the underground figure realizes John Holmes was involved and forces John to give yup hogs accomplices and has John help with their executions.
I totally agree with Siskel. PTA is such a great director, but he ends all his movies with some half-assed “make up your own mind” ending that doesn’t resolve anything. It’s frustrating to see that much greatness fizzle out every time.
Boogie Nights is one of my favorite movies ever, the ensemble cast of characters, the screenplay, camera work, soundtrack, it’s got everything a Tarantino movie would have but PTA has his own unique style. I think it’s a major achievement in film making.
Man did Siskel ever miss the boat on this one. BN is my favorite movie of all-time. It’s an absolutely perfect film in my opinion, and it heralded the ascension of the best new director of the last 20 plus years. In a role written specifically with her in mind, it also helped to solidify my favorite actress, Julianne Moore, as one of the most talented actresses ever to grace the silver screen. It gets 5 of 5 stars from me. Ebert ended up naming it as the 3rd best film of 1997.
I remember watching this fantastic film in a half empty theater thinking how fantastic the acting was and how alive the movie was..Everyone was going Titanic crazy and this got overlooked..One of my favorite movies for sure
I loved how they portrayed the characters in Boogie Nights. They were actually nice and friendly people. In fact, when one was discovered to be a pedophile, they turned their backs on him. Great movie and great characters.
Ehh, well Dirk did turn into a narcissistic crackhead in the 80’s and caused problems for Jack, who in himself wasn’t that great of a person looking on it. I would say Amber despite her flaws and addiction (which started Dirk’s downhill spiral) was genuine but just had a lot of personal issues, Reed also seems pretty decent and rational throughout the film as well (except for the drugs obviously). And Scotty seemed like a nice guy but just awkward and heartbroken after Dirk rejected his advances.
I've got to say this yet again. Both men were ideally suited to TV. Both had great conversational style of presentation. Both genuinely cared about good film making. So, it's a shame that they didn't think more highly of each other at the time they were making the show. I understand that you have to have ego to do this kind of TV criticism and there's always going to be some resentment in a partnership, but why these two guys didn't realise just how good the other was and how more successful they were as a team on the show.....its' regretable and I hope that both re-evaluated eventually.
It's interesting that people try to argue that there really is a point to the movie, but most can't seem to agree on what the point actually is. Siskel thought it was pointless. I guess in a way, everyone is probably right; it's possible that a film can be however you interpret it. I personally don't think being a porn star is a pointless existence any more so than being a film star is. Porn has a definite purpose for existing, and it provides a valuable service for those who consume it. I say valuable because of the amount of money people spend on it. Or, at least they used to until the Internet came along. As for Eddie/Dirk, he was born with a gift and chose to use it in the best way he could, and I think that's admirable. It's just too bad he was a certifiable idiot.
Gideon Waxfarb Dirk Diggler was based closely on 70s porn star John Holmes. But while Diggler was just dim, Holmes was a genuine Sociopath. So, is a porn stars life meaningless? I don't think so either. People do different things to pay the rent. Is a Zinga executives life meaningless? Well, if meaning is derived only from work, I would say yes.
I first saw _Boogie Nights_ in the theater. It was definitely one of the 5 best films of 1996. It should have been nominated for Best Director and Best Picture.
Boogie Nights was indeed a great movie. I also agree with Ebert that the firecracker scene was spectacular... it succeeded so well at conveying the sense of high stress, combined with tunnel vision and feeling numb... really great movie.
Several performers who were in the industry during that time (the Golden Era) have said the movie does a great job of showing the very high highs and the ultra lows of the business. One said it was like working in an industry that was bi polar. At times you felt on top of the world and at others you were below rock bottom.
I disagree with Siskel's opinion. Since when is it a film's job to "teach" you anything about the world? A film is meant to entertain you and play with your emotions. If you learn something from the film, that' a plus, but I don't think it makes a great film into a mediocre film just because it doesn't deliver what Siskel thinks is a "point". Plus it does have a point. That life has it's ups and downs and even those who rise to the top can end up at the bottom very quickly.
Props to them both, they always gave excellent revealing perspective. The film needed no heroes, romance, or cute bowtie wrap-up making a simple judgment about the characters or 'moral'. It told a realistic story of folks living in a phony world they believed would last forever and it didn't so they outcomes happened, reminds of big Tower style record stores against the internet. I agree with Gene. Rise In Power to both.
I’ve literally had these exact conversations where I’ve been like “X movie is good but X scene wasn’t that great, you know?” And they’re like “BUT WHAT ABOUT Y!! Y WAS FANTASTIC!!” And I’m like “Yes, yes, definitely, but I was talking about x and-“ “WHAT ABOUT C, IT WAS SO GOOD!!! AND D, THAT TOO!!!” “Yes it was great, but-“ “AND E!” But I agree with Ebert, it’s a great movie. And after all of the misery and sadness the ending really brought it back, and while predictable it was a good way to end it I felt.
Siskel also didn’t like Silence of the Lambs ( he said there was no chemistry between Hopkins and Foster) or Casino, but thought Saturday Night Fever was one of the greatest movies ever made.
"She's a wonderful mother, you know." I've watched this movie many times and never noticed that line. Goes to show the empty, superficial nature of the character given that she's actually a very shitty mother.
Sorry, Siskel is dead wrong. Life is pointless, more often than not, and sometimes film must strive to be something more than simple entertainment. Like Altman before him, PTAnderson is trying to use film as art. Like our current reality "stars" today, porn in the 70's was a shadow Hollywood of sad dreamers and hangers on who looked to stardom as an escape...Look at the Kardashian juggernaught, a billion dollar empire begun with the current wannabe's version of pornography: the sex tape...
a brilliant film, and one of the great period pieces of the era. the greatest part was the ending and its true to life treatment, where people are victims of their own actions, and in turn are left to pick up the pieces and learn from their mistakes- some sooner than others, just as in real life.
Siskel is correct when he points out that most characters in Boogie Nights meet cold and arbitrary conclusions. However, I'm surprised he considers this a negative aspect of the film. It seems to me that the entire point of the film was to capture the dark hollowness that lay beneath the exuberant veneer of the 1970s. Siskel makes the mistake of not distinguishing between movies that have no meaning and movies that convey a sense of meaninglessness.
I've been seeing movies for almost 55 years and this is in my top 5. The soundtrack related to the scenes was perfect. A breakout movie for so many actors to many to name here. I can personally relate to the 70's and drugs. Like Ebert said they were a bunch of losers and when everyone broke up they went downhill fast but in the end they all came together cause all they had was each other and with that they had hope for the future. Finally Burt Reynolds best performance by far.
I think that's right. It may be that Siskel and Ebert were just a little too far outside that world to get how well the film captured it. They understood the breakdown and disillusionment in the plot, but seem to have missed the redemption which gave it meaning.
I really loved this movie. As mentioned they are like this big family of misfits. The best scene is them at the drug dealers house . It's just crazy with the dealer blaring his favorite music & u feel the nervousness of Wahlberg & john Reilly esp when the dealer has that little guy there blowing off little fire crackers which makes the two guys jump bc they know the bodyguard is about to bust them any minute as he is checking out the fake coke. Such a great scene. Anytime I even think of boogie nights the sister christian or Jesse's girl blaring. Burt deserved the oscar that year. The casting is pretty great. Wahlberg ( in his breakout movie performance) Reilly, Reynolds, alfredo Molina, julianne moore , heather Graham, thomas Jane phillip Seymour hoffman & William Macy. That's an epic ensemble cast. Finally that sequence of seeing all the characters at their worst is pretty haunting & stayed with me after the movie ended.
I love these guys. These were the two dudes I would look forward to on Sunday early afternoon for movie reviews and just to know about movies. Great guys.
siskel was a cold-blooded dude. the director made you care about what happened and what you saw happen to the people in the story. the highest highs vs the lowest lows for a lot of misguided people, it was very human.
The way these 2 argue is what people NEED to take note of. They disagree but always maintain respect for each other. They're intellectuals but have the innate ability to judge something at face value. They would'nt expect Shakespeare from a Schwarzenegger film.
Still my all-time favorite movie. I haven't seen it in a few years, but for a while I was legit obsessed with it. Must've watched it twenty-five times, at least. The "point" is they're broken people who band together and form a makeshift family. It's sweet, sad, funny. Hands down still PTA's best movie.
As much as I know PTA is a fan of Robert Altman and that he does do some "Altman-esque" stuff with his screenplay and his camera, I'd have to think he would perceive "the heir to Robert Altman" moniker as a kind of a back-handed compliment because he may feel as if that moniker pigeon-holes him into being a specific kind of filmmaker who not only has one "filmmaking style", but also it implies that that "style" isn't even of his own original creation, and he, instead, merely "RE-invented" someone else's original filmmaking style.
Especially this one, I can't remember a SINGLE review from Siskel that I either liked, that was instructional, or that was a good recommendation. "Boogie Nights" was terrific, on many levels. Siskel never "got it" regarding many films.
I actually agree with Siskel. The characters, attention to detail, dialogue, dramatic tension are all incredibly vivid and well-realized. The ending is just what thew it off for me. "Arbitrary" is what Siskel says and I tend to agree. I hear the theme and overall point being meaninglessness and I appreciate that and understand that's likely what PTA intended - I just think we explored these characters so deeply and got to know them really well, the ending sort of drifts off instead of sewing up much resolution. It makes sense to end the way it does, showing each character graduate out of that time period and move on with life. But it feels more like the end of a documentary than an intimate story, imo.
I think this movie’s large theme is JOY and how we block it yet maybe stumble into it This film 🎥 was the calling card of a new Scorsese level talent, yet not a Scorsese, an artist, auteur with his own unique and one of a kind voice: P.T. Anderson. Everyone’s a critic 😅
This movie stood the test of time. It's a classic.
I completely agree that is has and will stand the test of time... I'm not completely sure it's old enough to be a classic yet though
AGREED
You bet your a$$ it has. It all but swept the 20/20 awards in 2017. The 20/20s are essentially meant to fete those films which, in retrospect, were the best of its year. So. 20 years after BN was released, the members of the 20/20 Awards named it Best Film of 1997. PTA won Best Director, and Julianne Moore and Phillip Seymour Hoffman won for Supporting Actress and Actor in their respective categories.
Marty Jackson Oh; it’s a classic.
Marty Jackson 20 years? Def old enough
Definitely one of my favorite films of all time. The whole sequence when Dirk and his crew go to sell drugs to the kingpin has got to be one of the most uncomfortable moments in movie history. As a viewer you're on the edge of your seat feeling claustrophobic the entire time.
Yes!
And that moment during "Jessie' s Girl" where Wahlberg drifts off and smiles to himself...that's when I really saw the redemptive aspect of the whole film. The five minutes between that smile and Jack's forgiveness almost feels like a gift to the viewer. Truly great film.
Yup, it had me squirming in my seat the first time I saw it. I kept wanting to scream at the screen “GET THE FUCK OUT OF THAT HOUSE!!”
St.Louis77 David Amazing sequence there in that third act. The guy high on crack and what he would do or say next. The music which was phenomenal there.
When Sister Christian starts playing as the gate closes, you just know that their lives are going to change. What a great scene!
It seems like Siskel didn't have much of an argument as to what he didn't like the film, and don't really think he got the point. Ebert was right on this one.
Siskel gave it a positive review too, you know. Just not AS positive as Ebert.
Siskel was pretty conservative, I think. He was able to praise a movie like Goodfellas, despite its moral bleakness because that movie does not regard its characters with love and affection. Boogie Nights is about characters who live in a world of sex and drugs, and it does treat them with love and affection. I don't think Siskel could fully get behind that.
Ebert is on point.
Siskel was WAY sharper and smarter than Ebert.
Thank YOU! I hated Roger Ebert, and this right here is a great example why! He was such an obnoxious asshole who thought his opinion was the only one that mattered, and would badger anyone who disagreed with him.
And, hell, I don't agree with Gene here, lol. I love this movie!
But at least Gene was intelligent, polite and well spoken in his reviews!
#RIPGeneSiskel!
@@cliffslatterly2893 Agreed. Great movie. Glad they both enjoyed it.
Ebert was right on the money with his assessment.
Ebert always seemed to know what he was talking about while Siskel had a bit of snobbery about his tastes.
It was entertaining. No deep message. It wasn't meant to have one.
@@cennon Ebert and Siskel? Or Boogie Nights?
Ebert Has a Bit of Experience With the Industry ... Having Worked with Russ Meyer Back in the Day, & Co-Written "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls"
siskel was always so clueless, boogie nights is a master piece
Siskel really missed that one. That film was a brilliant and compelling observation on peoples need to feel relevant. Using the 70's and an industry that requires no skill is the perfect metaphor for vacuousness and self delusion.
Siskel was always clueless.. he didn't like Predator, The Crow, Dark City, ALIENS, casino, and this master piece Boogie Nights..
You summed that up perfectly.
james williams He didn't like Pulp Fiction either.
Mike Reed You're Wrong Mike,Gene Siskel DID Enjoy "Pulp Fiction".
Mike Reed he even made a special episode about "Pulp Fiction". Its on the Pulp Fiction blue ray ;)
This movie does have a point. It is a movie about family. A "family of freaks" who sustain and rely on each other through the soaring highs and crushing lows of the porn industry. This meaning is solidified in the absolutely magnificent and emotionally cathartic "God Only Knows" musical sequence, followed by the steadicam long-take through Jack Horner's house.
I always found the sad circus music very moving.
@Elliot Markwardt That's what makes this a great movie to watch if you're feeling bad about your own life. A few hours of this and your attitude changes to "well, at least I'm not like..."
Elliot Markwardt this analysis of the ending is the most common one I see and could actually agree with.
Yeah, everything’s better now than the shit they all went through, but have they really learnt anything? Have they grown in anyway? Will they continue to grow or will they just regress?
Another line I notice in the ending as well which pretty much sums up the characters is when Jack asks Rollergirl to “clean” her room: “Move all the dirt to one side, so one part looks clean and the other looks dirty.” Pretty much all the characters have pushed the drugs, egotism and narcissism to the side as a bandaid fix, but actually haven’t gone to the root symptoms to get rid of them for good.
And the characters are repeatedly shown to be just plain stupid with a childish ignorance about them. Note when Dirk says to an interviewer, "What can you expect when you’re on top? You know? It’s like Napoleon. When he was the king, you know, people were just constantly trying to conquer him, you know, in the Roman Empire. So, it’s history repeating itself all over again." Not to mention his stupid karate moves he does and when he screams at Jack, "I know fucking karate!" when he most certainly does not.
Very true. It's about family, and that's what's so powerful about it.
I thought Boogie Nights was the best picture that year, and it wasn't even nominated.
theriokid Boogie Nights and Goodfellas are my favorite films from the 90's.
isaiah nguyen Pulp Fiction and The Truman Show are mine.
+one2gaming pulp fiction was 1994.
Sam Adolph ?
one2gaming whoopsie. Didn't see the earlier comment.
A pointless movie isn't necessarily a bad one. Siskel is judging the movie as if it were styled after an epic with a resolution that brings both closure and redemption, but most peoples' lives aren't epic. And this is just a movie about peoples' lives. I know a movie made about me would not have a conclusive 'point'.
bang on. Boogie Nights is simply an observation of a slice in time and the people who lived in it.
The need for family is a theme in all of PTA's films.
Most stories don’t really have a point, they’re about the journey, not the destination. Siskel seemed to really lack understanding about that facet of storytelling.
The movie ends with an explicit reference to Raging Bull, so Siskel might ask himself what the "point" of Raging Bull is as well. The ravages of time is an evergreen theme for movies and literature. At the end of Boogie Nights, we see most of the characters building their lives outside of the porn industry, except Dirk. Dirk is the protagonist, he gets the "happy ending", but we know, beyond the bounds of the movie, his ending will be anything but.
@@DeflatingAtheism yes, the Raging Bull homage is so good and it wasn’t even intentional apparently!
Both ending to ‘Bull’ and ‘Nights’ see the protagonists washed up and well past their prime, but trying to grasp something to cling onto their former glory and reflect on the journey. Neither Jake LaMotta or Dirk Diggler actually become better people at the end, they’re merely the exact same as they were at the start of the movie.
Ebert is right
You bet your ass Ebert was right! Anybody that would disagree with a movie that was extremely very well made like Boogie Nights is crazy. Siskel just did not understand the uniqueness of this film but Roger Ebert was brilliant enough to consider this one of the best movies of 1997.
My thumb is up for you!
~Dutch
They both make valid points, but, yes, I think Ebert is right.
I'm also on Ebert's side, but Siskel correctly noted that the character's fates seemed a bit arbitrary. Case in point: the doughnut shop shootout.
miljenko1 That's the whole fucking point. Life is very random. Sometimes LUCK can save you. Believe that.
still, it kind of hints at lazy screenwriting.
Boogie Night was undoubtedly a great movie, but watching this clip I cant help but be reminded of how much we lost with the passing of Siskel and Ebert: always informing, thought -provoking and , entertaining. Theres no critic today who even comes close.
I completely agree.
Chris Stuckmann
Curiously, Boogie Nights wasn’t in Ebert’s Great Movies list.
@Julian Borges And you must be brimming with intelligence
It's the platform and the ability to be honest about what they believe. A lot harder today.
Are you people on drugs? The drug deal scene is one of the best scenes ever! Wahlberg's acting during it is amazing. One of my favourite movies
I heard that Donnie got the part by telling the director, who was leaning toward Leo DiCaprio, for the part, went with Wahlberg after he told him that he "has a good 21/2 inches on Leo"
That drug deal scene is heavily based on the Wonderland murders with Eddie Nash and John Holmes. The awesome movie Wonderland goes into that.
Nat Mey It is one of the 5 best scenes ever put to celluloid.
Yep. Great scene.
..and the donut shop scene is so masterful too
god i miss this show.
The both died so long ago
@@johnnymfan5065 Roger Ebert died in 2013. 7 years may seem like a vast amount of time to you, but not to everyone.
The only professionals on TV today who actually remind me a little of Siskel & Ebert oddly enough are Wilbon and Kornheiser on PTI. They take their jobs seriously, know what they are talking about, will sometimes have opinions others disagree with, and are always intelligent and entertaining.
It's fun to watch them on Letterman:
th-cam.com/video/qfFG6YdayX4/w-d-xo.html
When Dirk goes into the studio to record "You Got the Touch" is the funniest scene in the movie. So much cringe.
Also layered as Wahlberg at the time was an accomplished musician. Very funny
Funny thing about that song is it originally featured in Transformers the Movie back in the late eighties. I recognized it straight away as I watched it so many times as a kid.
John C. Reilly's dancing. Lmfao!
@@gabrielidusogie9189
I hope that's sarcasm! Accomplished musician?? Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch?? 😂
Nina Hartleys cameo 😍
One of the very best films of the 90s
Of all time in my humble opinion.
Ever
Ever
Top ten without a doubt. Very possibly top five.
I even got a TK421 mod on my stereo because of this movie.
Haha “rap singer turned Calvin Klein model, Mark Wahlberg”
*cue Eminem's "one big Funky Bunch" line on TRL*
I actually saw Boogie Nights in the movie theater. The drug deal scene with Alfred Molina was startlingly intense. The firecrackers were so loud that everyone in the audience flinched when they went off. That scene, for me, was the realization i was watching a downright brilliant movie.
It is. The firecrackers are a nice touch.
He killed that scene. When the boys walk in and his reaction when he yells “hello friends” for some reason always stuck with me.
Same here dude, I'll never forget sitting there in the theater in 1997, and jumping every time a firecracker went off, there was so much tension on that scene... I haven't seen tension like since Halloween 1978
@@Whatchamawhozit Oh it was unbearable! lol. I also remember being absolutely fascinated that one of the scene's most jarring moments is dead silence. When one of Rahad's "Super Cool" mix tapes suddenly stops and another starts turning over. With all that geeked up tension mixed with the firecrackers, the deafening music, Rahad's coked up rage about anyone choosing what songs he listens to and then....SILENCE. It just sucks the air out of your lungs, It felt like a race car plowing into an immovable object . I remember the audience give out this awesome collective gasp. The whole thing was just too damn cool. And in case you were wondering, I am indeed jealous you got to see Halloween during its initial theatrical run. One of the top horror thrillers of all time. But I wouldn't exist for another few years lol. Hell I had to sneak into Boogie Nights because I was waaay too young. I bought a ticket to another movie and just kind of slipped in. I think it was that terrible Mr. Magoo movie that starred Leslie Nielsen.
I'm lucky to have seen this in the theater as a young teenager. One of my all time movies.
These guys go at it harder than a TH-cam comments section
Boogie Nights is one of the most underrated movies of the last 30 years
I think Ebert beccomes angry at Siskle, because for a film critic fail to recognize how brilliant the Boogie Nights is .. is inexcusable, and Ebert is infuriated.
Lol
The movie's "point" (as pointless as "looking" for a point actually IS in this GREAT film) is that these people live a life that will burn out. The characters (and real life porn industry folk) probably know this deep down. THE ENTIRE 70s decade was a vacuum of drugs, despair & burnt out post hippie culture (a period that Gene Siskel romanticizes with his Travolta 3 piece disco suit that he bought at auction). Hell, Eagles wrote an entire album (Hotel California) about this very subject! But what this film does is take several recognizable characters whom are all running away from their actual lives and give them their 15 minutes of sex disguised as entertainment glory & then slow painful real life fall back to earth (maybe actually a quick painful fall back to earth). PT Anderson does an incredible job of intersecting these stories into a path of precipitous decline. John Lennon said in his last interview the day before he died "hey, wasn't the 70s a drag? Let's make the 80s good". This movie was the evocation of THAT idea.
I was there, and yes, there was a lot, of shallowness, a lot of "I wish this was still the sixties," and so forth..That's part of what Punk rock arose to destroy. Regardless, the mid to late seventies, post Viet Nam pre AIDS, was in many ways an American high point. No war, an economy and set of institutions that took care of people. Old discriminatory laws had fallen away. Cheep education, very few homeless, and yes, a combination of acess to birth control and no incurable STDs that made sex pretty easy to obtain. And porn, for the first and last time, that actually had a plot.
Ethan Davidson You just blew my mind.
Yeah, even though the film is about “family” and how people looking for fame can soon find it fleeting, the background setting of the 70’s porn industry in the “Golden Age” is actually a huge driver behind the characters.
After obscenity laws related to censorship were watered down in the early 70’s, porn suddenly had an upsurge that propelled explicit X-rated titles to compete against “mainstream” movies. Porn stars regularly appeared on talk shows and were treated as celebrities in an era that’s hard to imagine today.
By the 80’s however, video cassettes, hard drugs and the arrival of HIV/AIDS began to diminish the industry and it’s stars back to the shady underground, even taking a few lives of the burnt-out stars.
I like how Boogie Nights touched on that era and the history behind it in progressing the rise and fall story, and it’s crazy that people would literally go out to the cinemas to watch a skin flick alongside mainstream non-pornographic films playing, now you can do it at home in the shady dark corners of the internet.
I love Boogie Nights so much. Ebert is right here.
One of the best films ever to not get nominated for Best Picture.
Along with Magnolia. PTA is having the Stanley Kubrick syndrome, his movies are too good for the Oscars.
Exactly. It was the best one that year for sure. It's now a classic.
The Academy is a hack, it's always been that way
@@nilsandersson4654 your right he is like the modern day Kubrick his films dont get the appreciation they deserve.
..its best movie of 1997..than L.A. confidential.. NOT titanic
This was a tremendous movie. Every time I watched Siskel & Ebert, Siskel was often the more critical one when it came to good movies. What's to complain about this movie? Great cast with great individual stories. Great screenplay, great music in the film. The scene Ebert is talking about with the kid throwing firecrackers, is one of the best, on the edge of your seat, 10 minutes in movie making. Excellent movie.
This is a film that draws you in subtlety. But once you are in, you are in. You find yourself hooked and you don't even know it. I felt like I was at the partys at Jack's house. I felt almost like the characters in this film were people I knew. They were real. It was really amazing how the film grabbed you and brought you in. If you haven't seen it. I would recommend it because you will trip on its impact on you
They were also all kind of nice people. In reality I doubt they would've been that charming...but who knows.
Ebert was dead on right! Siskel couldn't handle the meaninglessness of this outstanding movie!
ebert was the better of the two
I love how Ebert just shuts him down. lol
+Onmysheet He does nothing of the sort...he just talks over Siskel. Of course Ebert, Mr. Russ Meyer, loved the movie. Head to head Siskel regularly out-argued Ebert.
+ziweiyuan "out-argued" ha! Whatever that is... Siskel was a hack who was too film school prof than an actual reviewer
Ebert couldn't shut down his mama.
Gene Z''L was a bit of. Hack
Ebert was able to shut ANYONE down!
Wow, the makeup could not hide how sick Siskel was here.
I thought one of Phillip Seymour Hoffmans greatest performances was in this film.
I absolutely agree with your Philip Seymour Hoffman comment--I adored his character in this movie.
It was ¨Hey the looks like the same guy from twister, Nah can´t be...wow it is! Man he can act!¨
He was good in this but you should watch him in "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead". That was a great performance.
MegaMoose1989 Siskel was actually fine right here. Watch the videos from 1998 then you’ll see a truly ill Gene. It was heartbreaking
@@flexiblestrategist9922 Came here to say this. Such a great but underrated and unknown flick. Everybody is great in it, especially PSH
Ebert always had better taste than Siskel. Watch the Taxi driver review they did in the 1970s. Ebert of course recognized what a great movie it was while Siskel whined about the violence.
and here Siskle used the term 'pornographic' twice in his description, as if describing a porn film. Siskel always was dumb.
But Ebert missed the boat on Blue Velvet, while Siskel got it.
There are many times when Ebert missed the point too
Sorry, but this is why Roger Ebert is far more recognized as a great movie critic than Gene Siskel. The firecracker scene is one of the all-time great moments in cinema
That's Cosmo.....he's Chinese, lol.
Literally every movie that has a drug scene now always is inspired from that scene
Ebert still has some whack opinions though. He loves this film but finds Blue Velvet morally abhorrent.
@@slipserslipman1841 My thoughts, exactly.
Slipser Slipman Ebert also gave a thumbs down to Die Hard and A Clockwork Orange, but a thumbs up to Space Jam and Home Alone 3. Needless to say, he wasn’t perfect.
The cast of "Boogie nights" was astonishing, and they deliver one of the best ensemble performances in the past two decades. Curiously, my favorite performance was delivered by veteran adult film actress Nina Hartley, as a self-absorbed sexual libertine whose hapless husband (William H. Macy) was always walking in on her having sex with some other guy. But what's initially premised as a running gag in the film goes tragically awry in a most startling and unexpected way, in a brilliant twist that shows off director Paul T. Anderson at his very best.
Holy shit, that is William H Macy... I never even realized, I just always thought of the character and not the actor. That's amazing, what great acting as always from Mr. Macy
And the judge was Veronica Hart
That scene shocked me as well when it happened, but it’s a good halfway point in the movie where the arousing excitement of the first half “climaxes” before descending into the uncomfortable second half of the movie.
The cast is incredible, I don’t think I have seen a movie with such a talented cast- julianne moore, william macy, philip seymour, don cheadle etc… and Burt Reynolds and walhberg what a performance.
incredibly stupid plot twist.
Siskel was sometimes so totally WRONG it´s embarrasing.
he thinks he knows everything he was always like that!
Ebert is also incredibly wrong sometimes.
I think Gene was sick at this stage. I don't know, he looks very thin.
They both have such different opinions and so many people agree with both of them on different films, that's what made their show so great
Star Fucker sure, but not with this one.
Boogie Nights is a great film. One of PTA's best.
Isn’t every PTA film one of his best
It's a toss up between Boogie Nights and There will be Blood.
@@seanwalsh72
There will be blood>Phantom thread>Boogie nights
Hard Eight. Nuff said.
THE MASTER, are u nuts?
Burt Reynolds' performance is kind of amazing because on paper his character should come off as sleazy and exploitative, but he never does.
The best actors never play what the script has already written for them. Jack’s lines already had sleaze written into them, so Reynolds made the right choice and chose to add warmth and charm to the character instead.
The meaning of the movie is about people in search of a family...who & where they find it in! I can't believe these 2 couldn't see that.
Exactly, this film is about desperation, it is a human drama, and dark comedy, something that is very difficult to get on film convincingly. If Siskel didn't see that, he had no business being movie critic. Very few films compete with Boogie Nights, from 90s Happiness is similarly brilliant, but not many more
We'll put....right.on the money
Ebert was getting at that, with his descriptions of Julianne Moore's and Burt Reynold's characters, if Siskel would have just LET HIM TALK.
What Gene is criticizing is exactly why it's so memorable. I think he wanted a conventional rise and fall story arc. It doesn't quite give it to us. This is why PTA is such an original if often confounding filmmaker. The Master is another great example. Going in, you think it's a takedown of Scientology. Well it is--sort of. But rather than a story in which Juaquin Phoenix's character gets brainwashed and loses his identity, the opposite happens. He TRIES to let himself get brainwashed but in the end he just can't and kind of ends up adrift more or less how he was when he started. Dirk Diggler is the same way--he's sort of changed by his experiences, but not really. We expect Boogie Nights to be a morality play but while it hardly endorses life in the porn industry, PTA refuses to take the obvious route. He seems to say this world has been both good and bad for these characters and there's no simple affirmation or denunciation to be had. Given that Dirk wasn't the brightest bulb and his mom was psychotic, was his life really going to be much better if he never became a porn star? Debatable. PTA is the master of ambivalence and ambivalence can be frustrating but it's also perhaps more honest to real life.
Team Ebert all the way here. One of the best films ever.
Boogie Nights is one of my favorite movies of all time, i just watched it yesterday and its still amazing.
I saw it in theater in 97, but watching it 10 years later left much bigger impression, and now, 20 years later this in my top 10 of all time, right there with Fargo, Goodfellas, Royal Tenenbaums, The Tenant, Spoorloos and so on
@@valgehiir Amazing how different peoples opinions can be. I dislike all of your faves, but really despise The Tenant. What a totally useless piece of shit. Like many films of the 70s, it was about nothing. I asked myself,"But what am I watching here?" and the answer was nothing, true of so many films of that decade.
@Elliot Markwardt Really you would love The Passenger by Michaelangelo Antonioni with Jack Nicholson, come to think of it also that POS Last Tango. You know I realized Andy Warhol was very influential on 1970s cinema.You should try his 4 hour Chelsea Girls from 1966. It is on youtube.
@Elliot Markwardt Ok peace my brother. Stay safe
the point of the film is that there is no point. best movie of the 90's!
This movie shows us the human side of the porn world of 40 years ago, long before it became a giant internet industry. The story of this little production family, headed by Burt Reynolds, is told with great integrity by the director and cast. You become invested in the characters and care about what happens to them. And finally, if you are a younger viewer, it will give you some good examples of what party life in the ‘70s was like.
From the first time I've seen this film, it's been one of my favorites. Everyone is so good in it especially Burt Reynolds, William H. Macy, and Don Cheadle.
I miss watching these two debate. They had a huge influence on me and getting into film. Really miss them both.
Someone remix this video and dub Phillip Seymour Hoffman crying over Gene's words
One of the best movies I've ever seen. In my personal top ten.
"The mob destroys them." I definitely agree with Ebert's review, but did I miss something in my numerous viewings of this film? The mob?
Think he's reffering to Alfred Molina's character, and their drug use/dealing.
+Joe John when The Col goes away after the whole underage thing burt renyolds needs to turn to a new source of finance since his backer is now gone the new backer is implied to be with the mafia based on the subtle dialouge and he forces jack horner to move to video
Joe John It's amazing how they kept the mob ties very subtle. That's why you didn't catch it at first. That's great film writing.
Pat Greenhough actually that was similar to what happened to cause the wonderland murderers that John Homes was involved in. John Holmes is the real life inspiration for the Dirk Digler character. John Holmes conspired with a group of guys who lived on wonderland to rob an underworld figure of LA(the Molina character was based off). After the robbery, the underground figure realizes John Holmes was involved and forces John to give yup hogs accomplices and has John help with their executions.
@@SpikeMichaels floyd gondoli
This movie still holds up even today, an absolute classic.
Boogie Nights is probably in my top ten. Paul Thomas Anderson is amazing.
Ooh yeah, I can definitely see that! Probably in my personal top 10 and it’s in at least the top 50 for a lot of film connoisseurs!
in my top 6 of all time
What blows my mind is Paul Thomas Anderson was 25 years old when he made this.
I am sorry but Siskel was always so full of crap! (RIP!)
I totally agree with Siskel. PTA is such a great director, but he ends all his movies with some half-assed “make up your own mind” ending that doesn’t resolve anything. It’s frustrating to see that much greatness fizzle out every time.
I think this is one of the best movies of the 90's. The amount of great actors and performances in this is just crazy.
Thank you for uploading this. It helps to sum up what makes this show so valuable
SNES drunk I sub your channel and have a nice rest of your day
This means you like the movie as much as me
Sssssssnes Dirk
I really like this movie, and Burt Reynolds definitely deserved the Oscar nomination he got for his performance.
Boogie Nights is one of my favorite movies ever, the ensemble cast of characters, the screenplay, camera work, soundtrack, it’s got everything a Tarantino movie would have but PTA has his own unique style. I think it’s a major achievement in film making.
Man did Siskel ever miss the boat on this one. BN is my favorite movie of all-time. It’s an absolutely perfect film in my opinion, and it heralded the ascension of the best new director of the last 20 plus years. In a role written specifically with her in mind, it also helped to solidify my favorite actress, Julianne Moore, as one of the most talented actresses ever to grace the silver screen. It gets 5 of 5 stars from me. Ebert ended up naming it as the 3rd best film of 1997.
It's been at LEAST 5 years since I've seen Boogie Nights - I think I've "only" saw it three times, I want to see it again. Great movie.
I remember watching this fantastic film in a half empty theater thinking how fantastic the acting was and how alive the movie was..Everyone was going Titanic crazy and this got overlooked..One of my favorite movies for sure
I loved how they portrayed the characters in Boogie Nights. They were actually nice and friendly people. In fact, when one was discovered to be a pedophile, they turned their backs on him. Great movie and great characters.
Ehh, well Dirk did turn into a narcissistic crackhead in the 80’s and caused problems for Jack, who in himself wasn’t that great of a person looking on it.
I would say Amber despite her flaws and addiction (which started Dirk’s downhill spiral) was genuine but just had a lot of personal issues, Reed also seems pretty decent and rational throughout the film as well (except for the drugs obviously). And Scotty seemed like a nice guy but just awkward and heartbroken after Dirk rejected his advances.
I've got to say this yet again. Both men were ideally suited to TV. Both had great conversational style of presentation. Both genuinely cared about good film making. So, it's a shame that they didn't think more highly of each other at the time they were making the show. I understand that you have to have ego to do this kind of TV criticism and there's always going to be some resentment in a partnership, but why these two guys didn't realise just how good the other was and how more successful they were as a team on the show.....its' regretable and I hope that both re-evaluated eventually.
I love when these two guys would disagree. I miss them.
It's interesting that people try to argue that there really is a point to the movie, but most can't seem to agree on what the point actually is. Siskel thought it was pointless. I guess in a way, everyone is probably right; it's possible that a film can be however you interpret it. I personally don't think being a porn star is a pointless existence any more so than being a film star is. Porn has a definite purpose for existing, and it provides a valuable service for those who consume it. I say valuable because of the amount of money people spend on it. Or, at least they used to until the Internet came along.
As for Eddie/Dirk, he was born with a gift and chose to use it in the best way he could, and I think that's admirable. It's just too bad he was a certifiable idiot.
Gideon Waxfarb Dirk Diggler was based closely on 70s porn star John Holmes. But while Diggler was just dim, Holmes was a genuine Sociopath. So, is a porn stars life meaningless? I don't think so either. People do different things to pay the rent. Is a Zinga executives life meaningless? Well, if meaning is derived only from work, I would say yes.
Omg I love this movie so many people went on to be very big in Hollywood and love the whole 70's scene with great soundtrack.
THIS BUT MARK ON THE MAP FOR REAL. NO LOOK AT HIM.
One of my favorite duo, im tired of people only praising ebert
I first saw _Boogie Nights_ in the theater. It was definitely one of the 5 best films of 1996. It should have been nominated for Best Director and Best Picture.
A movie that has aged really well. One of my favorites.
Boogie Nights was indeed a great movie. I also agree with Ebert that the firecracker scene was spectacular... it succeeded so well at conveying the sense of high stress, combined with tunnel vision and feeling numb... really great movie.
haha woah, Siskel's left eye at 2:03, starts turning into a gaping black void.
LoL.. I was just noticing that!! thought it was me
This was the year before he had surgery for a brain tumor.
Great film, and the fire cracker scene was outstanding. Thomas jane’s best role, perhaps mark wahlberg’s as well. One of Tarantino’s favorites.
Several performers who were in the industry during that time (the Golden Era) have said the movie does a great job of showing the very high highs and the ultra lows of the business. One said it was like working in an industry that was bi polar. At times you felt on top of the world and at others you were below rock bottom.
I disagree with Siskel's opinion. Since when is it a film's job to "teach" you anything about the world? A film is meant to entertain you and play with your emotions. If you learn something from the film, that' a plus, but I don't think it makes a great film into a mediocre film just because it doesn't deliver what Siskel thinks is a "point". Plus it does have a point. That life has it's ups and downs and even those who rise to the top can end up at the bottom very quickly.
Nobody mentioned those unbelieveable one-shots this movie has, starting with the very first scene. Absolutely amazing.
lol...
Indeed. And that long take during the pool scene, too!
Mama told me not to come 🎶
Props to them both, they always gave excellent revealing perspective.
The film needed no heroes, romance, or cute bowtie wrap-up making a simple judgment about the characters or 'moral'. It told a realistic story of folks living in a phony world they believed would last forever and it didn't so they outcomes happened, reminds of big Tower style record stores against the internet.
I agree with Gene. Rise In Power to both.
I’ve literally had these exact conversations where I’ve been like “X movie is good but X scene wasn’t that great, you know?” And they’re like “BUT WHAT ABOUT Y!! Y WAS FANTASTIC!!” And I’m like “Yes, yes, definitely, but I was talking about x and-“
“WHAT ABOUT C, IT WAS SO GOOD!!! AND D, THAT TOO!!!”
“Yes it was great, but-“
“AND E!”
But I agree with Ebert, it’s a great movie. And after all of the misery and sadness the ending really brought it back, and while predictable it was a good way to end it I felt.
Used to watch every review these guys did. Ebert was the man! Miss him still.
Boogie Nights is a masterpiece. Everything about it feels utterly real.
Siskel also didn’t like Silence of the Lambs ( he said there was no chemistry between Hopkins and Foster) or Casino, but thought Saturday Night Fever was one of the greatest movies ever made.
"She's a wonderful mother, you know."
I've watched this movie many times and never noticed that line. Goes to show the empty, superficial nature of the character given that she's actually a very shitty mother.
Very good film and soundtrack! Burt Reynolds and Julianne Moore stood out among the cast.
Tell him Roger!!
Sorry, Siskel is dead wrong. Life is pointless, more often than not, and sometimes film must strive to be something more than simple entertainment. Like Altman before him, PTAnderson is trying to use film as art. Like our current reality "stars" today, porn in the 70's was a shadow Hollywood of sad dreamers and hangers on who looked to stardom as an escape...Look at the Kardashian juggernaught, a billion dollar empire begun with the current wannabe's version of pornography: the sex tape...
I swear to God, sometimes there is absolutely nothing that can please Siskel. If Boogie Nights doesn't please him, nothing will.
By the end of the movie you feel for every character. Even the ruthless ones. You just want to root for them to find happiness.
YOU'RE RIGHT NOTHING ENDS GOOD IN THE PORN WORLD.
Roger is completely right, of course
Favorite film of all time, Back to the Future close behind.
a brilliant film, and one of the great period pieces of the era. the greatest part was the ending and its true to life treatment, where people are victims of their own actions, and in turn are left to pick up the pieces and learn from their mistakes- some sooner than others, just as in real life.
Siskel is correct when he points out that most characters in Boogie Nights meet cold and arbitrary conclusions. However, I'm surprised he considers this a negative aspect of the film. It seems to me that the entire point of the film was to capture the dark hollowness that lay beneath the exuberant veneer of the 1970s. Siskel makes the mistake of not distinguishing between movies that have no meaning and movies that convey a sense of meaninglessness.
I've been seeing movies for almost 55 years and this is in my top 5. The soundtrack related to the scenes was perfect. A breakout movie for so many actors to many to name here. I can personally relate to the 70's and drugs. Like Ebert said they were a bunch of losers and when everyone broke up they went downhill fast but in the end they all came together cause all they had was each other and with that they had hope for the future. Finally Burt Reynolds best performance by far.
I think that's right. It may be that Siskel and Ebert were just a little too far outside that world to get how well the film captured it. They understood the breakdown and disillusionment in the plot, but seem to have missed the redemption which gave it meaning.
One of the best soundtracks ever.
I really loved this movie. As mentioned they are like this big family of misfits. The best scene is them at the drug dealers house . It's just crazy with the dealer blaring his favorite music & u feel the nervousness of Wahlberg & john Reilly esp when the dealer has that little guy there blowing off little fire crackers which makes the two guys jump bc they know the bodyguard is about to bust them any minute as he is checking out the fake coke. Such a great scene. Anytime I even think of boogie nights the sister christian or Jesse's girl blaring. Burt deserved the oscar that year.
The casting is pretty great. Wahlberg ( in his breakout movie performance) Reilly, Reynolds, alfredo Molina, julianne moore , heather Graham, thomas Jane phillip Seymour hoffman & William Macy. That's an epic ensemble cast. Finally that sequence of seeing all the characters at their worst is pretty haunting & stayed with me after the movie ended.
Rog nailed it. I'm surprised Gene didn't appreciate this film for what it was.
One of my all time favorite movies and PTA's best imo!
I love these guys. These were the two dudes I would look forward to on Sunday early afternoon for movie reviews and just to know about movies. Great guys.
siskel was a cold-blooded dude. the director made you care about what happened and what you saw happen to the people in the story. the highest highs vs the lowest lows for a lot of misguided people, it was very human.
I consistently agree more with Ebert... I feel he was always more positive and truly under stood film better than Siskel.
you should watch his blue velvet review, i bet you won't agree with him there
I will check that out. Thanks, Benjamin!
blue velvet sucked eitherway.
he wasn't too far off
The way these 2 argue is what people NEED to take note of. They disagree but always maintain respect for each other. They're intellectuals but have the innate ability to judge something at face value. They would'nt expect Shakespeare from a Schwarzenegger film.
Still my all-time favorite movie. I haven't seen it in a few years, but for a while I was legit obsessed with it. Must've watched it twenty-five times, at least.
The "point" is they're broken people who band together and form a makeshift family. It's sweet, sad, funny. Hands down still PTA's best movie.
I was absolutely obsessed with it as well after being blown away how good it was, really must watch it again sometime soon.
During Alfred Molina's scene when the fireworks were going off the tension became unbearable
Director Anderson , the heir to Robert Altman
As much as I know PTA is a fan of Robert Altman and that he does do some "Altman-esque" stuff with his screenplay and his camera, I'd have to think he would perceive "the heir to Robert Altman" moniker as a kind of a back-handed compliment because he may feel as if that moniker pigeon-holes him into being a specific kind of filmmaker who not only has one "filmmaking style", but also it implies that that "style" isn't even of his own original creation, and he, instead, merely "RE-invented" someone else's original filmmaking style.
Especially this one, I can't remember a SINGLE review from Siskel that I either liked, that was instructional, or that was a good recommendation. "Boogie Nights" was terrific, on many levels. Siskel never "got it" regarding many films.
I actually agree with Siskel.
The characters, attention to detail, dialogue, dramatic tension are all incredibly vivid and well-realized. The ending is just what thew it off for me.
"Arbitrary" is what Siskel says and I tend to agree. I hear the theme and overall point being meaninglessness and I appreciate that and understand that's likely what PTA intended - I just think we explored these characters so deeply and got to know them really well, the ending sort of drifts off instead of sewing up much resolution. It makes sense to end the way it does, showing each character graduate out of that time period and move on with life. But it feels more like the end of a documentary than an intimate story, imo.
I think this movie’s large theme is JOY and how we block it yet maybe stumble into it
This film 🎥 was the calling card of a new Scorsese level talent, yet not a Scorsese, an artist, auteur with his own unique and one of a kind voice: P.T. Anderson.
Everyone’s a critic 😅
Top three movies of all time.
No
Siskel blows it again.