This movie had a lot of hype surrounding it back when it was released in 1997. For one thing, Mark Wahlberg was emerging as a big time star and Burt Reynolds was getting a big push to revamp his career. It was about the emergence of the porn industry and there was guaranteed to be a lot of nudity in it including Heather Graham who at that time was one of the hottest women in films. Yet I didn't watch it until 23 years later. I probably wouldn't have ever seen it if it wasn't for Netflix.
The film starts out a bit clunky with Mark's character being a 17 year old dishwasher in a club in Los Angeles, his name at the time was "Eddie" but as you probably already know even if you haven't seen the movie, he ends up being referred to as "Dirk Diggler" for the remainder of the film. The scene is clunky because the chance encounter between Eddie and porno film producer Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds) in the kitchen where Eddie is working. How this somehow becomes Jack asking Eddie if he would like to be involved in porn is a strange situation but I guess Jack just has eyes for the "talent" so to speak.
[src](https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6PvfZqp8Glo/WYqyyF16kRI/AAAAAAAAATM/n4xgK4sTMEAbgfb7zItPSllym9LQK8IqACLcBGAs/w1200-h630-p-k-no-nu/Boogie%2BNIghts.jpg)On an interesting side note, Mark Wahlberg was nearly 30 years old when this movie was made, so it is pretty amazing to me how well he pulls off being 17 in the movie. Eddie (later Dirk) ends up getting into an argument with his abusive mother and moves out, deciding to move in with Jack Horner, who houses quite a few of the talent in his movies and his house is a 24 hour a day party.
Dirk Diggler ends up meeting the hilarious Reed Rothchild (played by John C. Reilly) at the mansion and they form a great friendship and end up starring in films together later on. I think it was funny to other people at least because Mark Wahlberg was / is a sex symbol, while John C. Reilly never was and never will be.
So basically this movie is about the birth of the adult-film industry in the 70's and 80's and how it was a lavish lifestyle for those involved but there are moments where the movie shows that it isn't very glamorous as soon as they step outside of their own little circle of friends. This is pretty wonderfully shown in a scene where Jack Horner is trying to revitalize the industry using Rollergirl (Heather Graham) in a limo scene where the random person she is meant to hook up with on film is actually someone that she went to high school with. It becomes evident very quickly that her high school pal has zero respect for her and it is at that moment that the fantasy that she has created for herself kind of comes crashing down.
[src](https://d13ezvd6yrslxm.cloudfront.net/wp/wp-content/images/boogie-nights-20th-anniversary-2-700x300.jpg)Other members of this "happy crew" experience similar down times whenever they try to do "normal things" and realize that their involvement in the industry isn't as celebrated as they believe it is during their parties at the mansion, and they all end up going back to escape the reality of the fact that they are actually not respected in the "outside world."
This is part of the reason why I feel this movie is very good. I was alive in the 80's and when you did encounter porn, it was a rarity such as a friend who had stolen a Playboy from his father's stash. It wasn't so easy to access like it is today. I never really thought about what the life of a porn star is really like, but I would imagine the drugs, the lack of any sort of real star-power, and the feeling of being loathed by certain people in society does in fact create a bubble for these people that they feel as though they can not leave for fear of being shamed everywhere they go. It's quite tragic in that regard because at the end of it all, Boogie Nights shows that these people at the end of it all are also still people and they have feelings and problems too.
The film contains a ton of nudity and sexual sequences (some including Julianne Moore, which i could do without) so it should be quite obvious that you should be pretty selective about who it is that you decide to watch this with. I wouldn't want to watch it with my parents and certainly not kids. However, I found it to be one of the better films that I have seen in a while and it is about so much more than T&A. There is a real compelling story there and many of the actors, including and probably especially Burt Reynolds, really shine in this.
Should I watch it?
Definitely. If you somehow managed, like me, to not see this film more than 20 years ago now is the time. It has already disappeared from the "advertising page" of Netflix (for me at least, perhaps because I already watched it) so you might have to dig for it. It's in there though, go have a look!
