The line between parody and playing it straight can be exceedingly thin in Hollywood, and that division never really becomes clear until several years later. While most self-respecting cineastes wouldn’t be caught dead in something like Con Air in its original release, years later, it seems like Mel Brooks couldn’t have done a better satire himself. Coming off the success of Robocop, Total Recall, and Basic Instinct, Paul Verhoeven used his Hollywood credibility to produce two major films that blurred this line more than any others in recent memory: Showgirls and Starship Troopers. Of the two, Troopers is now more readily viewed as a satire, but Showgirls is the more subversive of the two, because it never, ever lets you know if its in on the joke. In the pantheon of legendary bad films to come out of Hollywood, there has perhaps never been another to make you so wonder if they made the film this bad on purpose.
Nomi Malone (Elizabeth Berkley) has come to Las Vegas for one thing: to dance. But after having her luggage and her money stolen, she finds herself destitute, and has to take up a job at Cheetah’s strip club to support herself. But with the help and support of her friend Molly (Gina Ravera), and the conniving but noncommittal lesbianism (supposedly bisexual, but it's never really addressed) of Cristal Connors (Gina Gershon), she is able to get a role as a dancer in Goddess, a major, expensive topless show in which Cristal is the main star. Though this opportunity fulfills her wildest dreams, it also throws her in with an element looking to exploit her, and in which to remain, she must consider doing things that she never thought of doing before. Pushed forward by dance instructor James Smith (Glenn Plummer), and seduced by Zack Carey (Kyle MacLachlan), Nomi is forced to assert herself in the high stakes world of classy breast baring and hip gyrating, and discovers where the real expensive Las Vegas show where she runs around naked is: inside herself.
There are a few aspects that are very common among bad movies that do not happen to characterize Showgirls. There is no ready evidence that there was any problem with the budget, as the cinematography, editing, and art direction are all above par, and every set piece is realized with the grandeur and flash that one would expect out of the biggest NC-17 rated film of all time. There’s no reason to suspect that there were any conflicting creative visions, as the tone is pretty consistent, and the performances, varying in quality as they may be, seem to be in sync with it. And judging by the prior work of Paul Verhoeven (as well as, to a degree, his work here), there is no reason to claim that any of the filmmakers were just plain inept. So what makes Showgirls worthy of spawning the term 'Showgirls-bad'? Frankly, it probably has more to do with factors surrounding its release than the film itself, because if we’re honest with ourselves, far stupider films have gone on to great success in this (and every other) country. America probably wasn’t ready for a major NC-17 release, nor was it really ready to embrace a satiric film that so closely resembled a great many films that it had previously lifted to great success. And that may be the biggest issue with Showgirls: it is, at heart, a very consistent and direct film, and it appears to be the exact film that Paul Verhoeven wanted to make. One could perhaps claim that he slipped up if he only included only one scene of naked women talking about their breasts, but he doesn’t; he includes several, and they’re all directed with the same sort of cheekiness that numerous popular films of recent years have been. The difference here is that there’s no record scratch that follows, no long uncomfortable silence to let you know exactly how you’re supposed to react, just the unremitting volley of lines, set ups, and scenes that sound like jokes without a laugh track. Whether or not Verhoeven meant this to be a satire of the world that made him successful can probably never be fully known, nor should it. It’s a damned-if-you-do situation, where no matter what his real intentions were, it would screw over at least half of the people that made this the success it was on home video, where it raked in over $100 million (there’s probably a reason that porn always did better on home video than in theaters).
But a better question yet, better than whether or not he meant it, is does it even matter? Even if Verhoeven didn’t actually play a fast one on the studios, Showgirls is a laugh riot that is unmatched by the vast majority of films marketed as comedies, and acts as a road marker to the rest of Hollywood exactly where the line between laughing with and laughing at the audience lies. There’s perhaps a better phrase for that than satire, and it’s ‘cautionary tale’. (The ratings are based on the idea that Verhoeven knew it was a joke.)
Blu-ray Bonus Features
The new 15th anniversary Blu-ray of Showgirls features a theatrical trailer, a lap dance tutorial, "Pole Dancing: Finding Your Inner Stripper", a Showgirls Trailer, a Showgirls trivia track, and an audio commentary with David Schmader. It also contains the film on DVD.
"Showgirls" is on sale June 15, 2010 and is rated NC17. Drama. Directed by Paul Verhoeven. Written by Joe Eszterhas. Starring Elizabeth Berkley, Glenn Plummer.
