Risky Business 1983
This movie originally came out just as I was starting college, so I had just gone through all of the college admission stuff and could otherwise really relate to the main character, making this movie an instant favorite. It is also shot in a very artistic style, probably making it one of the first movies I remember where you could really see the hand of the director at work. The soundtrack, not just the moody music by Tangerine Dream, is absolutely first rate and was in regular rotation in my album and tape collection. There are also a lot of great lines and iconic scenes, including Tom Cruise dancing to Bob Seger in his underwear which I always thought was a little overrated, but watching it again, I will say that Tom Cruise really threw himself into that. It is amazing to see Cruise so young and yet with so many of his defining mannerisms already at work. He defined the role and the role defined him.
There are other great characters too, not just Rebecca de Mornay’s Lana, who is seductive, sweet, dark, and scheming all at once, but Joe Pantoliano as Guido is just fantastic: menacing, sarcastic, and hilarious. Curtis Armstrong’s Miles telling Cruise that sometimes you have to say What the fuck, crank calling a prostitute to his house, and then refusing to help his friend out of the mess because he has to study for a trig final is just classic, a perfect representation of friends that age who push others to do something stupid and run away when it goes wrong. Richard Masur’s Princeton admissions guy who says “You’ve done a lot of solid work here, but it isn’t quite Ivy League, now is it?” and then, after enjoying some of the prostitutes at the house, decides that “Princeton could use a guy like Joel” shows the inherent corruption of the real world that Joel is entering. In a lot of ways, the movie is very similar to The Graduate, including Joel’s oblivious parents, the two movies capturing essential pivot points of any young man’s life as he graduates high school and then college. I was surprised how well this movie holds up after 34 years.
I got the Blu-ray for $4 at Target. It looks surprisingly good in HD for such an old film. On my player it did not appear to have any extras or even a menu, just starting the movie and saying the menu was not available. But using the pop-up menu button, there are some good features, including the director’s preferred ending, as well as a retrospective with most of the major players including the first-time writer and director, Paul Brickman, who doesn’t seem to have done much before or since. There is also a commentary track with Brickman, Cruise, and producer Jon Avnet, which I will have to watch at some point.
Written: 15 Oct 2017
Owned on: Blu-ray, DVD, Digital