Main Cast: Richard Gere, Lauren Hutton, Hector Elizondo, Nina Van Pallandt, Bill Duke
Release Year: 1979
Country: US
Run Time: 117 minutes
Plot
A slick Los Angeles callboy finds love and redemption in Paul Schrader's ultra-stylish drama. High-living prostitute Julian Kay (Richard Gere, stepping in for John Travolta) has it all: the Mercedes, the clothes, access to Beverly Hills' swankiest establishments, and a stable of rich, older female clients. But it all falls apart after he does a favor for his former pimp (Bill Duke) and the trick turns up dead a short while later; Julian's actual client won't give him an alibi, and police detective Sunday (Hector Elizondo) doesn't believe the gigolo's denials. The one person who can help him is frustrated politician's wife (and sole non-paying bedmate) Michelle (Lauren Hutton), if only Julian could let down his defenses and accept her gesture of love. Mixing his admiration for European art cinema with a voyeuristic view of the seamier side of sex and affluence, Schrader renders Julian an inscrutable, emotionally disengaged purveyor of pleasure, decked out in Giorgio Armani clothes coordinated with Ferdinando Scarfiotti's meticulous production design. Amid critical doubts about its artiness and distanced eroticism, American Gigolo surprised everyone by not dying on the box office vine. With some audiences reportedly showing up for repeat viewings of Gere's seductive charms, it became a moderate hit, turning Gere into a star and Armani into the new fashion sensation. Whatever reservations one may have about the movie, it provided two indelible images of 1980s decadence to come: Gere's perusing his "artist's palette" of shirts, ties, and jackets, and Gere's cruising down the Pacific Coast Highway in his convertible to the New Wave strains of Blondie's "Call Me". ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
Review
In retrospect, Paul Schrader's paean to perms, pimps, and playboy peccadillos seems like the first instant of the 1980s. Even while the subject matter remains steeped in a depraved '70s milieu, Richard Gere practices the kind of casual materialism and wears the kind of pastel Miami Vice fashion that confirms the arrival of that decade. The result is a zeitgeist film balancing on a tight rope between one world of underground lairs and street hustles, and another of high-priced hotels and sprawling swimming pools. Even when Julian struts and strides, confidently burning bridges and flaunting his business acumen, all the while enjoying the fruits of his labors, the sword of Damocles is visible over his head. He's ready for the free enterprise of the 1980s, but the debts of the 1970s hold him back -- in more ways than he anticipated. Always good at documenting seedy underbellies, Schrader continued in that vein two years after writing Taxi Driver (and two years before Raging Bull), even if his agenda sometimes softens to lukewarmness, especially in the unfulfilling finish. This film also announced Gere as a handsome new star to be reckoned with, worth more than John Travolta's sloppy seconds. The other lingering impression is the genial malevolence of the pimp created by character actor Bill Duke; his is a simmering presence. American Gigolo is one of the best-known early efforts from producer Jerry Bruckheimer, and one of the last not to make a serious chunk of change at the box office. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
Brian Davies - Charles Stratton; K Callan - Lisa Williams; Tom Stewart - Mr. Rheiman; Patti Carr - Judy Rheiman; David Cryer - Lt. Curtis; Carole Cook - Mrs. Dobrun; Carol Bruce - Mrs. Sloan; Frances Bergen - Mrs. Laudner; MacDonald Carey - Hollywood Actor; William Dozier - Michelle's Lawyer; Peter Turgeon - Julian's Lawyer; Robert Wightman - Floyd Wicker; Richard Derr - Mr. Williams; Jessica Potter - Jill; Ron Cummins - Reporter; Frank Pesce - Suspect #4; Paul Schrader; Maggie Jean Smith - Girl at Daisy; Gordon Haight - Blond Boy; Kopi Sotiropulos - Reporter; Vic Ramos; James Currie - Bartender Cocktail Lounge; Harry Davis - Park Bernet Representative
Credit
Ed Richardson - Art Director, Vic Ramos - Casting, Peter Bogart - First Assistant Director, Paul Schrader - Director, Richard Halsey - Editor, Freddie Fields - Executive Producer, Giorgio Moroder - Composer (Music Score), George P. Gaines - Production Designer, Ferdinando Scarfiotti - Production Designer, John Bailey - Cinematographer, Jerry Bruckheimer - Producer, Mark Fabus - Set Designer, George P. Gaines - Set Designer, Barry Thomas - Sound/Sound Designer, Paul Schrader - Screenwriter
The film's taglines were: "He's the highest paid lover in Beverly Hills. He leaves women feeling more alive than they've ever felt before. Except one." and also "How can giving pleasure be a crime?"
Julian Kaye (Richard Gere), is a male prostitute in Los Angeles whose job supports his expensive tastes in cars, stereophonic equipment, and clothes (which perhaps serve as a surrogate for emotional contact). He is, at times, blatantly narcissistic and superficial; however, he openly claims to take some pleasure in his work from being able to sexually satisfy women.
When on an assignment for his primary procuress, Anne (Nina Van Pallandt), he meets Michelle Stratton (Lauren Hutton), the unhappy wife of a local politician, who becomes interested in him. Julian's other pimp, Leon (Bill Duke), sends him to the house of a financier, who asks Julian to physically abuse and copulate with his wife while he watches them.
Later, Julian learns that the financier's wife was murdered. Los Angeles Police Department Detective Sunday (Hector Elizondo) investigates Julian as a primary suspect. Though he was with another client on the night of the murder, the client refuses to give Julian an alibi, to protect her and her husband's reputations.
As Julian's relationship with Michelle deepens, suspicion of the murder mounts against him. He soon realizes that he is being framed and grows increasingly desperate. His decline is visually represented by a degeneration in style as his clothes become rumpled, he goes unshaven, and he even rents a cheap commuter car after his Mercedes has been tampered with.
Julian finally confronts Leon, who confesses that one of the other, younger gigolos who works for him had killed the wealthy man's wife, and Leon had conceived the plan to frame Julian. After an argument, Julian accidentally pushes Leon over the apartment balcony and he falls to his death.
With no one to help him, Julian ends up in jail, awaiting trial for the murder. However, when all seems lost, Michelle risks her reputation and that of her husband to provide Julian with the alibi that can save him from prison.
This movie marked the first time a major Hollywood actor was frontally nude in a film.[citation needed] The wardrobe used in the film placed Armani on the fashion map. John Travolta, after the success of Saturday Night Fever and Grease had been offered the role, but due to payment disagreements with Schrader and his strict "No Nudity" policy, he dropped out. This is not the only role that Travolta has turned down only to be taken by Richard Gere. It occurred again when Travolta was offered the lead in both An Officer and A Gentleman (1982) and Chicago (2002). Christopher Reeve was also offered the lead role, but turned it down, reportedly because he found the film's subject matter "distasteful" and he did not want to appear nude. The role of society matron Mrs. Laudner, one of Julians' contacts is played in a rare appearance by Frances Bergen, the mother of actress Candice Bergen who was considered by Schrader for the role of Michelle at one time. Paul Schrader wrote the role of Michelle Stratton for Julie Christie, who wanted to work with Richard Gere. When Gere was dropped in favor of John Travolta, she dropped out too. When Gere returned to the project, Lauren Hutton had already been hired for the role. Kim Basinger, Melanie Griffith, Amy Irving and Mary Steenburgen also auditioned for the part. The composition of the final shot draws heavily from Robert Bresson's Pickpocket (1959), and Gere's dialog matches Pickpocket's closing narration almost verbatim. Schrader later provided an introduction to the Criterion CollectionDVD of Pickpocket. Schrader virtually remade American Gigolo with his 2007 film The Walker, which has the same subject matter and plot.
