Striptease is a 1996 erotic comedy film starring Demi Moore, Burt Reynolds, and Ving Rhames. The film was directed by Andrew Bergman. Based on the book Strip Tease by Carl Hiaasen, it is about a stripper who becomes involved in both a child custody dispute and corrupt politics.
Striptease was generally reviled by critics. The film wound up winning several Golden Raspberry Awards (Razzies), which are given to the worst in cinema. Among these awards given to Striptease was the Razzie Award for Worst Picture of 1996.
Plot
The film revolves around Erin Grant (Moore), a former FBI secretary, who loses custody of her young daughter Angela to her ex-husband Darrell. In order to afford an appeal, Erin becomes a stripper at the Eager Beaver, a Miami strip club. A Congressman named David Dilbeck (Reynolds) visits the club and immediately begins to adore Grant. Aware of Dilbeck's embarrassing indulgences, another Eager Beaver patron approaches Erin with a plan to manipulate the Congressman to settle the custody dispute in Erin's favour. However, Dilbeck has powerful business connections who want to ensure he remains in office. Consequently, those who can embarrass him in an election are murdered. Meanwhile, Erin retrieves her daughter from her negligent husband.
Dilbeck's personal interest in Erin persists, and she is invited to perform privately for him. He asks her to become his lover and later his wife, despite his staff's concerns that she knows too much information. A debate occurs as to whether to kill Erin or simply keep her quiet by threatening to take away her daughter. However, Erin and a police officer begin to suspect the Congressman's guilt in the murders, and Erin concocts a plan to bring the Congressman to justice. She tricks him into confessing on tape, and he is soon after arrested. Thus, Erin regains full custody of Angela, and Darrell returns to prison.
Production
Castle Rock Entertainment produced Striptease. The film is based on the novel Strip Tease by Floridian crime writer Carl Hiaasen. It was published in 1993 and was a bestseller. The screenplay itself was written by Andrew Bergman, who also directed. According to one critic, the novel's plot is "quite faithfully followed" by the screenplay, but in bringing the complicated story to the screen, "Bergman forgets to explain persuasively what a nice girl like Erin- smart, spunky and a former FBI employee- is doing in a dump called the Eager Beaver."[1]
Concerns that the ending of the film was not comical enough wound up causing it to be rewritten and refilmed. This gave the project a one-month delay.[2] Part of these concerns owed to test screenings, where audiences objected to a scene where Dilbeck becomes violent. Later test screenings also turned up less than favourable reactions.[3]
Casting
Demi Moore played the main stripper character, Erin Grant. For this film she was paid $12.5 million, which was at the time a record for an actress. To prepare for her role, Moore visited strip clubs in New York, California, and Florida, and she met with strippers. Moore really did dance topless in the part,[4] though this was the sixth time she showed her breasts on film.[3] She also read the novel, exercised, and practiced yoga.[3] Moore was cast before other important parts were cast, creating some interest in the project.[5] In the first attempt at filming Moore stripping, two hundred actors were used to portray the audience. Although their salaries were small, many accepted the role to see Moore nude. After waiting for a while, when Moore finally appeared and started dancing the crowd turned so loud and wild that the shooting had to temporarily cease. As Moore said, "After my experience, I felt very confident."[3]
The cast included some notable real-world strippers such as Pandora Peaks. Ving Rhames plays a bouncer named Shad. The filmmakers, in trying actors out for Shad's part, looked for someone "at least 6'2 and physically massive...any ethnicity."[5] (Rhames is African American). Reynolds played Congressman Dilbeck, and he based his performance after politicians he knew in his early life, through his father, a police chief.[6] Reynolds was not an actor that the filmmakers originally had in mind for the part, but Reynolds wanted it, contacted Castle Rock head Rob Reiner, and travelled to Miami to audition. He accepted a salary lower than what he had made in his earlier career.[7] Moore's own daughter Rumer Willis played Erin's daughter Angela. As Moore explained, "she [Willis] wanted it so badly" that Moore asked that Willis be considered for the part. In reality this required Willis to see Moore dancing topless, for a scene in which Angela sees Erin performing. However, Moore said that this was acceptable, as "We don't shame the body, we encourage the body as something beautiful and natural, and my children bathe with me, and I walk around naked."[4]
Other cast members include:
Release
Striptease was distributed by Sony and was finally released in the United States on June 28, 1996, after a June 23 premiere in New York City. It opened in Australia, France and Germany in August, and Argentina, Italy, Bolivia, South Africa, the United Kingdom, Brazil and Japan in September.[8]
Nudity was heavily emphasized in advertisements.[9] The Motion Picture Association of America raised concerns regarding a posters which it felt revealed too much of Moore's naked body. A Castle Rock employee argued: "There are racier perfume ads."[2]
The previous year's film about nude dancers, Showgirls, was generally disliked, so filmmakers feared audiences would pre-judge Striptease on this basis. To avoid any association, advertisements were designed to make Striptease look more comedic than Showgirls, which was a drama.[2] Besides the subject matter, Striptease and Showgirls did have two notable connections. The choreography in these films was by the same person, Marguerite Derricks.[10] Both also featured performances by Rena Riffel, who plays a dancer in each. To promote the film, Moore appeared on Late Night with David Letterman and a Barbara Walters special. In both cases, she danced or otherwise exhibited her body.[2]
Reception
Film critics panned the film. Roger Ebert complimented some of the characters, but ultimately concluded the film did badly because "all of the characters are hilarious except for Demi Moore's." He felt the drama surrounding the main character "throws a wetblanket over the rest of the party." Ebert also found the nudity not too sexy.[9] Leonard Maltin was harsher, writing in his book that the film was too depressing, and "Not funny enough, or dramatic enough, or sexy enough, or bad enough, to qualify as entertainment in any category." He gave the film no stars.[11] Another critic concurred with Ebert that Moore's character was written too dramatically, compared to other characters. This critic claimed the film was predictable and would appeal mostly to "post-pubescent schoolboys or closet voyeurs." However, she also claimed Reynolds had "his best role in years," and that Rhames was "worth the price of admission."[6] One critic, who thought Moore's acting was terrible, predicted that despite Moore's financial success, her career depended on the success of this film and the film was "tacky, pretentious-and boring." This critic described Striptease as displaying Moore's vanity.[12] Newsweek, sharing Ebert's view on Moore's character, also claimed Striptease was bad as a drama because it had no mystery, revealing the identity of its villains early. Moreover, the "damsel-in-distress angle generates zero tension."[13]
The film received six Golden Raspberries, namely for Worst Picture, Worst Director, Worst Screenplay, Worst Actress, Worst Original Song, and Worst Screen Couple. In winning the Worst Picture Razzie, Striptease defeated The Island of Dr. Moreau starring Marlon Brando, Barb Wire, The Stupids, and Ed. Moore won the Worst Actress award while Moore and Reynolds shared the Worst Screen Couple award.
Striptease made $12,322,069 in its first weekend, falling behind The Nutty Professor with Eddie Murphy, Eraser starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame, in which Demi Moore voiced one of the main characters.[14] Ultimately, Striptease made $33,109,743 in the United States, and domestically it was only the forty-seventh highest grossing film of 1996. It made $113,309,743 internationally,[15] having grossed £2,104,480 in the UK and ¥102,419,500 in Japan.[16]
Legacy
In 1997, Striptease made news again when it was shown in a fourth-grade class in Chicago, Illinois. The teacher claimed the students chose the film, but he drew criticism since the film was risqué. (The violent 1996 film Scream was shown in the same school on the same day, causing further controversy.)[17] In 2000 in Ireland, some viewers criticized the Radio Telefís Éireann for running Striptease. These viewers questioned the film's appropriateness and some considered it demeaning to women. However, the station felt it was not pornography and it was aired at night.[18]
In 2003, Radioactive Films used a scene from Striptease featuring Moore nude in a video called Hollywood's Hottest. This raised a dispute as to whether use of the scene qualified as fair use. A lawsuit was launched as a consequence.[19]
References
- ^ Richard Schickel, "Only the bare essentials," Time, 7/8/96, Vol. 148 Issue 3, pages 66-68.
- ^ a b c d Chris Nashawaty, "DEMI GOES UNDERCOVER: MOORE'S 'STRIPTEASE' BUMPS INTO TROUBLE." Entertainment Weekly 04/26/96, URL accessed 16 August 2006.
- ^ a b c d Gregory Cerio and Carolyn Ramsay, "Eye of the tiger," People 6/24/96, Vol. 45 Issue 25, pages 88-94.
- ^ a b From Correspondent Bill Tush, "Demi Moore puts her all into movie roles," June 28, 1996, web posted at: 7:20 a.m. EDT, New York (CNN), URL accessed August 13, 2006.
- ^ a b A.J. Jacobs, "HANGING ON THE MEAT RACK," Entertainment Weekly 05/19/95, URL accessed 16 August 2006.
- ^ a b Barbara Cramer, "Film reviews," Films in Review, September/October 1996, Vol. 47 Issue 9/10, page 67-68.
- ^ Mitchell Fink, "The insider," People 7/31/95, Vol. 44 Issue 5, page 37.
- ^ "Release dates for Striptease" the Internet Movie Database, URL accessed 19 August 2006.
- ^ a b Roger Ebert, "Striptease," Chicago Sun-Times, June 28, 1996.
- ^ Stanley Kauffmann, "Survivors," New Republic, 7/29/96, Vol. 215 Issue 5, pages 24-25.
- ^ Leonard Maltin, ed., Leonard Maltin's 2002 Movie & Video Guide. A Signet Book, 2001, page 1323.
- ^ Brian D. Johnson, "A Demi-talented actor bares all," Maclean's 7/08/96, Vol. 109 Issue 28, page 49.
- ^ Dave Ansen, "`Striptease': Demi shows Moore," Newsweek, 7/08/96, Vol. 128 Issue 2, page 67.
- ^ "WEEKEND BOX OFFICE June 28–30, 1996," Box Office Mojo, URL accessed 19 August 2006.
- ^ Striptease, Box Office Mojo, URL accessed 13 August 2006.
- ^ "Business Data for Striptease" The Internet Movie Database, URL accessed 19 August 2006.
- ^ Carla Koehl and Lucy Howard, "What ever happened to `Citizen Kane'?" Newsweek 06/02/97, Vol. 129 Issue 22, page 8.
- ^ "Viewers Slam Demi Movie," World Entertainment News Network, 13 December 2000.
- ^ "Hollywood Studios vs. Hollywood's Hottest," People, 9/22/2003, Vol. 60 Issue 12, page 30.
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