Elizabeth Berkey A Showgirl

Watching a recent interview with Elizabeth Berkley, I was a intrigued on what she had to say. I don't know why, but for some reason I have always been in this girls corner.

She is obviously making random appearances around the media circuit due to her current stint on "Dancing With The Stars", which I didn't think much of, except I knew that this women can dance. I know this because of her performance in the Movie "Showgirls".

I saw "Showgirls" on DVD, when it first came out, and one of the reasons was because of the harshest, meanest, vastly crewel, as bad as it could get for a movie reviews, and not just by one person, by everybody who were the voice of the cinema back then.

Here is just a snippet of some of the reviews.

...a bad film, borderline inept, with an anti-erotic toxic charge about it. It deserved all the mean things people said about it.

-Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

 

...despite its rampant sexual material, it is not a sexy film. Dang, this thing couldn't get anything right.

-Movie Metropolis

 

Showgirls... is one of those delirious, hilarious botches that could be taught in film schools as a How Not To.

-TIME Magazine

And it goes on and on, you get the point.

How could such a much anticipated movie at the time be so harshly ripped apart?.

So I had a look for myself. And I still cannot figure it out.

I liked the movie. I liked the movie a lot. So much that I wished I could dance like that, and had the guts to do it.

There were some things in the movie that I still don't quite understand, and like "ART" isn't that the essence of what makes it interesting? or perhaps even good?.

Plucked from the squeaky clean halls of her T. V. Show "Saved By The Bell, Berkley who went on to say that she "was just 22" when she made this film. which to me, she should of got an Oscar for that kind of transition. I can't even imagine the horror to a girl in her 20's reading reviews that could pretty much kill you, not to mention any hope of wanting to ever act ever again. That is some major strength there.

Yea sure, she got paid and all that other monetary argument, but you cannot put any kind of price on ones self esteem, or the people who are viciously out to just crush you.

 

After the movie, there wasn't much sight of Berkley, and rightfully so. I am sure no one in Hollywood was ringing her phone to cast her. I don't think anyone at the time had her kind of guts. Granted, I think she probably layed low for a while, I didn't keep up on it, but in listening to the girl who played a "brainiac" on a T. V. series years prior, I will give this one to Berkley whom I think was smart enough to just "back off". And let time heal, and move back slowly into the harsh world where she left off.

She didn't fire back with harsh words, or send out "open letters" to everyone she could muster up to tell them they are all asses and practically ruined her life and she had every right to.

She also went on to say that  "Showgirls" is a cult classic and is one of MGM's most successful movies on DVD"

 

"Showgirls" is the highest rated ever movie on DVD since it's 2010,  15th Anniversary "Sinsational Edition" in a two-disc dual-format Blu-ray/DVD edition.

How's that for Karma?

                                                                                           

 

One of the reasons that I feel this movie has so much success in it's later years is that most people (mainly the Men who reviewed it) lost something in it that seems to stand out very much today. Empowerment and Honor.

 

In the shards of the very flawed character of Berkley's "Nomi" there is such a paradox.  Despite her devious ways to the top, ( and don't we all feel we have to fight to get there?) and her tragic past, she had enough conviction and wouldn't agree to the terms of the Hotel for that which employed her to "Shut Up" about the incidents that took place. Mainly abuse and rape.

Taking mattes into her own hands, she literally kicks the crap out of the man that did this to her friend. Realizing deep within this flawed person, that there is some good in her, and tired of being "kicked" around herself, she finds the strength to battle her own demons and make right out of not only hers, but everyone's wrong doings. I think that Elizabeth Berkley has a bit of Nomi Malone in her, and that is not so bad.

                        

As seen in the last shot of the movie, while riding in the car back to Los Angeles, there is a glimpse of the billboard in the rearview mirror. She put it all behind her as Nomi Malone and she did it with grace and class as Elizabeth Berkley.

Further things that have happened since the Theater release of this movie are:

 In the United States, Showgirls is shown at midnight movies  

 It has generated more than $100 million from video rentals^[4] and became one of MGM's top 20 all-time bestsellers.

 

The rights to show the film on TV were eventually purchased by the VH1 network. 

( Berkley refused to redub her lines, so a noticeably different actress's voice can be heard on the soundtrack.)

 

The film was also ranked #36 on Entertainment Weekly magazine's "The Top 50 Cult Movies list

 

Recent years have seen a re-evaluation of the film's merits. Critics such as Jonathan Rosenbaum and Jim Hoberman, as well as filmmakers Jim Jarmusch and Jacques Rivette, have gone on the record defending Showgirls as a serious satire.

Rivette called it "one of the great American films of the last few years", though "very unpleasant: it’s about surviving in a world populated by assholes, and that’s Verhoeven's philosophy".

 Quentin Tarantino has stated that he enjoyed Showgirls, referring to it as the "only [...] other time in the last twenty years [that] a major studio made a full-on, gigantic, big-budget exploitation movie", comparing it to Mandingo.

In 2004, MGM released "The V.I.P. Edition" in a special boxed set containing two shot glasses, movie cards with drinking games on the back, a deck of playing cards, and a nude poster of Berkley with a pair of suction-cup pasties so viewers can play "pin the pasties on the showgirl." The DVD itself includes several bonus features, including a "how-to" tutorial for giving a lap-dance hosted by real strippers, and a special optional "trivia track" feature. When on, it adds humorous comments and factoids in the vein of VH1's Pop Up Video that relate to the scenes as they play out. It also includes "The Greatest Movie Ever Made: a commentary by David Schmader". In 2007, MGM re-released the V.I.P. edition DVD without the physical extras.
On June 15, 2010, MGM released a 15th Anniversary "Sinsational Edition" in a two-disc dual-format Blu-ray/DVD edition.^[25] This edition contains most of the same bonus features as the VIP edition DVD, except the trivia text feature has been reformatted. The NC-17 edit of the film is used.
The trivia track on the 2010 edition contains some errors, such as a statement that some of the dancers featured in the film were recruited from the XFL football league cheerleaders, an impossibility as the XFL wasn't formed until 2000.
In 2012, actress Rena Riffel wrote, directed, produced, and starred in an unofficial sequel/parody of the film. Called Showgirls 2: Penny's From Heaven, Riffel reprises her role of naive newcomer Penny. The film essentially follows the plot of the original.
In 2013, an off-off-Broadway parody called Showgirls! The Musical was mounted by Bob and Tobly McSmith of Medium Face Productions. Originating at The Krane Theater in New York City, the critical and audience response was overwhelmingly positive. It was moved to a 200 seat off-Broadway theater, XL Nightclub. The production continued to be successful, its original run was extended through July 15, 2013. Actress Rena Riffel reprised her role from the films as Penny for one month of the production.

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