RISKY BUSINESS: 4K UHD Blu-ray (Geffen Film Co., 1983) Criterion
Thomas Cruise
Mapother IV…you may have heard of him. Though, in the spring of 1983, few – as yet
– had, despite Cruise already a veteran of four flicks, most notably, as part of
the ensemble in 1983’s The Outsiders. So, the fervor that would become
Tom Cruise/Top Gun fever was still 3 years away. But it was that ‘other’
movie from ’83, director, Paul Brickman’s coming-of-age dramedy, Risky
Business, or rather, one particular scene in it – with Cruise unleashing
testosterone-charged kinetic energy in his undies to Bob Seger’s raw rebel
anthem, ‘Old Time Rock and Roll’ – that truly put Tom Cruise’s star on
the map. Risky Business is, today, considered one of the greatest movies
of 1983, with its darkly purposed and razor-sharp wit for satire, dubbed ‘suburban
poetry’, exercising a more truthful and integrated dilemma for the nominal hero
of this piece, Cruise’s sexually-burgeoning teen, Joel Goodsen, eager to get
his cherry ripened by forthright lady of the evening, Lana (Rebecca De Mornay).
It's the
narrative arch in Joel's maturity, from frustrated young buck to enterprising entrepreneur
that holds our attention here, and Cruise’s ability to sell it as though he – not
Joel – were actually living it. Brickman, also to have authored the
screenplay, lets loose on some pretty spicy, if sparsely placed dialogue that
keeps the pace elevated, the insights genuine, and the laughs utterly plausible.
Risky Business is not a ‘talky’ so much as a ‘looky’ – where pregnant
pauses, wayward glances and scrutinizing gazes speak what would otherwise have
taken several pages of screenplay to convey accurately. What makes Risky Business refreshingly unique
is not so much that it remains a cut above the garden variety ‘let’s get
laid’ comedies of the late-seventies that carried over into crudely
calculated 80’s teen fare, but that our gris eminence is just a kid; albeit,
one with unusual, though never unbelievable, perceptions into that roaring
epoch of his own uninhibited male desire. “The dream is always the same,”
Joel explains as we enter his mindset and see a supple female taking a slow/erotic
shower, enveloped by steam. And yet, even more ironically, Brickman and Cruise
will spend the next 99-mins. illustrating why Risky Business is a total
departure from that titillating trademark.
Risky Business is very much a
time capsule of the 80’s, with its superficial focus on commodifying sex, or
rather, discovering how best to weaponize another person’s wants and desires to
get precisely what you want and desire, regardless of whether the
gratification derived is two-way. It could have all devolved into a dour or
even apocalyptic perception, warped out of proportion to prove a point…and idiotic
one, at that. But Brickman is more interested in deconstructing the
exquisiteness of our collective fantasies about the opposite sex, plying them
with a ferocious veracity that cuts through all the bullshit and subterfuge. If
nothing else, Joel’s sexual encounters with Lana are unadorned and unsparingly candid.
Presumably set in
the uber-sophisticated enclave of Glencoe (though actually lensed by
cinematographers, Bruce Surtees and Reynaldo Villalobos in the slightly less fashionable
exurbia of Highland Park…Brickman’s old stomping grounds), there is an
antiseptic feel to these stifling suburbs, a sense that the real and earthy
world at large can only be accessed by a trip to the inner city, unencumbered
by the Suzie Cream-Cheese cellophane suffocating Joel’s natural urge to grow up,
grow apart, and effectively move on and out from the relative safety of his
parent’s white-bred paradise.
After some
opening shots of Chicago’s El train traversing the grittier night-scape, we
momentarily digress into Joel Goodsen’s monologue, dedicated to a young man’s
sexual pursuit of female flesh. But from here, we meet a more circumspect
over-achiever. Joel’s about to graduate high school – that watershed moment in
everyone’s life when no diploma attained thus far has prepared us for what
actually lies ahead. Joel’s dad (Nicholas Pryor) has all but decreed his son
will be attending Princeton, his alma mater, in the fall. So, Joel participates
in Future Enterprisers, an extracurricular program where students work in teams
to create mock businesses. It all sounds good. Except, it isn’t what Joel
really wants out of life. Thus, when dad and mum (Janet Carroll) elect to take
a vacation without him, Joel’s pal, Miles Dalby (Curtis Armstrong) encourages
Joel to cut loose and have a little fun. So, on his first night of liberty, Joel
pops the cork on expensive liquor, cranks up the tunes and takes daddy’s flashy
Porsche 928 out for a spin – in short, he does all the things he perceives makes
him an adult.
Miles phones
Jackie (Bruce A. Young) – a call ‘girl’ to ply her craft for a little badinage
with Joel. Alas, Jackie is a transvestite. This doesn’t turn Joel’s crank. So,
Joel pays him to leave. Before departing, Jackie gives Joel another number to
call. This turns out to be the real deal – a hooker named Lana, who arrives on
cue and spends the entire night gratifying Joel’s wildest desires. However, by
dawn’s early light, the fantasy is at an end. Lana informs Joel he owes her $300
for services rendered. But while Joel is at the bank, Lana makes off with his
mother’s priceless Steuben glass egg. Incensed, Joel demands its return for the
money he is willing to pay. But Lana’s pimp, Guido (Joe Pantoliano) intrudes,
waving a pistol. A chase ensues. Joel peels out in daddy’s Porsche and to
relative safety. Lana explains, the egg is with the rest of her things at Guido’s.
Darting off to school, but thoroughly distracted by the escalating mess he has
made of his life, Joel returns with friends later. Lana suggests she and
another prostitute, Vicki (Shera Danese) help the boys blow off some steam.
Joel resists. Guido returns, and, an altercation on the front lawn forces Joel
to take Lana and Vicki back inside.
Much later,
Joel, Lana, Vicki and Joel’s other friend, Barry (Bronson Pinchot) decide to get
high in the Porsche. Alas, Lana accidentally puts the car in reverse. It rolls
down a hill and onto a rickety pier that collapses under its weight, the Porsche
set adrift in Lake Michigan. Startled by how much it will cost to repair it
before his parent’s return, Lana now proposes Joel turn the family home into a
bordello for the evening. Joel’s share of the profits will cover the cost of
the auto repair. Reluctantly, Joel agrees, inviting his pals over while Lana
gathers a pool of local ‘talent’ to work the room and its gullible clientele. Rather
predictably, this is precisely the eve in which Princeton recruiter, Bill
Rutherford (Richard Masur) elects to interview Joel for admission. Unimpressed
by Joel’s résumé, Bill nevertheless partakes of the ‘social’ gathering while
Joel and Lana disappear into the night, later to make love on the El train.
Going from bad to worse, Joel returns home to discover his parent’s home has
been ransacked. All the furnishings are gone. Guido suggests he can buy back
everything. Racing like mad to collect the newly repaired Porsche, pay off
Guido, and, have his friends move everything back into place, the camouflage is
completed just as Joel’s folks return from their vacation. And while unaware of
the chaos that has transpired, Joel’s mum does notice a slight crack in her
beloved egg. Mercifully, the party was a big hit with Bill. So, Joel has been
accepted into Princeton for the fall. A short while later, Joel meets up with
Lana inside the posh 95th restaurant at the top of the John Hancock
Building, surrounded by prying eyes, casting silent aspersions to their
presence. She suggests they keep on seeing each other, to which Joel quips, “It’ll
cost you.”
This is where
the theatrical cut of Risky Business concluded, on an arguably,
optimistic note that the ‘relationship’ between Joel and Lana would continue,
quite possibly to mature into something finer and lasting for the future.
Brickman’s original vision, however, is more ominous and unsure – colder and
crueler in its inference that, while Lana believed she was using Joel for his
parent’s money, not only was he using her for straight sex, but also to turn
his desire for it into a profit-center, but without any actual interest in
making her his equal partner in his game of life. The disparity between Joel’s
meteoric highs and near catastrophic lows – the ying and yang of all sexual
experiences, though rarely clarified to such a sober degree - plays to Joel’s
early and primitive inexperience at being an adult. However, his facing the consequences
is thusly the moment when Joel does, in fact, grow up, grow a pair, and, start
to make the executive decisions that will help him take on the world on his
terms, winning back the day while re-shaping his destiny away from the family
commune. Even without the director’s vision intact, Risky Business’
coming-of-age is not so much ingratiating to all those silly, good-natured, sexualized
screen high-jinx usually playing to the crowd. Instead, it distinctly resonates
ambivalence that most would rather not face, particularly in their arts; that,
for every guilty pleasure indulged at whim, there is distinctly some genuine
pain to be endured along the way.
Risky Business arrives on 4K
UHD via Criterion’s association with Warner Home Video, in a transfer derived
from 35mm original negatives, and supervised in both it’s theatrical and
director’s cut by Paul Brickman and producer, Jon Avnet. The 1.85:1 image is
ravishing. Colors are subdued, with cooler skin tones. Fine detail abounds, and
there is a gorgeous layering of textures. HDR 10 color grading yields some
exceptionally nuanced tonality; a real pop in the primaries, also, expertly
resolved contrast and film grain. Night scenes are particularly impressive. We
get a 5.1 DTS audio, bass-pounding and immersive for the Tangerine Dream score
and pop tune-induced soundtrack. Seger’s Old Time Rock and Roll, and Phil
Collins’ In The Air Tonight have never sounded this enveloping. Dialogue
is crisply rendered and SFX are where they ought to be. Extras on the 4K are
limited to a legacy audio commentary on the theatrical cut, starring Brickman,
Avnet, and actor Tom Cruise. We also get a trailer. These are carried over on
the standard Blu in this set, plus a 30-min. retrospective and screen tests of Cruise
and De Mornay, ported over from Warner’s 25th anniversary Blu.
Criterion has shelled out for 3 new extras: interviews with Avnet, editor, Richard
Chew, film historian, Bobbie O’Steen, and, casting director, Nancy Klopper. Finally,
there’s a fold-out essay from critic, Dave Kehr. Overall, nicely packed – this kit.
Bottom line: while Cruise’s legacy likely begins for most with Top Gun
(1986), Risky Business is the foundation on which his star-churning
charisma emerged. The 4K is ideally the best way to experience this eighties’
time capsule. Very highly recommended!
FILM RATING (out
of 5 – 5 being the best)
3
VIDEO/AUDIO
5+
EXTRAS
4
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