Risky Business

SPOILERS

Joel Goodsen is your prototypical upper-middle-class suburban "white boy off the lake." At age 17, he finds himself burdened with the usual stresses of an Ivy League wannabe: SAT scores, GPAs, extracurriculars. He also contends with those universal teenage dilemmas of how to manage friends, girls, and demanding parents. But it seems that mother and father are going out of town for several days. Joel, ever the "good son", is expected to be his usual responsible self while they are away. Shouldn't be a problem, as there are final exams, his involvement in Future Enterprisers-an after-school organization to promote the finer points of commerce, a crucial interview with a Princeton recruiter, and a hallowed and apparently very expensive glass egg to protect. However, there is also dad's Porsche in the garage, precocious friends, and a rather complicated prostitute named Lana. It isn't giving anything away to say that Joel's life goes into a bit of a tailspin before the sardonically satisfying climax(es).

Warner Brothers has celebrated the twenty-fifth aniversary of RISKY BUSINESS' release with a new DVD, though their designation of "deluxe" is a bit generous. Yes, we have a widescreen, cleaned up transfer, remastered soundtrack, screen tests, a making-of documentary, a revised final scene, and a commentary by Tom Cruise (Joel), writer/director Paul Brickman, and producer Jon Avnet. WB had put out one of their many underwhelming bare bones editions of this film some years earlier, so this improvement was quite anticipated. The disc is fairly well executed but frustratingly unambitious, quite unlike the film itself.

RISKY BUSINESS has enthralled and intrigued me since I was 15. The timing was perfect for me when I first saw it. While I never aspired to attend a school like Princeton or had wealthy parents, I did identify with the sort of conundrums Joel faced. The film's surface themes of class structure and peer approval were (and are) very relevant. As I've revisited the film over the years, the salience of other statements about consumerism, greed, and what exactly it means to be an adult have gradually revealed themselves with each viewing. Interestingly, one of the film's popular catchprases ("sometimes you just gotta say 'what the fuck'") became more even applicable as life rolled on. Sad that may be, but of course your mileage may vary. Sorta like that Talking Heads' tune, "Once in a Lifetime." You may find yourself......

This 1983 movie came out in the midst of a wave of "youth films"-comedies featuring aroused, often moronic teens whose primary goal was to bed the woman (or women) of their dreams. Leering, crass films like PORKY'S, PRIVATE SCHOOL, MY TUTOR, and far too many others to even bother to mention. To be fair, there were more thoughtful comedies amongst the manure such as FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH, VALLEY GIRL, and the John Hughes sagas, but Brickman's film stands out quite famously. No other picture of the time captured teen angst to such a degree.

Such a unique film: sureality in the midst of everyday banality. You have as the setting a lily white Chicago suburb, adorned with perfectly manicured A-frames and Izod clad consumers. Invading it comes the streetwise wiles of Lana (Rebecca DeMornay), a call girl wise beyond her years. When we first meet her, French doors blow open and leaves fly in before she and Joel make love for the first time. As the plot spirals into all sorts of implausibility, we realize that while we have many stylized fantasy sequences, everything is developed to underline the devastating points of Brickman's screenplay.

But the style Brickman brings to the proceedings is quite impressive. The film teems with a pleasantly disturbing tone throughout. It's a comedy, a laugh out loud one at times, but mostly we chuckle knowingly because certain baser elements of decorum are skewered, albeit in a very droll manner. Every element contributes to the atmosphere- the moody way scenes are lit, the evocative score by Tangerine Dream, the seamless editing, it all makes RISKY BUSINESS unlike anything else of its time. And that score is really in a class by itself. I admire the work of masters like Bernard Herrmann all the way to Carter Burwell, but Tangerine Dream created something that is surely born of another world. It is simply amazing.

Additionally, every character is drawn perfectly. Joel's friends are just as horny as your garden variety movie teens on the make, but they are also quite literate and have a bit more on their minds. In one of the film's most well-known moments, Miles, Mr. "What the fuck" (Curtis Armstrong), sighs while riding in the backseat during the Guido chase, "I've got a trig midterm tomorrow and I'm being chased by Guido the killer pimp."

Brickman and DeMornay really flesh out what could have easily been a thankless role. This hooker ain't got a heart of gold, but she would know how to work the room to get her hands on a bar or two. Brickman gives her and Cruise pitch perfect dialogue. When they converse, it sounds real, not akin to some idiotic exchange like in other movies. We learn more about them with each carefully constructed scene.

Trying to merely describe the events that unfold during RISKY BUSINESS is to do it a potential disservice. If I were to tell you that Joel gets into a car chase with Lana's pimp, Guido (Joe Pantoliano), lets the Porsche sink into Lake Michigan, has a steamy bout of intercourse on the Chicago El train, and hosts a party where his friends and acquaintances pay for the services of Lana's colleagues, it would make this movie sound sleazy and absurd, and little different from all those other 80s teen romps. That would be dead wrong. Closely considered, RISKY BUSINESS is a quietly devastating little satire of a culture which continuously breeds "future enterprisers" whose goal is, as one scene points out quite amusingly, "to just make money. Make a lot of money." By any means necessary.

Seen during these dark days of unprecedented government bailouts of numerous trading and insurance houses, RISKY BUSINESS seems all the more prescient. It was as if Brickman could see the handwriting on the wall before it was even written. Forget Oliver Stone's silly WALL STREET, RB is a far more revealing tract of the corrosion of the human soul, sold out to the coveting of the almighty dollar. As I heard on an NPR report today, for the greedy sorts, it doesn't matter if you gross 400 K or 1.2 million a year, you'll never be satisfied, you'll always want more. You'll do absolutely whatever to maintain that 928 in the driveway or the overpriced artifact above your fireplace. Or cash a bond your grandparents gave you just to make it with a gorgeous lady of the evening. Then, to keep her, you gotta keep the currency flowing, baby! Brickman is cynical, but unfortunately accurate.

So back to the WB packaging. The print and sound are clean and quite acceptable. The documentary, eh, good but a little bit self-congratulatory and promo-ish. Interviews were adequate. I got a good laugh when one of the interviewees stated how different RISKY BUSINESS was from other youth comedies of the day such as UP THE ACADEMY. OK, true. But then at the end of the doc, UTC is advertised as being available in the WB catalogue?! Uh....

There's also the business of Brickman's preferred revision of the very last scene. Read no further if you haven't seen the film or don't want to learn of the changes. After Joel learns that he got into Princeton after all, we cut to a restaurant at some point later that summer. Joel and Lana are talking about their futures, apart. In the original version, we then cut to a shot of the pair walking through a park, lightheartedly bantering. Interspersed are scenes of Joel's former Future Enterpriser classmmates standing at a podium somewhere and describing how much profit they made last semester with their inventions. Joel does a voiceover, stating how much he made in one night, in his own unauthorized bit of enterprising-turning his folks' mansion into a whorehouse. His commodity being "human fulfillment". Just another item for the market, even something that in an otherwise appropriate context can transcend the vulgarity of mere commerce. It was an effective scene.

Brickman's cut omits the outdoor walk, instead ending the scene with DeMornay showing vulnerability, and then curling up on Cruise's lap, her head buried in his shoulder. As the director says, it shows a transformation, a switching of roles between the two. The studio thought it was too serious. They ordered a reshoot. While I appreciate Brickman's defense of his original idea, I think I prefer the redo, and I normally side with the artist.

Then there's the commentary. It sounds rushed. You have three verbose individuals either all speaking at once or not at all, for several stretches! It really sags at times. Still, it is interesting, but I craved more. And how is it that Brickman, who has only directed one other feature (1990's MEN DON'T LEAVE) not discuss his inactivity? His unique talent brought two dazzling films to life, then he just quits? Did he feel that he had nothing left to say artistically? Nothing on this disc tells us.

So as we take one last look at RISKY BUSINESS, we consider Joel Goodsen, who, with the assistance of his prostitute "girlfriend", discovers that capitalism can pay off quite handsomely, in very little time even. Ah, he'll be a perfect investment banker, or junk bonder. But his first real lesson, as he learns before he "wins" at the end:

"In a sluggish economy, never fuck with another man's livelihood."