“THE DREAM IS ALWAYS THE SAME”

By Raymond Benson

One of the hallmark and influential pictures of the early 1980s was Paul Brickman’s Risky Business, which is also known for arguably making Tom Cruise a star overnight. Upon its release in 1983, this coming-of-age comedy-drama that many critics compared to the likes of The Graduate (1967) captured the zeitgeist of the era. It capitalized on the MTV sensibilities that made music videos a part of mainstream Hollywood movies, and yet it also managed to display a fine artistic aesthetic that elevated the picture above what was thought of as a “teen movie.”

Brickman, who had enjoyed some success as a screenwriter (e.g., Handle With Care, aka Citizens Band, 1977), wrote the original script of Risky Business and decided that he was the only person who could direct it. He found, though, that studios were lukewarm at the idea of a first-time director doing a teen comedy with no bankable star, and especially with material that was edgier and intellectually superior when compared to something like the popular but crude Porky’s (1981).

Enter producer Jon Avnet, who had known Brickman for years. Avnet was able to get the script to David Geffen’s production company. Geffen was willing to give the film a go if they had the right cast. Brickman, Avnet, and casting director Nancy Klopper spent months auditioning young actors and quickly found most of the supporting cast. The two leads, however, were a challenge. Tom Cruise came in to audition while filming Coppola’s The Outsiders (also 1983). When he showed up, the actor had slicked-back hair and the black leather jacket look. This was totally wrong for the character of Joel Goodsen, the high school senior with big ambitions to be a successful capitalist. But with a little change of hairstyle, clothing, and attitude, Cruise proved to be perfect. For the role of the high-class hooker, Lana, the discovery of Rebecca De Mornay was more difficult. Eventually she was found because Harry Dean Stanton, a friend of Avnet’s, had noticed her as an extra in yet another Coppola production, One from the Heart (1982). De Mornay got the part.

Joel Goodsen (Cruise) is an accomplished high school student in a wealthy Chicago suburb. He wants to get into an Ivy League college like Princeton after he graduates. His parents go out of town for a week, leaving him in charge of the home. Being a horny all-American 17-year-old, he’d like to have a bit of fun, too. His buddy Miles (Curtis Armstrong) arranges for a call girl to visit Joel. The first one to arrive comically doesn’t work out, but the second, Lana (De Mornay), is the jackpot. Joel and Lana begin a hot, surreal relationship. Everything is rosy until Lana’s jealous pimp, Guido (Joe Pantoliano), interferes. The theft of Joel’s mother’s expensive Steuben glass egg, the wrecking of his father’s Porsche, and threats of violence from Guido sends Joel into a spiral of crises. On top of all that, a recruiter from Princeton (Richard Masur) arrives to make an assessment of the college candidate. To reveal more would spoil the fun.

One of the smartest things Brickman did was to hire Tangerine Dream to do much of the score. The band’s ethereal, synthesizer-based material is perfect for the dreamlike sequences that occur throughout the film, especially in the R-rated sex scenes between Joel and Lana. The movie may have been classified as a “teen comedy,” but make no mistake—this was a movie not for teens, but rather for grownups. The rest of the score was made up of licensed pop songs, including Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock and Roll,” which accompanies perhaps the most iconic scene of the movie—Cruise lip syncing and dancing in his underwear while alone in the house.

One can look back today and criticize the movie for all kinds of #MeToo and politically incorrect content, but in 1983 no one seemed bothered. The movie was a hit. While some of the plot might have raised eyebrows even then, none of it was unrealistic. Just as The Graduate shone a light on the hypocrisies of American society, so does Risky Business. It’s a satire, albeit a cynical, ironic one, that is an indictment of American capitalism and the drive to attain monetary success (and this was such a thing in the early 1980s). This theme truly hits home when one views Brickman’s “director’s cut,” which features an entirely different ending than the one that was released theatrically. In fact, Brickman was apparently so bitter and unhappy about the studio forcing him to slap on an “upbeat” ending just before release, that he directed only one other feature in his career. Brickman stuck to screenwriting, and it’s a shame, because Risky Business exhibits a genius-at-work.

The Criterion Collection’s new 4K UHD/Blu-ray Combo pack features new 4K digital restorations of the director’s cut, presented for the first time as a whole, and the theatrical cut, supervised and approved by Brickman and Avnet, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks. The images are marvelously crystal, representing the best presentation of the film to date. Note that previous Blu-ray releases of the film included the alternate director’s cut ending as a supplement, but it wasn’t attached to the complete film. Here, you can see Risky Business as the filmmakers meant it to be seen. This reviewer can easily say that this is a case in which the “director’s cut” is indeed better than the theatrical one.

The previous 2008 Warners release of the theatrical cut contained an excellent video/audio commentary from Brickman, Avnet, and Tom Cruise. Disappointingly, the Criterion presentation of the theatrical cut contains only the audio commentary, not the video component.

Supplements included are a port-over of the half-hour documentary on the film’s making, “The Dream is Always the Same,” from the previous release; new interviews with Jon Avnet and casting director Nancy Klopper; a new conversation between editor Richard Chew and film historian Bobbie O’Steen; screen tests with Cruise and De Mornay (ported from the previous release); the theatrical trailer; and English subtitles for the hearing impaired. The booklet contains an essay by film curator and critic Dave Kehr.

Risky Business is an important 1980s gem that is certainly for fans of Tom Cruise, but it’s also for cinephiles who appreciate the cinematic aesthetics of its time.

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