Boogie Nights Question

Boogie Nights came on TV last night and like always I was sucked into watching it (no pun intended).

One part I didn’t quite understand and don’t think it actually says in the film - why was the Colonel thrown in jail? When he is talking to Jack, he mentions a girl ODing on coke at his place, but that is not why they arrested him. He says that when the police where there for that situation, they “found some stuff” at his house.

I actually like this movie and have watched it several times, but have never been able to figure out what the Colonel was ultimately busted for. Anybody have any thoughts? Are there more clues on DVD deleted scenes?

Thanks

Wow. A question that I can answer… IIRC, he was thrown in jail for possession of (and producing?) child pornography. I think that was explicitly stated in the movie. Could you have been watching an edited version?

Working on memory, but I recall it was hinted at rather than explicitly stated. The Colonel said something about how he swore he “never touched them,” but that they were “so cute when they’re small” or something to that effect. I took it as meaning that he was caught with kiddie porn that he’d participated in producing.

I don’t think so, since they didn’t cut out any swearing or drug use. And they did show the “reveal” at the end.

And Vinyl Turnip, I do remember him saying “I never touch them”, but that scene is so hard to follow since he never speaks a complete sentence. It’s like “There she was… She did so much coke Jack… I told here not to… Then there was… She must have broke something… All the blood… Just pouring out… Then the police… They found something Jack… Found something at my house… But I never touch them… I just like them… But I swear I never touched them… You believe me Jack? Are you my friend? Jack?..”

Huh… I thought, based on what kind of girls he likes to party with, it was rather clear that it was child porn… because really, it wasn’t like he was keeping exotic pets… Well… now that you mention it. Maybe that’s what it was.

The script for the movie is online here.

It may not be precisely what made it into the film, but this part of the Colonel’s speech in the script sounds close to what I remember:

Colonel: They found something in my house, Jack.
Jack: What?
Colonel: …something…
Jack: …what are you saying? What did they find?
Colonel: …it’s my fuckin’ weakness, Jack. They’re …so small and cute I can’t help myself, Jack. I can’t help it when they’re so small and cute. I just want to watch, I don’t do anything, Jack. I’ve never touched one of them…

But how do you know they’re not talking about hamsters or marmosets?

Or Beanie babies.

This does help clear it up, but did he have porn there, or actual little girls? This was back in the time before readily available VHS tapes or internet downloads.

Hunh, I don’t recall ever catching that! Gross. :slight_smile:

I’m guessing it was material that he had created himself for his own personal consumption–probably (given the technology at the time) just pictures or polaroids.

Earlier on in the movie he comes by a party with a gaggle of obviously underage waifs, proclaimed by him to be the next generation of ‘porn stars.’

Actually, no, that’s Floyd Gondolli, played by Philip Baker Hall. The Col., IIRC, eventually concedes this point and starts working with Gondolli, but it’s Floyd that makes that particular pitch.

I saw a DVD of Boogie Nights in the bargain bin of Boomerang, a local video chain. The legitimate chains – as opposed to the pirates on the street – are notorious for submitting videos for censorship, so I would normally not take a chance on this one, but it was only 49 baht. That’s US$1.40. It’s one of our favorite films and Paul Thomas Anderson one of our favorite directors. (His Hard Eight is probably our favorite film of his.)

Well, I should have known better, but at least I only wasted 49 baht. The nude scenes were all cut! We saw the first one, in which William H. Macy walks in on his wife having sex with someone else, and it showed him saying, “What the fuck do ya think you’re doing?” or words to that effect, then CUT to the next scene. Does not show the wife having sex with the other guy or her response. We also noticed the entire scene with Buck trying to sell a stereo in the store he works in and scaring the customer away with a country-western eight-track was completely chopped out! For no reason! There’s no nudity there. Then the part where Rollergirl takes off her clothes to have sex with Eddie/Dirk on Jack Horner’s couch was cut right from the moment she starts to remove her clothes.

That was more than enough for us! We stopped watching, but we were curious if the crucial reveal at the end would be cut. So before tossing the DVD out in the trash, we jumped to the end. They still had that scene, BUT the penis was pixellated out! I’m not a big fan of looking at men’s penises, but this was a crucial reveal; I would not consider that gratuitous at all. Thai censorship is a very frustrating aspect of living here, I’ll tell ya, especially considering what you can see in your average bar here. :frowning:

Heh. I remember perusing a Penthouse magazine in a 7-11 in Bangkok and marveling at how modest it was. It was certainly more tame than Playboy here in the states. And yeah, I’ve spent some time in the bars.

Not necessarily. My understanding is that there was a pretty healthy underground at the time where such things were passed around/sold/produced. There were even a few slickly produced magazines printed up in countries with lax regulations of such things and smuggled into the country (and possibly clandestinely produced magazines here in the US as well).

The Colonel, BTW, was also the voice for Thundarr in the Thundarr the Barbarian cartoons.

[hijack]Are movies shown in Thai theaters still censored? I was there in 1993 or so and saw some crap movie starring Richard Gere at the cinema. During a “romantic” scene, suddenly the image on the screen went completely out of focus and stayed that way, while the audio continued. Confused, I looked around and saw that nobody else in the audience seemed to have noticed, or at least were still watching the screen as though nothing had happened. After a couple of minutes the movie came back into focus.

My girlfriend told me afterward that it was standard procedure to censor nude scenes in movies shown in theaters there. I wondered if they had a censored copy or if the projectionist had to unfocus the lens manually at the required time.[/hijack]

So basically, what happened was that the Col. was partying with some chick, she ODs, the cops come, search the place, find not only a metric shit-ton of cocaine but also kiddie porn, Col. goes to jail, and his friends are grossed out and cut him off.

How low can you get? Well, when pornographers won’t associate with you, you’re pretty damn low. That’s like being told to go away by a mime.

Is it worse if the mime does so by talking or not talking to you?

Here’s the worst way a mime can tell you to go away. Starts about 1:30 in.