# Tell me why Showgirls is a great film
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-why-showgirls-is-a-great-film/1002940
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** movies
**Created:** [June 16, 2024, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-why-showgirls-is-a-great-film/1002940 "2024-06-16T13:02:24Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@GailForce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GailForce)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2024, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-why-showgirls-is-a-great-film/1002940/41 "2024-06-17T10:17:04Z")
> [@Lumpy](#):
>
> That by starring in the film Elizabeth Berkley was actually undergoing the sexual debasement her character portrayed?
No, but something like that. I vaguely remember that her character being revealed at the end to have been a phony (she had committed some crime she hadn’t revealed earlier in the picture, and was running away to Vegas) reinforced this theme, whatever it was.
---
### Author:  [@The\_Librarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Librarian)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2024, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-why-showgirls-is-a-great-film/1002940/42 "2024-06-17T11:13:41Z")
Your missing his best work.
- Soldaat van Oranje.
- Turks Fruit
- De Vierde Man
Those are way better than anything he made in Hollywood.
He was part of a small Dutch golden age of movie making in the ‘70s - Rutger Hauer, Tim Krabbé, Monique van der Ven, Jan de Bont
As someone who has watched all his works multiple times- Showgirls tried to be more than a movie with a lot of “functioneel bloot” but it failed.
The plot is an afterthought, the characters are flat.
---
### Author:  [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2024, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-why-showgirls-is-a-great-film/1002940/43 "2024-06-17T17:54:11Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#):
>
> _Starship Troopers_ was great! Cheesy but great.
As a lifelong Heinlein fan I disagree with the former – at least as a Heinlein film. He\* could have just stuck with his original name and concept – _Bughunt at Outpost 7_ – but no-o-o-o, he\* has to acquire the rights to _Starhip Troopers_ then use scarcely anything from it, plotwise or themewise. That and _Showgirls_ pretty much soured me on VerHoeven, putting him in the same league as Spike Lee and M. Night Shyamalan.
(pant, pant)
Oh, and I saw _Showgirls_ mainly for the curiosity factor. At about the three-quarters point the film slipped off of the platter, wrapped itself around something, and _pulled the projector off its foundation!_ – that polyester film base is strong. Needless to say, that stopped the show and we got the ticket refunded, which suited me fine. I did ask the manager how it ended.
> **Spoiler**
>
> “She beats the shit out of the guy, apologizes to her comatose friend, and goes back to L.A.”
\*TriStar actually, but it’s his face on it.
---
### Author:  [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2024, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-why-showgirls-is-a-great-film/1002940/44 "2024-06-17T23:11:13Z")
> [@The\_Librarian](#):
>
> … The plot is an afterthought, the characters are flat.
I would not use “flat” to describe at least some of the characters in _Showgirls_.
Somebody was gonna say it.
---
### Author:  [@Reno\_Nevada\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reno_Nevada_Jr)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2024, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-why-showgirls-is-a-great-film/1002940/45 "2024-06-19T19:14:30Z")
I don’t think _Showgirls_ is a great or even particularly good film, but I do think Verhoeven is an interesting filmmaker. I have never read anything from him to confirm this, but I think that his goal with making a film is to produce something that some people will enjoy as a
> [@Loach](#):
>
> fun goofy popcorn movie
that other people will think a little more deeply about and find to be much deeper–a
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#):
>
> meditation on the solipsism of internal experience and filtered perception
I think that _Robocop_ and _Total Recall_ are the most successful at doing that. _Starship Troopers_ I think was pretty successful at being both a fun popcorn movie and a meditation on the roots of fascism, but Internet discussions about it are weighted down by the title.
I think that with _Showgirls_ he was trying to make a soft-core porn film that would be enjoyed as such, but was also a satire. I mean, c’mon, its _A Star is Born_, that most American of musicals, set in a Las Vegas strip club. Unfortunately, as soft-core, it is an utter failure, being too boring to be enjoyable, though I did laugh my ass off at the sex in a pool scene.
So, my read on _Showgirls_ is ambitious failure.
---
### Author:  [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2024, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-why-showgirls-is-a-great-film/1002940/46 "2024-06-19T21:10:02Z")
> [@DesertDog](#):
>
> At about the three-quarters point the film slipped off of the platter, wrapped itself around something, and _pulled the projector off its foundation!_
Until I got to the end, I thought yu were making a metaphor for the quality, not recounting an actual event.
---
### Author:  [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2024, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-why-showgirls-is-a-great-film/1002940/47 "2024-06-19T22:05:29Z")
Could be both I suppose, but unless the theater staff lied – I didn’t peek into the projection room – it really, truly happened.
---
### Author:  [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2024, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-why-showgirls-is-a-great-film/1002940/48 "2024-09-01T23:11:54Z")
> [@I TOLD you! The reappraisal of Showgirls has begun.](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-told-you-the-reappraisal-of-showgirls-has-begun/237558):
>
> From [Salon.com](http://www.salon.com/ent/feature/2004/03/31/showgirls/index_np.html):
---
### Author:  [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2024, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-why-showgirls-is-a-great-film/1002940/49 "2024-09-01T23:23:20Z")
From someone much smarter than me:
> [@What's the argument that Showgirls was a good movie?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-argument-that-showgirls-was-a-good-movie/336238/35):
>
> “Cruelty” is the key word for me when considering Showgirls. It’s cruel to its audience. Over and over, it sets up the viewer’s expectations based on tropes of the genre it’s mocking, and then either reverses itself or puts a nasty spin on the cliche. The key to watching the movie, as I’ve said before, is not to watch the movie, but to watch the relationship between the movie and its audience. It’s cruel to its culture. The rags-to-riches star-is-born fantasy is compelling, enduring, beloved. …
---
### Author:  [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2024, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-why-showgirls-is-a-great-film/1002940/50 "2024-09-01T23:33:44Z")
Don’t forget Keetje Tippel, which is basically a 18th century dry run for Showgirls
---
### Author:  [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2024, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-why-showgirls-is-a-great-film/1002940/51 "2024-09-01T23:37:51Z")
His intention was not to make a softcore porn movie, but to violently subvert it in service of enraged and disgusted social commentary. The studio’s marketing department is where those wires got crossed. They decided to sell it as a raucous titfest without warning audiences about the punishment they were about to endure.
---
### Author:  [@Reno\_Nevada\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reno_Nevada_Jr)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2024, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-why-showgirls-is-a-great-film/1002940/52 "2024-09-01T23:49:02Z")
> [@lissener](#):
>
> His intention was not to make a softcore porn movie, but to violently subvert it in service of enraged and disgusted social commentary.
Hi, Lissener, welcome back! Your hill to die on is right over there!
I think you were replying to me, not to **Just Asking Questions** , but my argument is that his intention was to make **both** a softcore movie **and** a biting, cruel satire on America and American entertainment. Two movies in one!
Now I will have to schedule a viewing of Keetje Tippel sometime.
---
### Author:  [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2024, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-why-showgirls-is-a-great-film/1002940/53 "2024-09-02T01:42:13Z")
Should have typed 19th century
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-why-showgirls-is-a-great-film/1002940.md?page=2)