54 (film)

54
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Mark Christopher
Produced by Ira Deutchman
Richard N. Gladstein
Dolly Hall
Written by Mark Christopher
Starring
Music by Marco Beltrami
Cinematography Alexander Gruszynski
Edited by Lee Percy
Distributed by Miramax Films
Release date
  • August 28, 1998 (1998-08-28)
Running time
 93 minutes
105 minutes (Director's cut)
Country United States
Language English
Budget $13 million
Box office $16.8 million[1]

54 is a 1998 American drama film written and directed by Mark Christopher, about Studio 54, a world-famous New York City discotheque, the main setting of the film. It stars Ryan Phillippe, Salma Hayek, Neve Campbell, and Mike Myers as Steve Rubell, the club's co-founder. Prior to its release in 1998, the film was extensively reshot and recut, and then released to poor critical reaction, but somewhat respectable box office. In 2008, a bootleg version of the director's cut was screened at Outfest, leading to interest for its release. In 2015, Christopher and Miramax premiered a new edit of the film at the Berlin International Film Festival, with 45 minutes of original material restored and 30 minutes of studio re-shoots removed.

Plot

Shane O'Shea is a young Jersey City man in the late 1970s, handsome enough to become a bartender at Studio 54. There he befriends aspiring singer Anita and her husband, Greg Randazzo. Shane gets sucked into the hard-partying scene at Studio 54; as his life spirals downward, so does the club.

Cast

Celebrity patrons

Production

Based on two short films Mark Christopher made, Miramax Films persuaded Christopher to direct the full-length feature about Studio 54. He had spent five years researching the club and the time period while working on a screenplay. Miramax purchased a partial screenplay in 1995 and developed the script with the filmmaker for over a year. Christopher shot the film in Toronto over two months in the fall of 1997. During the production, a Miramax executive was often present on the set and studio head Harvey Weinstein flew up from New York to give his approval.

In the 1998 version, Christopher finished his cut of the film and the studio scheduled the film's release for July of the following year. After initial positive reactions within the company and a test screening in Manhattan, further test screenings in the suburbs disappointed the studio. Audiences found the lead character's bisexuality unlikable and reacted negatively to a kiss between Shane and Greg. They also did not respond well to the happy ending for both of them and Anita.[2] Miramax requested cuts be made and Christopher initially refused.

Reception

54 opened at #4 in its opening weekend (August 28–30, 1998) with $6,611,532 behind Blade, There's Something About Mary, and Saving Private Ryan.[3]

The studio cut of the film received almost universally poor reviews and was a box office disappointment, grossing $16 million on an estimated budget of $13 million. Mike Myers, in his first (and, to date, only) serious dramatic role, garnered some of the film's only positive word-of-mouth. Many critics were particularly disappointed with the film's fictional characters and storyline, believing that Studio 54's notorious, real-life past should have been explored more in detail and with better realism. Critical response to the Director's Cut is more positive.

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 16%, based on 67 reviews, and an average rating of 4.2/10. The website's critical consensus reads, " Poor plot development and slow pacing keep 54 from capturing the energy of it's legendary namesake.."[4]

The 1998 film was nominated for two Razzie Awards, including Worst Actor for Ryan Phillippe and Worst Supporting Actress for Ellen Albertini Dow.[5]

The film was part of Frameline 39: The San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Festival.

Home media

The 2012 Blu-ray release features several additional and alternate scenes that were not included in the theatrical release. This extended cut runs 100 minutes, 8 minutes of which are not in the studio's 92 minute release. A 105-minute director's cut, restoring 44 minutes of original footage and deleting all but a few seconds of the studio-dictated reshot footage, was screened in the Panorama section of the 65th Berlin International Film Festival in February 2015.[6] Miramax and Lionsgate Home Entertainment released 54: The Director's Cut in digital HD on streaming video providers on June 2, 2015.[7]

References

  1. ↑ "54". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on 22 August 2010. Retrieved 2010-09-29.
  2. ↑ Ascher-Walsh, Rebecca (1998-09-04). "The 411 On '54'". Entertainment Weekly (in Persian). Retrieved 2006-12-21.
  3. ↑ "Weekend Box Office Results for August 28–30, 1998". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved March 22, 2010.
  4. ↑ "54 (2018)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved April 10, 2018.
  5. ↑ Wilson, John (September 3, 2007). The Official Razzie Movie Guide: Enjoying the Best of Hollywoods Worst. Hachette UK. ISBN 0446510084. Retrieved 12 April 2018.
  6. ↑ "Panorama 2015: Probing the Past to Shape the Future". Berlinale. Archived from the original on 2014-12-25. Retrieved 25 December 2014.
  7. ↑ "54 Director's Cut". Miramax.
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