Paul Verhoeven’s erotic drama, Showgirls followed another controversial film that he had directed three years before, Basic Instinct, starring Sharon Stone.
However, unlike that 1992, which was R-rated, Showgirls was slapped with NC-17 in the U.S. due to “nudity and erotic sexuality throughout, some graphic language and sexual violence.”
The over-the-top sex scenes (Elizabeth Berkley and Kyle MacLachlan in the pool, especially) almost made it sure that it is not R rated picture.
Verhoeven wasn’t surprised by the U.S. ratings board keeping “Showgirls” for adults only: “There’s been a general shift towards Puritanism. I think there’s a misunderstanding about sexuality in the US. Sexuality is the most essential element of nature. I’m always amazed people are shocked by sex in movies.”
Joe Eszterhas, who penned Verhoeven’s previous films, Basic Instinct and Sliver (1993), became the highest-paid screenwriter in Hollywood history. Because of conflicts with the MPAA over the rating of Basic Instinct, which he cut to in order to secure R rating, Verhoeven planned for Showgirls to be rated NC-17. To that extent, he deferred 70% of his $6 million director’s fee contingent on the movie’s eventual profits.
For Eszterhas, the films story “begins in the world of erotic dancers, lap dancers, table dancers, strippers and sleaze, before moving into the world of big hotel showgirls, billboards and glamor.”
In its examination of the sleaze and glamor, Eszterhas’s goal was for “the audience itself to make its own moral conclusions at the end.”
Eszterhas and Verhoeven interviewed over 200 Las Vegas strippers and incorporated parts of their stories into the screenplay to show the extent of strippers’ exploitation in Vegas.
Showgirls was the first (and to date only) NC-17-rated film to be given a wide release in mainstream theaters.
The distributor, MGM, dispatched several hundred staffers to theaters across North America playing Showgirls to ensure that patrons would not sneak into the theater from other films, and to make sure film-goers were over the age of 17.
Audience restriction due to the NC-17 rating, coupled with poor reviews, resulted in the film becoming a box-office bomb, grossing just $37.8 million against a budget of $45 million.
Hiwever, despite negative theatrical and critical consensus, Showgirls enjoyed success on the home video market, generating more than $100 million from video rentals, allowing the film to turn profit and to become one of MGM’s top-20 all-time bestsellers.
For its video premiere, Verhoeven prepared an R-rated cut for rental outlets that would not carry NC-17 films. This edited version runs 3 minutes shorter (128 minutes) and deletes some of the more graphic footage.
Showgirls was universally panned upon release, with some critics claiming that it was one of the worst films ever made.
However, over the years, Showgirls has become a cult movie, and has been subject to critical re-evaluation, with some notable directors and critics considering it as a satire rather than erotic melodrama.
