Big Picture: Showgirls (1995)
- Presented By: Tampa Theatre
- Dates: April 23, 2025
- Time: 8:00 PM
- 711 N Franklin St, Tampa, FL 33602
- Price: $7-$10
Tampa Theatre
For the next subject of our new monthly Big Picture series, Tampa Theatre offers Dancing, Through Life: a selection of films that all center the experience of dance as a method of escape — escape from a difficult life, escape from an adversarial world, even transcendent escape from the mundane into ecstatic beauty.
Big Picture: Showgirls (1995)
Director Paul Verhoeven, fresh off of smash-hit erotic thriller Basic Instinct (and with Robocop and Total Recall in his rearview mirror), told screenwriter Joe Eszterhas (the writer of Basic Instinct but also Flashdance, another movie about a kid with a talent for dance and the desire to live differently) how much he liked the splashy old-fashioned MGM musicals of Hollywood’s golden age. Eszterhas wrote a note on a napkin about making a new version set in Vegas, and for that, somebody gave him $2 million. This is seriously how showbiz used to work. But Verhoeven’s particular touch for the spectacular, and his Dutch angle on American society, turned what might have been 42nd Street for the ‘90s into a slimy, perverse immersion into the guts of the stardom machine. So: 42nd Street for the ‘90s.
In Showgirls, the world is cruel and predatory, and all are alone within it. Our heroine Nomi (Elizabeth Berkley, one of history’s most fascinating casting choices) seeks her fortune in Las Vegas, starting out performing in strip clubs but hoping to make it as a showgirl. She is ambitious, driven and, importantly, willing to take her clothes off, so she rapidly makes “friends” and moves up the food chain. But every boss, mentor or authority figure she meets tries to exploit, solicit or harm her. And friends, this movie is rated NC-17. It gets rough. Nomi, who wanted nothing more than to dance her way into a new life, has nobody to trust but herself as she tries, yet again, to escape.