“Showgirls” (1995)
What’s It About? Nomi (“Saved by the Bell” icon Elizabeth Berkley) is a young woman with big dreams: to become a Las Vegas showgirl. (Has this ever been anyone’s dream?) Unfortunately, she’s stuck working at a seedy strip club instead. Still, this is the story of the American dream, and soon she becomes the protégé (and eventual successor) of a diva showgirl played by Gina Gershon. Other adventures include her getting violently f–ked in a swimming pool by the guy who played FBI Agent Dale Cooper and mispronouncing the word “Versace.”
Why Did It Get The Rating? Public opinion at the time had the staggering amount of nudity as the chief reason “Showgirls” was saddled with an NC-17 rating (at the time it was the most expensive and lavishly marketed film to carry such a rating; to date it’s the highest grossing NC-17 rated movie). There is also a fair amount of sex, but nothing even remotely approaching penetration. In fact, comparing the NC-17 version to the R-rated cut (that was released on home video and for television markets) shows that simulated masturbation was a huge concern, with whole sequences reframed to delete the suggestion of masturbation or anal play. There is also a pretty violent rape.
Did It Deserve Its NC-17? Absolutely not. There is more shocking stuff on pay cable than in “Showgirls,” with the amount of violence, nudity, and rape regularly eclipsed on any given episode of “Game of Thrones.” One of the things that remains at least somewhat shocking is Berkley’s pubic hair (or lack thereof); in the years since a shaved pubic region has remained a taboo that can tip an R-rated movie into NC-17 rated territory. In the commentary track for “Piranha 3D,” director Alexandre Aja feared the wrath of the MPAA not because of the movie’s envelope-pushing violence but because costars Kelly Brook and Riley Steele “shave in between their legs.”
How Good Is It? “Showgirls” isn’t a good movie by any stretch of the imagination, but it has reached that rarified air of the so-bad-it’s-good movie and remains an enduring cult classic, best watched after midnight and after several beers have been ceremoniously downed. [B]