2/7/2019 1 Comment Analysis II: Risky BuisnessIt's all about the dream in Paul Brickman's 1983 film, Risky Business starring Tom Cruise and Rebecca De Mornay. The film follows a High School senior, Joel Goodson (Tom Cruise) who begins the film as a nervous wreck. constantly concerned about his future. He is afraid of taking risks while simultaneously terrified at the possibility of missing out on the potential benefits of taking said risks. Over the course of the film, Joel slowly but surely develops into becoming a far more confident person, whose fears at the beginning of the movie evaporate as Joel goes through more and more experiences. Joel experiences quite an adventure in Risky Business and while this does not completely change him (as sometimes occurs in transformative Hollywood films), Joel does experience substantial character growth. The character of Joel begins as a person very much grounded in high school, and only high school. The watcher cannot truly envision the person Joel is existing in the adult world, and this serves as the main conflict in the film. To grow out of his awkward teenage nature and sate his urges, Joel hires a prostitute while his parents are out of town and fails to pay her, which creates a constant cycle of taking two steps forward and one step back. Eventually, Joel creates an ambitious plan with his prostitute friend, Lana (Rebecca De Mornay) to turn his house into a brothel for a night and collect the profits. The night is very successful, but an unexpected slight committed by Lana's pimp causes Joel to lose all his earnings and scramble to fix his house before his parents return from their trip. There is an exhausting amount of subject matter to dissect in Risky Business, yet this is not so much a problem as it is an invigorating challenge. In this analysis, I will primarily be examining the film's usage of characters, storytelling elements, shooting techniques, irony, and prevalent themes such as how actions and behavior are affected by fear. The characters themselves are one of the most intriguing elements of the film. At first glance, Joel may seem as though he fits into a stereotype as a nervous, sexually-frustrated high school senior who is both afraid of, yet also years for changes in his life. However, as the plot advances, it becomes clear that Joel is far from the one-note character he may be initially perceived as. Joel experiences realistic character changes over the course of the film. He remains fairly awkward through the course of the movie, but becomes more confident, both in his own skills and his abilities. Joel is so intriguing because he feels like a truly realistic character, not undergoing any one great change that completely modifies his personality, but changing some parts of himself slowly as a real person would. The change from naive high schooler to confidant temporary pimp is perhaps best illustrated in Brian Brems' blog on Risky Business, in which he states, "At the film’s outset, Joel couldn’t even get himself off without feeling like the police were going to kick in his door. Now, he is the proprietor of a full on suburban bacchanal, a master of the universe in the sexual industrial complex, entirely staged within the home his parents left in his care". On the other hand, Lana is a character that appears to remain the same throughout the entire film. She comes across as easily offended, whimsical, flimsy, charismatic, arrogant, and conniving. Lana plays an instrumental part in changing Joel in her strange capacity as his lover and unofficial girlfriend. The two paired together create an intriguing dynamic: one where each character seems something admirable and desirable from the other's lifestyle. For Joel, he admires the carefree and confident nature of Lana's life while Lana enjoys the security and comfort of Joel's lifestyle. Overall, Joel and Lana's relationship is a testament to how well opposite personalities can play off one another and how much different people can learn from one another and thus work together once they learn from and work with one another's differences. Besides the characters featured in the film, the story is loaded with intriguing bits to dissect aswell. The story of the film works in cycles, with something very good happening, followed by something terrible happening. This cycle seems to present the audience with the ideology of balance. Karma is a large part of the narrative aswell, as often times the past actions of a character return to haunt them at later points in the movie. While many may look at Risky Business simply as a "coming of age" film. It is much more than that. Oddly, Joel's actions in the film are seldom ever cast in a positive or negative light. While many movies will alter other movie-making factors such as music in order to skew an audience's opinion of a character's actions one way or another, this technique is startlingly absent in Risky Business. Amidst Joel creating a brothel, hiring a hooker, and even sinking his car, Joel is curiously not painted as a bad, nor a good person. The audience is allowed to formulate their own opinions about Joel and this strengthens the impact of the film. Watchers do not feel as though they are being spoon-fed an opinion, nor are they allowed to sit idly by and let the movie make up their opinion for them. Risky Business forces the audience to come up with their own opinions on what Joel is doing. Depending on how someone looks at it, Joel's efforts can seem inspiring and admirable or exploitive and reckless. Needless to say, this concept of the film's neutrality on the opinion of Joel's acts sparks many differing thoughts and opinions concerning that topic which leads to more discussions about the film. By wishing to discuss elements of the film, the movie proves that it has a strong impact on anyone who watches it. This ultimately leads to the movie being strengthened. On a different note, the usage of foreshadowing in the film's story is heavy and rewarding, with nearly everything from the opening credits to the dream sequence at the start of the film being referenced later on in the film for the attentive watcher. When analyzing the shooting techniques of the film, only one particular technique particularly catches the eye. The sequence at the beginning of the movie is shot POV-style as if someone is looking directly out of a train window on an elevated Chicago track. While not seeming like much to analyze at first, the shooting technique of the opening credits is very intriguing when looking at it a little deeper. The opening sequence serves as some clever foreshadowing for an important milestone later on in the film but is also shot in a way that seems to spectate on the shadowy reality of Chicago shrouded in the darkness of night. This particular focus feels ominous and dirty in a way, as the audience is not exposed to any recognizable city landmarks, but instead treated to fairly average sights cast in a gloomy light. The traits that can be derived from the open credits scene are shady, filthy, and unflattering. Thus, this opening credits scene foreshadows more than the train scene later in the film, it also foreshadows the feelings associated with the scene, as well as the light the scene is shown in. While it was said previously that the movie never casts Joel in an explicit, undeniable good or bad light, the grimy setting of a train for intercourse is not glorified at all. In stark contrast with Joel's first sexual experience, he appears almost hesitant during the train scene, as if something about the situation is far more "real" than the first time. There is no over-the-top aggrandizement. The tones present almost convey a sense that Joel and Lana are actually experiencing their first sexual encounter with one another. The performances of Cruise and Mornay convey both excitement and nervousness-more akin to true romantic feelings rather than sexual ones. In the end, the train sequence of the movie holds great importance, and this is due in no small part due to the opening credits sequence. Now onto the main themes of the movie. Irony is at the forefront of Risky Business, with many plot points circling back to that point. For instance, when Joel makes a great deal of money from his "brothel night", he must then give away all of this money in order to retrieve his parents' surprisingly stolen furniture towards the end of the film. The movie is effective in its' use of irony, which is primary utilized to a comedic effect and this greatly contributes to the film's charm which subsequently leads to the audience to garner a greater amount of enjoyment from viewing Risky Business. However, irony is not the movie's only prevalent theme and it is seldom its most important. Learning how to access one's confidence is a big focal point of Risky Business as Joel turns from a shy and frustrated high school boy into a clever and confident young man. This evolution is fully realized and perhaps best illustrated towards the end of the film, during Joel's Princeton interview. The scene featured above is excellent because it portrays how much Joel has changed, and how much he hasn't. Joel's confidence truly blooms towards the end of the scene. This goes hand-and-hand with the previous analysis, discussing how Joel evolves in a realistic fashion. By experiencing adventures that take him out of his comfort zone, Joel is able to grow and change appropriately to attain his goals. Yet this scene is perhaps best at showing how Joel overcomes his fear. Recognizing and overcoming fear is the primary theme of the film and the one, when one looks closely at the movie itself; is the one that holds the greatest important and relevance. Joel's fears and insecurities are featured in the film early-on in the form of a dream. In the scene (pictured above), Joel's fears boil down to the fact that he is afraid that he will "lose out" on the chance to find sexual companionship and this singular focus on acquiring sex that he inevitably does not receive which leads him to failing academically; thus preventing him from achieving any of his goals. As this tear might imply, Joel's true terror lies in the fact that he is too indecisive, almost unable to commit to one idea or the other and this causes him to lose out on both potential avenues of success. The conflicts in the dream are presented later on in the film, first with Joel metaphorically chasing after Lana and later when Joel fails two exams after failing to show up on time, just like the dream. However, in real life, Joel's hunger for sex is sated where his need for academic achievement is not and in the end, all of his time devoted to Lana helps him to secure his academic future. Even before he knows that however, Joel learns how to grow comfortable, not only with himself, but also with the fact that life is liable to change. Failure is inevitable, but it does not need to be the end-all be-all. Joel learns this by spending time with the whimsical Lana, it is when Joel accepts the fact that even if he is unable to get into Princeton, he'll still be fine that he truly reaches his ultimate sense of self within the context of the film. When one analyzes the clip of Joel's interview again, they'll notice the sizeable pause as Joel and Lana look knowingly at one another. Their silence speaks volumes, as the audience can tell that Joel is smirking because he finally understands that everything is going to be just fine. He does not need an ivy league school to be loved, respected, or even successful, because he has achieved all three thanks to Lana and when he finally realizes this, it is a special moment. Ultimately, subtlety gives way to obviousness, as Joel pulls out his shades, lights a cigarette and displays the most confidence seen in the entire film from him. He feels the strongest when his eyes are obscured by the dark lens of his sunglasses and a long cigarette dangles from his mouth. Joel has created almost a different persona over the course of the film, his confident self wears a blazer, shades, and a cigarette but by the end of the film, he allows these personas to merge into one as he wordlessly realizes that both halves of himself are ultimately just him. Joel likes to feel cool by wearing sunglasses, but truly, he does not need them in order to be confident. The audience sees this when Joel is raking up leaves and dons his signature shades and cigarette, perhaps to commemorate his adventure in the past, or perhaps to display that he is completely comfortable being who he really is in any setting,. Even without the presence of Lana, Joel finally proves his confidence to himself. With one final gesture, Joel accepts his reality that sometimes, he just has to say "what the fuck".
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