54

Mark Christopher – 1998 – USA

Note: This refers to the “director’s cut” released in 2015, not the 1998 original release.

54 didn’t make much of an impact in 1998, dismissed by most critics as a pretty shoddy evocation of the decadent disco scene of New York in the late 70s, but it nevertheless developed a solid following on home video, notably among club aficionados and DJs .  I’ve always enjoyed it even though I never thought that it accomplished anything terribly special.  Rumors always fluttered that much had been cut out at the studio’s insistence and that the complete version as intended by writer/director Mark Christopher was some kind of epic masterpiece of 70s nostalgia; a Godfather of disco movies.  At last, in 2015, Christopher was able to reassemble a new edit – exclusively for online distribution – that didn’t necessarily increase its length but replaced much of it with a combination of unseen footage and alternate versions of existing material.  There is a new narration by star Ryan Phillippe, who clearly sounds 17 years older; making good use of this unique opportunity to truly present the story as a flashback from the vantage point of decades.  The soundtrack is much more muted, though, with the old film’s non-stop barrage of classic disco songs now replaced with a mere handful, a conventional score, or simply silence.  I miss the music, but I was able to get into the new vibe Christopher was going for; (although I’m not entirely sure if this change occurred by choice or because of licensing issues with all the songs).  The bulk of the newly inserted scenes – and the element most anticipated by fans – revolve around the hero Shane O’Shea’s dabbling with homosexuality.  Phillippe, who plays Shane, has often been vocal about his umbrage at going to all that trouble for the sake of the film only to have it edited out due to fear that it was too much for the mainstream audience to whom Miramax intended to market it.  That fear was valid, however cowardly, because this ingredient does make it quite a different movie.  In the original version, Shane was much more the wide-eyed innocent whose worst indulgences were snorting a little coke and developing a huge ego, both of which are presumably cured in the tacked-on coda.  In this version, he is much more of a chameleonic opportunist who knows exactly what he’s doing and isn’t averse to prostituting himself a little if it will help his career.  Personally, I was looking forward to a portrayal of a comfortably and confidently bisexual protagonist, which is still almost unheard of in any movies at all, let alone in independents.  But, as it is, Shane’s adventures with men are tinged with corruption; something he doesn’t appear to enjoy but endures, first with the help of a few drinks, and then later he is so jaded that he doesn’t seem to have any principles at all.  I was a little disappointed with that but nevertheless all these scenes added an interesting dimension to the film, which was previously more of a black-and-white morality tale.  But there is a worse problem with this new cut.  The quality of the restored scenes is noticeably bad and incongruous with the previously existing ones.  It’s unfortunate that some sort of restoration wasn’t achieved as long as they were doing this project at all, because it’s quite jarring when the film shifts from old footage to new.  The result is not unlike the 2006 “Richard Donner Cut” of Superman II (1981); a fascinating glimpse at what might have been, but not a complete film that can officially replace the old one with no regrets.  Maybe that will still happen one day; it seems 54 is popular enough to warrant it.