Eldergays, please tell me about the hysteria for Pretty Woman when it released in 1990.

Don't understand it myself. It was a movie about a prostitute, not a fucking fairy princess. No one in their right mind would have encouraged the Richard Gere character to have an open, committed relationship with a hooker he picked up off the street, no matter what she looked like.

And yes, I am aware high-class escorts have had long-term relationships with clients before.

I cant even describe the mayhem in the streets. Standing in line at the theater was like being in thw crowd at Diana's funeral, Op. People waited in.line for days.

My sister was a model in NYC at the time. She had long, red curly hair for real, unlike Roberts' which was just for the movie. She was also tall and thin and had presence. She said that when she would wear big sunglasses around town, she would be mobbed by people thinking she was Julia Roberts.

It was Julia. Regardless of how she’s perceived today, this was when she became a movie star. She just had ‘it’.

What's more inexplicable is how Go West's career was resuscitated for a minute.

The movie was trash. Klute was a far better movie about “love” with a hooker.

That and Ghost were runaway hits that year, and they both kind of sucked.

Julia was the golden girl, the silver screen goddess that gay male audiences had been clamoring for, pining for, needing since Dunaway and Streisand at their mid-70s prime. And her movie was a reflection of our collective fantasy... and a need for love.

The glamour, the style, the infectious humor, the knowing intelligence Julia brought to the screen--it was camp, it was DIVA, it was heartbreak all at once. Julia galvanized the gays like nobody's business, and PW became an instant staple in the G&L canon!

Hmmm Julia Roberts was on her first run as a hoe and hadn't yet slept with another client, hence she wasn't really a hoe and that excused it all for the movie's fans.

People love a rags to riches story. The shopping spree, clothes and subsequent takedown of the snooty store bitch were all part of it. The funny thing to me is, how many trust fund sluts who dressed like Vivian when she starts out would visit those same stores every day, and the help would hardly kick them out. They would be great customers, as would all the cheap side pieces in town.

[quote]And yes, I am aware high-class escorts have had long-term relationships with clients before.

Da, but vee vill see jus how "long-term" eet ees

R8, you write really well, are you Andrew Holleran?

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I got to go to a screening of it on the Disney lot when it was still a "rough cut" and titled "2000." I don't know if I've ever seen the finished final print.

R7, it could've been a great year for Molly Ringwald if she hadn't turned down both Pretty Woman and Ghost. I guess Betsy's Wedding looked more appealing on the page.

It is weird to look back and recall what a huge phenomenon this movie was. I admit I really liked it at the time but when I've caught bits of it in recent years it doesn't hold up for me. Julia was charming in it and the Cinderella/fairy tale aspect was certainly a huge factor in its popularity. It was a chick flick but the hooker fantasy kept straight guys from tuning out. Very impressive that Garry Marshall made prostitution palatable to the movie going masses.

In the original ending, she realized her life promised with the Richard Gere character was an empty materialistic sham and she threw herself off a tall building; but it tested poorly with audiences.

Wasn't that also the original ending for Betsy's Wedding?

Lmao!!!!

Everyone here has done their job in describing the Why. She had “it” at a time when there was a large void, together they had incredible chemistry, men loved that she was a whore, but her whoring hadn’t actually been consummated, the Cinderella angle. I would say all of these aspects reigned quite equally.

I don't even remember it.

This was a dramatic reenactment of the hysteria many of us felt about going to see the film for the first time, OP.

okay

Eldergays? I still think of it as a recent movie. Which, I guess, makes me an eldergay.

It closed the New York Stock Exchange.​

Shut down the schools in Indonesia.​

In Florence, Italy, a woman leapt from the Duomo clutching a picture of Julia Roberts and cursing her name—

I'll never forget the hysteria for Little Women when it was published in 1868.

Those March sisters! So shockingly modern in their attitudes and behavior!

Christopher Columbus! What richness!

Boulmiche! What richness!

Have never understood the appeal of Julia Roberts. I can think of at least 10 other leading ladies of the 90s who I preferred.

Julia Roberts' star power was evident in "Mystic Pizza" (1988). Richard Gere did Cotton Club in 1984, Officer & a Gentleman in 1982. I would say that his career had cooled off by the time Pretty Woman came out.

Like R16 said, it was a Cinderella fantasy story. Not sure if it was a "hooker with a heart of gold" story. Maybe it was kind of like "My Fair Lady." Basically, it reinforced hopes in young women that you could be poor, sexy, and uneducated and still meet a good-looking, nice-ish, rich man who would actually consider you to be marriage material.

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I saw it once and thought it was pretty appalling. Nowadays it should be in a vault next to Song of The South.

IIRC, she wasn't some virgin whore on her first nighttime stroll. That seems to be the idea some here are perpetuating.

I blinded myself immediately after seeing it as I knew I would never see a work of art so beautiful ever again.

R4 and R19 pretty well nailed it.

It was about Roberts' charisma and looks, and the Cinderella fantasy. It was also about the comeback of Richard Gere, who in his time away from the A list had become a silver fox. He had just had his first hit in ages with Internal Affairs, then this - and around the same time he was also having his very public relationship with Cindy Crawford. It was a confluence of a bunch of things - but mostly, it was about Julia. She was never as charismatic or appealing again, but in that movie she absolutely had IT.

[quote]I saw it once and thought it was pretty appalling. Nowadays it should be in a vault next to Song of The South.

And yet the musical version is currently running on Broadway.

Ghost would have worked with Ringwald. Pretty Woman would have tanked.

I never got her appeal. She has a “Simpson” mouth. Upper lip hangs over the lower one and drooping hound eyes.

It must have tested really well. Kind of like Speed tested really well.

When the test scores are good, there will be celebrating going on.

Every 13 year old girl likes the thought of Daddy buying her all the expensive clothes she wants.

I saw this in the theater when it came out. The most memorable line came from my date sitting next to me. After Julie Roberts is transformed into respectability, she turned to me and said "She's still quite HO-ISH!" haha

It wasn’t the best movie, but Roberts had charisma in spades and her peculiar good looks were a change of pace from the typical generic starlet. I have to admit that I was totally impressed with her makeover, especially when she wore the red gown to the opera.

I preferred the Ken Russell corrective, "Whore" starring Theresa Russell

I can't believe this is going to be 30 years ago. It really does seem like only yesterday.

This movie has dated. In today's PC climate it doesn't stand the test of time. Not many movies do I guess. Feminists hate this film with the heat of a million suns.

Julia Roberts became HUGE with thus Movie

She was on more magazine covers in 1990 than any other celebrity except Madonna that year

They both dominated 1990

1990 feels so far away now. I was 12. It's like another era.

I was 12 when the movie came out, too! All of my female cousins were obsessed with this movie. I remember then singing that stupid Roxette song over and over.

I was a teen in 1990. My mother and I were downtown (we never went downtown...) and were at a movie theater (we never went to the movies....) and she said “We are NOT watching a movie about a hooker!” so we saw Kenneth Brannagh in Henry V instead.

Thanks, Mom!

The Roxette song is lovely.

The Go West song is terrible.

Roberts was fine but the role isn’t too difficult.

“Edward” is the tough role because he has to be a hard-ass businessman who gets slowly charmed into being a romantic softie. Gere did a great job.

There really aren't many entertaining romantic movies, or romantic comedies, so when one has some entertaining qualities, it is a big hit. Plus Julia Roberts.

(I never watched it.)

That Roxette song sucked, with her whining voice. Natalie Cole's song was much better and should have been a bigger hit.

R53, you have terrible taste in music

Just because

It's utter nonsense--that movie....but it made Julia Roberts a star. She was the last real star....very little to do with talent, everything to do with star power, which she had and still has. Now, we have...Brie Larson? You've got to be kidding.

It was popular, but it wasn't all that and a bag of chips.

OP - i dont know where you got your numbers, but different sources on the web say that Pretty Woman made 178 million, not 400 million. It was the 4th highest grossing film of the year, had 4 weeks as number one -which is hardly the WOW event you think it was - I remember no such phenomena.

Domestic: $178 million Foreign: $285 million WORLD: $463 million

America is not the world!

Hysterical? Are you kidding? I cried for a week when I read how much it grossed.

And let's not forget--the change of title to "Pretty Woman" was a stroke of genius.

Laura San Giacomo had a good line when her character tells Roberts’ that she “cleans up nice”, but otherwise I thought it was a bad film. Some irritating touches, like when Gere’s character accuses accuses Roberts’ of using drug, yet she’s actually flossing her teeth. The story overall was cloying and just stupid.

R56 I'd argue Will Smith was the last real star. He was able to consistently open movies...for a period of 10+ years, his movies dominated the box office every summer.

Its strange when people criticize something for not being something that it was never meant to be.

It’s kike criticizing a potato because it isn’t an automobile.

Exactly what did you expect to get from a Cinderella story directed by Garry Marshall?

It's not that hard to understand. All straight sex is transactional, so women enjoy seeing a woman like them get a hot, rich guy.

The script can was called 3000 originally and Madonna was offered the part, she even met with Garry Marshall to discuss the role and her possibly doing it according to Marshall himself in his autobiography

Madonna turned it down.

Everybody wants a whore in bed...but they want to meet them on their first day of work. Stupid fantasy.

This film was released at the height of the "femi-nazi" political correctness. Despite the entire film being clueless to Camille Paglia's rise, it's a well-crafted film. Julia Roberts was NOT yet a star. This film made her into one. Her on-screen performance was so strong that feminists reluctantly enjoyed it. But the film is trash. Especially that ending.

[quote]Madonna turned it down.

And did [italic]Dick Tracy[/italic] instead where she performed a Sondheim song that won him an Oscar. This still made more money.

My partner took me to see Pretty Woman on my 70th birthday back in 1990. I adore Richard Gere. This was a great film and despite Mystic Pizza being Julia’s break out role, this film turned her into a movie star.

[quote]I saw it once and thought it was pretty appalling. Nowadays it should be in a vault next to Song of The South.

I’d rather watch [italic]Song Of the South[/italic].

Darren Star came in his pants since he knew 8 years later he would make a fortune by ripping it off as a TV show.

Julia is a Scorpio, the sex sign, so it worked well for her playing a prostitute.

a stinking heap of dreck that's worse now than it was then

r70 so u r 98 now ?

Garbage movie, a total fantasy and not even a GOOD or interesting fantasy. I could never watch the film from beginning to end.

The client looked like Richard Gere in his prime, instead of H. Weinstein.

Also, I never got JR as a MOVIE STAR, never, ever appealed to me ever (neither did Nicole Kidman).

Big brother Eric, got the looks and talent and the charisma in that family, IMO.

How hot was Gere in "Internal Affairs"?

All of the leading in "Internal Affairs", including Garcia and Baldwin were at their peak hotness. Internal Affairs is as dated as Pretty Women but the male leads are so drool-worthy still worth watching.

OP should look up histeria in the dictionary.

[quote] It’s kike criticizing a potato because it isn’t an automobile.

Let's not be anti-Semitic.

I was a kid (10 yoa). My mother's friends loved this movie and gushed about it non-stop. They would recite some line that she said so I googled it: "Edward Lewis: I think you are a very bright, very special woman. Vivian: The bad stuff is easier to believe." I suppose that the sappy, vulnerable elements appealed to many women. The prince charming crap did as well. All of the men of course went crazy over Julia's looks. Her character was strikingly different than many of the sex symbols around that time - far taller, red hair vs. bleach blond or dark brunette, "innocently" self-conscious (if you could use that verbiage), etc. It seemed as if all of Robert's individually "odd" features seemed to come together into a very stunning whole and suddenly she was more popular than Demi Moore and on more magazine covers than Madonna. It was an era when the unique was glorified (Winona Ryder for example). If memory serves, most of her follow-up films were duds at the box office in comparison to Pretty Woman, but her super-star die had already been cast. Again, I was a few years too young to really speak of what was happening in pop culture then - these are just the memories that stood out.

R80 Julia was SECOND to Madonna, who turned down the role in Pretty Woman, for person on the most magazine covers in 1990

That makes sense, R81. Madonna was more deserving for sure. But Roberts was suddenly everywhere.

[Quote] OP should look up histeria in the dictionary.

Oh the irony

Julia was the pre Jennifer Lopez. She and her look were the latino light for the early 90’s. Mainstream was hesitant to put a Latina in a feature role.

She was never as beautiful or as feminine as her brother

Why was it a hit? Great chemistry between Roberts and Gere, impossible Cinderella love story, glamorous fashion, great music, and the notion that all your dreams can come true.

It’s certainly not one of the greatest movies of all times, but it’s different from your typical romantic movie. Julia Roberts has always had the “it” factor and I still enjoy seeing her on screen.

[Quote] Mainstream was hesitant to put a Latina in a feature role.

They still are.

Are they?

Fairy tale about a fairy (Gere) paying for sex with a lesbo (Roberts).

They stuck me with Katherine fucking Heigl.

R84 Lopez has the charisma of a bag of rocks