Risky Business

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Risky Business DVD cover
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Risky Business DVD cover

Risky Business is a 1983 film written and directed by Paul Brickman. Considered a breakout film for celebrity actor Tom Cruise (in the role of Joel Goodson), the movie is about a suburban Chicago teenager. While his parents are on vacation, Joel sinks his father's Porsche 928 into Lake Michigan. To raise money for the repairs, Joel runs a brothel in his parents' house.

The film also stars Rebecca De Mornay as Lana, Joe Pantoliano as Guido, Curtis Armstrong as Miles, Richard Masur as the Princeton University interviewer, and Bronson Pinchot as Barry.

The movie's iconic sequence is the one in which Cruise dances in his underwear to Bob Seger's song "Old Time Rock and Roll".

The film is considered by many critics to be a social and political satire, to a certain extent. One critic went so far as to imply that Cruise's famous dance sequence was a metaphor for the loose period of freedom after the Vietnam war. Although this may be a bit of a stretch, the film as a whole is a very thorough look at the rites of passage of a young man becoming an adult. The film's cinematography and existentialist moments have been compared to the film American Beauty, with one critic calling Risky Business a sort of prequel.

Quotes

"Sometimes you just gotta say 'What the f*ck!'." Miles tells this to Joel early in the film, and Joel later says this to the interviewer from Princeton University.

Guido (to Joel): "In a sluggish economy, never ever fuck with another man's livelihood."

Trivia

  • The scene of Tom Cruise dancing around in his underwear to Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock 'n' Roll" is one of the movie's most famous scenes.
  • Tagline: There's a time for playing it safe and a time for Risky Business.

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