Glitter, Scars, and the American Dream: The Many Lives of Showgirls
When ‘Showgirls’ first hit the theaters back in 1995, it wasn’t just a film. It was a cultural event shrouded in scandal. It claimed to be the shocking, sexy inside view of Las Vegas showbiz. It promised the ‘glamour’ and guaranteed ‘controversy’ to its audience. The ‘Hollywood’ system had never supported an NC-17 film at that level and ‘Paul Verhoeven’ had just produced the first NC-17 film of ‘Mainstream ‘Hollywood’ studios. ‘Basic Instinct’ and ‘RoboCop’ had dared to challenge conventions and so did Verhoeven. The trailers promised ‘danger and desire’ while claiming the audience leave ‘inhibitions at the door’ and most audience members did so just to leave confused, shocked and in fits of laughter.
Over the years however, ‘Showgirls’ made the incredible, almost impossible transition, from box office disaster to cult classic. It is, at its core, a black satire of the American dream. And what is most shocking about ‘Showgirls’ is that the film conveys the message of how ‘innocence’ is ‘devoured’ by fame. The film’s hidden layers of meaning become more pronounced as the years go by.
The Star Who Fell From the Top of the Stairs
While the focus of the production was Elizabeth Berkley, the film showed a different side of the youthful star who, until that time, was the unblemished idol of pop culture who had featured in “Saved by the Bell”. As a Nomi Malone, Berkley is a drifter on the periphery of pop culture, trying to claw her way to “star” status in Vegas. Nomi Malone’s story in “Showgirls” has her thumb out on a highway and a suitcase filled with secrets. She is wildly driven by ambition and her rage is ever-present, and her performances are an attack on the audience. Each dance is a mixture of seduction and an unforgiving assault, defensive yet offensive.
For Berkley, this experience paralleled the same type of jump into the unknown that she was about to take. At 22, she was a tad too eager to move away from her prim television persona and thought this was the opportunity to showcase her potential as a serious actress. Berkley was being advertised as a provocative star. But after the release of Showgirls, she was met with the same system that promised her fame, scorning her. Paparazzis insulted her and her performance, which the critics seemed to call a suicide of her career.
What people at that time did not see, but now most certainly do, was her commitment to the role. Berkley did not metaphorically ‘wink’ at the camera, nor did she play ‘Nomi’ as a joke; she dedicatly loved the part, her intensity of desperation ,fear and hunger was genuine. Even the most ardent critics, today sense, and with conviction, survive, as ‘Nomi’ desperately and wildly shifted the emotional center to survive. On the other side, Berkley confessed, the lost, broken, backlash, and above all, used! It is, oh so, easy to see as part of the ‘Nomi’ story, used, lost, broken, and above all ‘survived’!
Vegas as a Carnivorous Dream.
Paul Verhoeven has always enjoyed contradictions — beauty concealing ugliness, desire morphing into violence. In Showgirls, Las Vegas itself becomes the villain, a glittering monster that devours its own performers. The Stardust stage show “Goddess,” where Nomi finally performs, appears to be the pinnacle of glamour. But Verhoeven films it like a war zone — bodies grinding, spotlights like interrogation lamps, glitter that feels like sweat.
Amidst the sex and spectacle, biting symbolism remains. The film strips away the fantasy of Las Vegas as a place where dreams come true. Nomi changes her name and hides her past, Crystal Connors (Gina Gershon) rules the stage but fears irrelevance, and Zack (Kyle MacLachlan) profits off desire while pretending to be cultured. Every character is a reflection of the American myth of reinvention. Everyone is selling something — their body, their art, or their soul.
Verhoeven and screenwriter Joe Eszterhas did not mean for the film to be subtle — it is an explosion of excess, a neon morality play. But the hidden message is that America rewards ambition only to punish it once it gets too close to power. The message is brutally simple.
Crystal and Nomi: Mirrors, Rivals, and Sisters in Survival
The rivalry between Nomi and Crystal is the film’s beating heart. On the surface, they’re opposites — the young upstart versus the established diva. Yet they’re more alike than either will admit. Crystal sees herself in Nomi’s hunger, warning her that success in Vegas means “You can’t keep your tits in your dress, or your legs closed.”
Gina Gershon, already known for scene-stealing charisma, played Crystal like a cobra basking in spotlight heat. Behind her smirks and smoky voice lies a weary wisdom. Gershon later said she saw Crystal as a survivor who “knows the game too well to believe in it anymore.” Their relationship, both seductive and destructive, blurs competition and attraction — a dance between mentor and mirror.
In one of the film’s most layered scenes, Crystal and Nomi share a moment of eerie intimacy over French fries and Coke. It’s not just banter; it’s a recognition of shared loneliness. By the time Nomi pushes Crystal down the stairs to take her place, it feels less like betrayal and more like destiny — the circle of ambition devouring itself.
The Price of Spectacle
What not many people see is how technically meticulous Showgirls was behind the scenes. Paul Verhoeven choreographed the dance numbers like he would a battle sequence and would do up to 40 takes to get it right. The “Goddess” routines, choreographed by Marguerite Derricks, were the result of months of rehearsal, and shoot days would stretch to 12 hours.
Things were not all professional, of course. Verhoeven was known for his extreme measures and, to an extent, he had the same problems with Berkley. Some crew members stated that some scenes, especially the pool sex scene with Kyle MacLachlan, were hell to film. The actors had to stay for hours in freezing cold water, under blaring lights, a fact the audience surely did not know.
And then the marketing disaster. For an NC-17 movie, MGM did not know how to advertise it. “All the way” was advertised on billboards, and the movie was condemned by critics who had not seen it. The movie received horrible reviews and earned the Razzie awards, all while some brave critics acclaimed the movie for the deeper meaning it incorporated with the camp. They focused on the cinematography, choreography, and costume design.
Paradoxically, this film “failure” has become legendary. During midnight screenings and audience rewatches in the 2000s, Showgirls began to be appreciated more as a satirical critique rather than a satire. People considered it a misunderstood masterpiece that focused on America’s toxic relationship with sex and obsession with success. Verhoeven later stated that the film was to be a critique and that “audiences took it too literally,” which explains the misunderstanding.
When the Joke Became a Mirror
In time, Showgirls gained defenders, including queer film scholars and feminist critics. The latter group saw Nomi’s story as a struggle for ownership and survival. The scenes mocked for “bad acting” were reframed as hyperreal, the acting exaggerated to highlight the stark artificiality of Vegas. In an ironic twist, the very thing that was said to end Berkley’s career brought her to fan conventions and anniversary screenings as a celebrated icon where audiences shouted her line as a defiant exclamation of empowerment, “It’s not a stripper, it’s a dancer!” The camp of the film has provided a kind of protective armor while its excess nakedness presents an undeniable, raw truth.
There is a sense of poetic symmetry in the story of a young woman chewed up by Hollywood only to be reclaimed by the people. The arcs of Berkley and her character Nomi have converged: both were underestimated, both suffered a downfall, and both reclaimed redemption on their own terms.
What Glitters Beneath the Glitter
Even now, Showgirls is one of the most popular examples of a celebrated cinematic comeback, and for good reason. The film has received extensive academic analysis, and what was once dismissed as vulgar trash has undergone a complete transformation in the public and critical reception.
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