Eddie Adams from Torrance:
Finding Family in P. T. Anderson's Boogie Nights

All human beings at some point believe they are extraordinary or at least special in their own way. Often, individuals do nothing with these special abilities or talents, leaving those opportunities from being pursued. But there are others who are so bold as to take a chance and see where this talent might take them. Eddie Adams was one of the latter. He took the bus from Torrance, California to work in Reseda as a bus boy. Sure he could probably find the same job back home, but he is in search of something grander than what's offered in Torrance. He works at a club in Reseda to be around people who are living lives of glamour. Eddie wants this for himself. But what Eddie is searching for is not exactly what he finds. In P.T. Anderson's Boogie Nights (1997), Dirk Diggler is used as a vehicle to tell the story of several individuals, each dealing with personal struggles who don't find exactly what they are looking for but do find each other, creating a family which is essential for each character's survival. Eddie Adams if first introduced working in a night club. He is not typical. Jack notices this as the entire scene cuts from Jack's gaze to Eddie, “whose unique talent is about to be spotted and put to use” (Smith). He immediately follows Eddie to the kitchen where he questions him on his background. Here the audience sees Eddie as a young man seeking a goal. Jack asks, “So what do you wanna do?” You take the bus from Torrance to work in Reseda, why don't you work in Torrance?” Why work in Reseda as a bus boy? He still lives at home and he doesn't pay rent so he doesn't need the money. Yet he makes the long trip for something money can't buy—fame. Eddie asks Jack, “So $5 or $10?” Here we first discover that Eddie is a gay prostitute. Again, strange because he is financially comfortable. Eddie does all of this for attention. Eddie's bedroom is shown as the camera slowly moves, giving a 360 view of his possessions. He has posters of celebrities like Bruce Lee and John Travolta, a red Corvette, Hawaii, and women. The posters represent everything Eddie wants. These are his dreams. He longs for a life of glitz and glamour. This is why he works in Reseda at a club. He wants to be around flashy men who have women, who travel and have expensive cars. While standing in front of a mirror the camera focuses in on Dirk observing his package (See Figure 1). This is Dirk's “special thing”. His well-endowed penis is what will allow him to obtain everything he's searching for. His girlfriend tells him, “Your cock is so beautiful.” Dirk responds, “Everyone's given one special thing. Blessed with one special thing. Want you to know I'm gonna be a star. A big bright shining star.” Eddie's fascination with stardom is simply an outlet to relieve repressed emotions brought upon him by his dysfunctional home life. His mother is an alcoholic who resists his father's affection, as displayed when he tries to kiss her, “Jesus shave if your gonna do that”. “His wife rejects his good morning kiss and he cowers in silence” (Goss). Eddie's father is a pushover and his mother dominates him emotionally. “His biological father is coded as weak and ineffectual” (Goss). Dirk's mother is overbearing and controls the mood for the entire household. After Eddie's first visit to Jack's house he returns home to find his mother waiting, drunk and irate. “Where were you? You see that little slut girl you see? Sheryl? Sheryl Lynn?” She smothers him and is resistant to her son's coming of age. She is trying to keep him there but her aggressive nature is what pushes him away. She insults him even further removing Eddie from the Adam's household, “You can't do anything. You're a loser. You'll always be a loser – you couldn't even finish high school because you were too stupid – so what are you gonna do?” She then goes to his room and rips down all of Eddie's posters, “These god damn posters – you're not gonna be this – you're gonna be shit . . . because you're stupid.” This final act of disrespect is what pushes Eddie to pursue the porn industry as he responds, “You don't know what I can do. You don't know what I can do or what I'm gonna do or what I'm gonna be. You don't know. I'm good. I have good things that you don't know and I'm gonna be something. You don't know and you'll see.” “The mother attacks Dirk, dismantles his posters (resentment of his recruitment into popular culture) and verbally assaults his girlfriend in absentia for being a “slut” (sexual jealousy)” (Goss). Eddie charges out of the house and runs off down the street. His mother appears in the doorway, watches him leave, and slams the door. Eddie comes walking up towards the front door and Jack opens up. “The door that slams behind Dirk as he is expelled from the family home is immediately answered by a graphically matched shot of Jack’s friendly greeting while opening his door to Dirk. The film’s ideology suggests that a family dominated by the mother is untenable for the young male and that a surrogate father is needed to ameliorate the hostile mother/weak father complex. Jack opens his arms” (Goss). Eddie becomes Dirk Diggler soon after and uses porn as a means of obtaining acknowledgment derived from a subdued despondency caused by his unstable upbringing. As Eddie's family comes to a conclusion, Dirk finds a new one. This scene represents Eddie's transference from one dysfunctional family to another. The absence of a strong male figure in Dirk's life causes him to only survive through mutually dependent relationships as a man. “In Anderson’s films, the necessity of surrogate family is demanded by the failure of families of the biological variety and is due largely to patriarchal dereliction” (Goss). Jack becomes the powerful male his life was lacking. Dirk needed Jack not only as a parental figure but also as a director, a channel to achieve the level of success he aimed for. But this codependent relationship was also beneficial for Jack. He saw potential in Dirk, “I got a feeling beneath those jeans there's something wonderful”, which is why he brought him in. Jack needs Dirk to star in his theatrically released porn films which are a dying breed in the late seventies with the arrival of VHS and straight to home releases. This new concept is something that Jack sees as an evil which will strip the industry of “professional actors” and replace them with amateurs. Historically this has been the case as the porn industry moved from cinema, to home release, to the internet which would have conflicted Jack's views even more as amateur bodies replaced professional male porn stars like Dirk Diggler. Jack saw himself as a real director, who made artistic contributions to the cinematic community. Jack states, “I got a dream of making a film that's true – true and right and dramatic.” Floyd Gondolli is a VHS distributer who warns Jack of the changing industry only for his own profit. But Jack is strictly against the idea. His producer weighs in, “Give in, Jack. You've gotta give. For you, for your business and your livelihood -- accept the future. Don't fight it, because you can't win. Look for the new blood, go to Floyd Gondolli, go to video, give up your battle – the filmmaking is over, Jack.” Dirk allows Jack to avoid this change as long as they have each other. One critic in the film states, “Jack Horner has found something special in newcomer Dirk Diggler.” Jack and Dirk reach the height of their careers as they release a series of films with a story line which is rewarded with positive reviews and accolades. Jack says, “This is the best work I've ever done.” “It's a real film, Jack.” “This is the one they'll remember me by, baby.” Jack and Dirk meet their goals together, whereas individually it wouldn't have happened. Amber Wave portrays the mother figure in Dirk's life. She is first shown in a club talking to Rollergirl, “What's going on down there?” Rollergirl replies, “I gotta go pee.” Amber responds, “Well go then”. Throughout the film we find Amber acting as a parent. “Amber positions herself as a mother figure to the younger porn actors and actresses as, for example, she anoints Rollergirl as “her baby” who calls Amber “mom” (Goss). Jack says, “She's the best, Eddie. A mother. A real and wonderful mother to those who need love.” This is interesting because she has lost the rights to her own biological son. The normality of Amber's life is shown as she consumes cocaine and pills, while calling her son. Her ex husband will not allow her to speak to him and she threatens legal action. This does her no good however as the judge denies her rights again. Her ex husband points out, “My ex-wife is involved in the pornography business – I didn't think that environment was a safe place for my son.” “Amber’s absence as a biological mother is underscored when the child (who is never seen on screen) telephones while she is obliviously consuming cocaine at a party” (Goss). She then gazes and the camera cuts to Dirk jumping off a diving board. Dirk becomes a tool to replace repressed emotions brought upon Amber by losing her son. He becomes her new son. “I wanted you to come in and give me a minute so I could tell you how much I love you. It's gonna be a new year and we're gonna start things and do things and I want you to know how much I really care for you, honey. I care for you so much – you're my little baby. You're the best thing in the world that's happened to me since my son went off – and I just – I love you, honey.” Their relationship acts outside a typical heteronormative relationship because she sees Dirk as a son, yet she has sex with him. Even during the sex scene between them she places her hand on Dirk's face like a mother and says, “Are you alright honey?” Dirk however allows the strange relationship to continue. Freud would argue that Dirk is simply playing out a repressed emotion because he wants to be closer to his own biological mother. The relationship brings Dirk closer to his mother and gives Amber a replacement son. Rollergirl is Dirk's counterpart who is also under the direct influence of Jack and Amber's patriarchal relationship. She desires parental authority as an adult. She tells Amber, “I love you, Mom. I want you to be my mother, Amber. Are you my Mom? I'll ask you if you're my mother and you say, "yes." Ok? – Are you my mother?” “Yes, honey. Yes.” They cry, hug and laugh, and do more coke, and carry out this unhealthy psychological reliance of one another. Rollergirl is first shown skating out of high school after a teenage boy makes a sexual gesture towards her. She is very much a child. Her character and language is even childish. She never removes her roller skates. They represent youth. Jack tells her “Come over here a minute. Sit next to Eddie on the couch there.” “Here We Go! Are We Gonna Fuck?” “Yes you are.” She finds pleasure in being controlled. Later Jack tells her to “Move all your stuff from one side of the room to the other, that away one side's clean.” Jack later passes her and she's shown happily cleaning. She is always being told what to do throughout the piece (bathroom, sex, clean your room). She is stuck in childhood. The movie alludes to the fact that she was molested as a child, and repressed emotions manifest themselves which are displayed by her actions. As an adult, Rollergirl meets with the same teenager who made her leave high school by making her feel like a whore. He knows exactly who she is, both professionally and pre-stardom. He calls her Brandy. After a sexual encounter with the man, she kicks him out of the limo they were in after he disrespects her. After Jack attacks him, Rollergirl stomps the man in the face with her skates, screaming, “You don't ever disrespect me. You can't touch me you fucker!” She beats him for quite some time and screams as if these angry words were meant for someone else entirely. Here she faces the very moment her emotions began to repress themselves. Rollergirl is not only fighting against a society that treated her like a tramp but also an authority figure, likely her father or someone very close, had touched her and caused this violent output. Someone touched her before and it finally came out. This is why she's stuck in that time as a child. In Jack and Amber's strange relationship, Rollergirl finds a place of comfort in which two adults will always allow and enable her childish behavior. This relationship, like all of the others in Boogie Nights, is based on codependency. “Boogie Nights is a sprawling, exhibitionist epic, a sensationally overpopulated family saga in which damaged children manufacture 'adult entertainment' to please daddy” (Smith). Amber gains Dirk's complete trust and introduces him to the world of cocaine. Dirk becomes addicted and it splits them apart. Cocaine drives Dirk away from his new family just like alcohol destroyed the relationship with his birth parents. Drugs and alcohol stimulate dysfunction within all of the families depicted in Anderson's work. Dirk starts hanging out with shady people and disregards his industry family for the drug. When on cocaine Dirk loses his one special thing because he can no longer receive an erection. “Unable to get an erection for a scene on cue, in part due to intensifying drug use, Dirk confronts Jack” (Goss). Dirk storms in on Jack's set out of frustration, demanding to be filmed immediately. Jack is filming a newcomer, an opposition who threatens Dirk's lead boy role. Dirk says, “You're not an actor, man. You got no business being here – you're not an actor – I'm an actor, man. I'm a real actor.” Jack refuses to film Dirk because he looks bad after being up for several days, Dirk disrespects Jack by stating, “You're not the boss of me.” I'm the king of Dirk.” Dirk has a problem with authority caused by his overbearing mother. Amber tries to calm the two but Dirk responds, “You shut up, too. You're not the mother of me or my boss. You're not my mother.” The family begins to unravel. The affect of Dirk's absence is first shown by Amber. “I miss my two sons – my little Andrew and my Dirk – I miss them both so much. I always felt like Dirk was my baby, my new baby.” Drugs caused her to lose her first son and have now caused her ‘new one’ to go astray. Jack is greatly impacted by the loss of Dirk and he submits to the changing industry; he begins producing straight to home releases. He is shown in one scene walking through the VHS warehouse, speaking to no one, all alone in his meaningless new world. Jack asks the editor about their latest work, “How is it?” The editor replies, “It is what it is.” Jack's work without Dirk lacks artistic merit. His new films are pointless and have no significance. The art designer of Jack's films, Bill, commits suicide in 1979, a year before they temporarily lost Dirk. Bill's suicide represents the changing of the times. Jack's visionary dream dies with Bill. To the VHS people taking over the industry the films are nothing more than simple sex. Bill's relationship also symbolized this change. His wife often cheated on him with random men who acted as temporary husbands who were used only for sex. “During the only scene in Boogie Nights shot in Little Bill’s house, he cannot get into bed to sleep as his wife is strenuously having sex with a young stud who orders him to exit and to close the door as he does so” (Goss). Bill is literally a dying breed who found something more in cinema (and his wife) than simply sex. There's no art or passion in these videos, it's all sex. Anderson was asked, “Do you still watch porn and has your viewing changed?” He replied, “The porno you fast-forward to get to the action are today's films. They're movies for consumers and the makers are aware that the home viewer has a fast-forward button - that's why there is no paying attention to any kind of plot or story. The audience is at home going, "Where are the tits? Where's the dick? How can I get to it fast?" That's why Boogie Nights romanticizes the heyday of porno - you can't watch it at home, you're going into a theater” (Smith). These are not the type of films Jack wanted to make. Out of desperation Jack tries to mix amateur and professional when he films Rollergirl and a man on the street having sex. The man is not able to take Jack's direction and they kick him out of the car. The man says to Jack, “Your films suck now anyways.” Here Jack reaches his climactic boiling point and attacks the young man shouting, “You have some fucking respect! You have some goddamn respect for that girl! She's a star, a wonderful child and a star! You think you're worthy to fuck her -- you're not worthy to TOUCH her -- the way you fuck --who taught you? Who taught you how to fuck that way? You're an amateur”. Jack then takes a break from directing. With film no longer available as an outlet to release repress emotion, Dirk returns to the world of gay prostitution. Dirk is picked up and the man asks Dirk to masturbate. The man watches him intently, clearly moved by his performance. Dirk asks, “Do you know who I am?” The man shakes his head no and says, “I wanna watch you. I'm not gay I just wanna watch.” Affected by cocaine, Dirk still cannot achieve an erection, ruining his performance. The man gets angry. Here homophobia is used as a mask for homosexuality. Another car pulls up and three men get out. He was setup. Dirk is jumped by the men, including the one who picked him up as they screamed, “Faggot” and “Donkey-dick”. Repressed homosexual feelings are targeted towards Dirk. As the scene pans in on Dirk lying face down in the parking lot, pummeled and bloody, the true nature of the world without his new family reveals itself. In the final scene “Long way down,” Dirk faces the extent of his drug use and the danger brought on by it. After barely escaping a gun fight, Dirk returns home, to Jack's house. Dirk asks, “Can you help?” Jack, his vision, and his home are the only things that ever help Dirk. “Dirk’s conciliatory hug with Jack at the end of Boogie Nights initiates the film’s closing sequence. It also strongly suggests father-son bonding and cements their enduring relationship despite its vicissitudes” (Goss). His home is a refuge for these characters (See Figure 2). They are all at their happiest when they are all there together. This is where Dirk belongs. “It proceeds into Jack Horner's well-appointed ranch house, finding most of the film's now-familiar characters settled in place, come to terms, if not at peace, with themselves and what they do” (Smith). Other characters throughout the piece rely on this family for their own survival. Buck is an African-American porn star who has troubles with identity throughout the film. He is first shown dressed as an old fashioned cowboy. While selling a stereo, he offends a white man by playing a slow country song. His boss comes over and says, “What kind of a brother are you anyways, listening to that shit? Never turn on a stereo and play that shit.” Everyone constantly tells Buck to get a new look, “Look, Buck: The cowboy look ended about six years ago” It's over, it's dead.” “You don't know what you're talkin' about.” “I'm just saying and it seems like your boss at the stereo store is saying the same thing. Get a new look.” “You get a new look.” “The look I've got is just fine.” “What's your look?” “Chocolate Love, Baby.” His co-worker Becky embraces her African-Americaness but Buck never seems happy in his. But we find that it's not a white and black issue. The outside world is not kind to a former porn star. He is denied a bank loan because of his background. “We can't give you a loan. I'm sorry. You're a pornographer and this bank is not in business to support pornography”, Buck replies “I'm not a pornographer, I'm an actor.” It's basically society versus the porn industry and Buck is an outcast. Buck needs Jack and the family for nothing more than acceptance. No one else offers him this simple gesture. Through the family, he is accepted for what he truly is. “Boogie Nights is about people incapable of grasping the concept of limits, whose reality principles are impaired, who are in the dictionary under Spoiled Identity” (Smith). Maurice is a Puerto Rican native seeking the American dream. He wants to be in a movie. He always comments, “Hey Jack put me in the movies!” He wants to be a part of something. Primarily he wants to impress his brothers back home, “I have to show my brothers in Puerto Rico the lifestyle that I'm living.” Maurice later says, “I want something to send back home. Something to send back to my brothers and say look at me. Look at the women I've been with.” Amber responds “You wanna be in a movie?” “Please. Tell him I won't be bad. Please.” Simply put, Maurice needs proof that he has obtained the American dream. The family allows him to do so. In one scene Maurice convinces Rollergirl to take a picture with him with her clothes off so he can send it back to his brothers. The scene cuts to Maurice's two brothers ripping open a letter and look at a picture of Maurice standing next to Rollergirl. The picture is noted, “This is my girlfriend. I had sex with her last night. Isn't she hot? I get chicks like this every night.” Maurice fixates on women because he lives in a phallocentric world and these are the only Americans he knows at this point so his idea of the American dream is based upon the porn industries ideologies. Dirk is the epitome of the ultimate male in this phallocentric society. Characters are very envious of him and want to be like him. Scotty, a set worker, is infatuated with Dirk. He begins dressing like him and even has a car painted red to look like his. They check out the used candy-apple red Toyota Corolla, “This is it.” “Cool.” “Wanna get inside?” “It's great. It's really great.” Dirk starts to walk away. Suddenly, Scotty charges Dirk from behind and starts to kiss his neck. Dirk stumbles, pushes him away and turns: “I'm sorry, Dirk. Please. I'm sorry.” “ – why'd you do that?” “You look at me sometimes. I wanna know if you like me. I'm really sorry, I'm just drunk. I'm outta my head, okay?” Scotty then responds by asking for Dirk's reassurance, “Do you like my car, Dirk? I wanted to make sure you thought it was cool or else I was gonna take it back.” Dirk, like Scotty is defined by his possessions. Dirk gives Amber a tour of his new home when he first becomes rich. He talks about his Italian shoes and his special edition silk print shirt. He explains the type of leather his couches are and the history of the wood used to build the house. He shows her a painting on the wall of himself that was done by Jessie St. Vincent. He fashions his bedroom as a Bruce Lee inspired dojo. “And around this corner is the big surprise. The main thing I wanna show you,” It's dark for a moment, Dirk hits the garage door and it starts to open – lights pour inside on their faces – “Isn't it beautiful?” The camera cuts to a brand new 1978 Corvette. Dirk says, “This is it – this is the thing. This is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my life.” The Corvette represents Dirk's achievements. It started as a simple poster on the wall and was now something real which validates how far he had come. But in the end, money, power and women (which he ultimately sought out) were not enough to make Dirk happy. The measure of a man cannot be justified by the size of the phallus even in this phallocentric world Anderson created. Dirk only finds true happiness by being a part of a mutually beneficial family/relationship. The porn industry has changed but society has not changed its views towards it. Pornography is still looked at as a type of evil that people hide even today, but thanks to thoughtfully crafted storytelling, the film was a success in 1997 and thereafter, “Anderson’s work is of interest in part because the market and patriarchal ideologies are largely affirmed in ways that exhibit considerable strain in the effort to do so” (Goss). Dirk weighs in on the porn industry, “It seems we make these movies and sometimes they're considered filthy or something by some people but I don't think that's true. These films we make can be better. They can help. They really can, I mean it.” Regardless of the final outcome these films helped Dirk achieve his dreams. They allowed Jack to make a film that's real and Amber found a son. They gave Rollergirl a place of comfort, Buck an identity, and Maurice something to call his own. But most importantly for the characters of Boogie Nights, pornography created a family and brought several distraught individuals together diminishing any sense of alienation within themselves.

Figure 1
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Figure 2
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Works Cited
Anderson, Paul Thomas, dir. Boogie Nights. New Line Cinema, 1997. Film. OK
Fragoso, Sam. Boogie Nights. 2011. Photograph. Duke and the MoviesWeb. 12 Aug 2012. .
Goss, Brian Michael. ""Things Like This Don't Just Happen": Ideology and Paul Thomas Anderson's Hard Eight, Boogie Nights, and Magnolia.."Journal of Communication Inquiry. Vol. 26. Issue 2 (April 2002): n. page. Print.
Smith, Gavin. "Night fever.." Sight & Sound. Vol. 8. Issue 1 n. page. Print.
Whatsupwill. 2011. Photograph. n.p. Web. 12 Aug 2012. .