A nearly embarassing tribute
Many noble intentions were used in this project as its makers tried to collect exclusive moments of Playboy playmate turned actress Dorothy
Stratten and pay a tribute five years after her brutal killing by husband Paul Snider, in 1980, a story covered in Bob Fosse's final film "Star 80".
She was incredibly beautiful, talented and unique in many ways, and her brief stardom moment is greatly covered here, but the presentation of nearly everything is an embarassment and pitiful to watch as this wasn't a true Hollywood documentary, but a small video project which is hard to follow or to accept for most of its presentation.
On the technical aspect we are given a narration that hides certain personalities being interviewed (and it felt like there was some sort of prejudice since the famous or well-known names in the industry, either from Hollywood or within Playboy, were shown along with a title card, but common folks who knew Dorothy are introduced by a voice-over who cuts bits from their talks). Speaking of sound, the film relies on a very loud music that also interrupts the interviews, and the music tracks sung by John Coltrane and others go on for an extremely long time, it's all very corny.
Another major problem was a heavy focus on Stratten's career and rise with Playboy, with many nude photos (quality material, indeed, but way too much for a tribute piece) and little focus on her cinema career, which had some small movies and her breakthrough role in Peter Bogdanovich's "They All Laughed" is briefly mentioned but never addressed from a look back perspective. It's a shame since that is one great underrated movie and she was so vivid and funny in it that it'd be interesting to see someone mentioning about what if she was alive and imagine what kind of an acting career she might have had.
Besides many photo shoots, behind the scenes moments and interviews with the likes of Hugh Hefner (despite the business he had, one must acknowledge that he cared a lot for Dorothy and you can see how hurt he was with everything that happened to her and that doomed marriage), we have the creepy presence of Snider through some archive moments and all I can say is that Mr. Fosse made him look really great looking in that sinister and amazing performance by Eric Roberts (the real Snider looks like Rick Santorum with a 1980's stache). Weird vibes all around, anything going on except love.
It's a little watchable but you'll still feel there's many missing things in it that don't make it a complete film, or at least a tribute Dorothy Stratten deserved. 5/10.
She was incredibly beautiful, talented and unique in many ways, and her brief stardom moment is greatly covered here, but the presentation of nearly everything is an embarassment and pitiful to watch as this wasn't a true Hollywood documentary, but a small video project which is hard to follow or to accept for most of its presentation.
On the technical aspect we are given a narration that hides certain personalities being interviewed (and it felt like there was some sort of prejudice since the famous or well-known names in the industry, either from Hollywood or within Playboy, were shown along with a title card, but common folks who knew Dorothy are introduced by a voice-over who cuts bits from their talks). Speaking of sound, the film relies on a very loud music that also interrupts the interviews, and the music tracks sung by John Coltrane and others go on for an extremely long time, it's all very corny.
Another major problem was a heavy focus on Stratten's career and rise with Playboy, with many nude photos (quality material, indeed, but way too much for a tribute piece) and little focus on her cinema career, which had some small movies and her breakthrough role in Peter Bogdanovich's "They All Laughed" is briefly mentioned but never addressed from a look back perspective. It's a shame since that is one great underrated movie and she was so vivid and funny in it that it'd be interesting to see someone mentioning about what if she was alive and imagine what kind of an acting career she might have had.
Besides many photo shoots, behind the scenes moments and interviews with the likes of Hugh Hefner (despite the business he had, one must acknowledge that he cared a lot for Dorothy and you can see how hurt he was with everything that happened to her and that doomed marriage), we have the creepy presence of Snider through some archive moments and all I can say is that Mr. Fosse made him look really great looking in that sinister and amazing performance by Eric Roberts (the real Snider looks like Rick Santorum with a 1980's stache). Weird vibes all around, anything going on except love.
It's a little watchable but you'll still feel there's many missing things in it that don't make it a complete film, or at least a tribute Dorothy Stratten deserved. 5/10.
- Rodrigo_Amaro
- Aug 29, 2024