Neve Campbell And Mike Myers' Cult Drama Is A Hidden Gem (If You Watch The Right Version)

Mark Christopher's 1998 film "54" told a fictionalized biography of New York's notorious Studio 54 during its 1977 to 1979 heyday, when it was one of the city's hottest and sexiest nightclubs. The club's co-owner, Steve Rubell, notoriously stood outside the club, hand-picking only the most beautiful people for admission. Rubell also made sure that any visiting celebrities were treated especially nicely. Rubell's reign at Studio 54 was very brief: he was busted for tax evasion and skimming profits in 1979, and went to prison in 1980. 

In the "54" movie, Mike Myers played Steve Rubell, but the film was told from the perspective of a fictional character named Shane O'Shea, played by Ryan Phillippe. Shane discovers the drugged-up, queer-friendly, sex-encouraged atmosphere of Studio 54, and happily becomes a busboy. He soon becomes a male model and hedonistic 54 star, upsetting his best friend, Greg (Breckin Meyer). He has a brief romance with an aspiring actress named Julie (Neve Campbell), and a, uh, close friendship with Greg's wife, Anita (Salma Hayek).

"54" was clearly arranged to be a prestige picture along the lines of Paul Thomas Anderson's "Boogie Nights" from the year before. Both films banked on '70s nostalgia, and aimed to demystify the notorious hedonism of the decade. "54," however, wasn't as big a hit, and was slammed by critics; it has a mere 15% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It's easy to see why: why invent a fictional protagonist when Steve Rubell was right there? 

It turns out, though, that "54" was shaved down to 90 minutes by Miramax before its release, and contained several scenes that the studio re-shot. The 105-minute director's cut wouldn't see (official) light of day until 2015, and wouldn't be on Blu-ray until 2016. That version is much, much better. 

It should be noted that "54" caused a miniature stir in the late 1990s for its queerness, and it was briefly something of a cult hit in queer circles. The fact that it bombed in theaters and was lambasted by critics may have given it some of its cult appeal. According to a retrospective in Vulture, the failure of "54" may have been due to the fact that Bob and Harvey Weinstein demanded that Mark Christopher remove a full 40 minutes from his 105-minute movie and replace it with 30 minutes of their own new footage. The Weinstein version was cleaner, less sexy, and more mainstream-friendly. Most notoriously, Weinstein wanted to nix all of the film's gay content; he cut a kiss between Ryan Phillippe and Breckin Meyer. The Shane character was more openly bisexual in the original version. 

If we're going to compare it to "Boogie Nights," "54" was the corporate version. Everyone hated the new cut. One can only speculate, but it's possible the cuts were made because both Phillippe and Campbell had recent teen-friendly horror hits in "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and "Scream 2" respectively, and Miramax wanted to make sure a teen audience could go see "54." Shane was originally seen as an amoral scoundrel, and the new cut made him more sympathetic. Julie's role was expanded. 

Luckily, Mark Christopher held on to his original cut, and that version began to circulate through Hollywood on bootleg VHS tapes. Everyone knew that "54" was a terrible bomb, but scuttlebutt among cineastes was that the original cut of "54" was good, actually. Over the years, the director's cut became more and more popular, and the underground reputation of "54" began to grow and grow in estimation. 

Mark Christopher's director's cut began to show up (unauthorized) at queer film fests. By 2014, the cut had gained enough traction that Christopher felt comfortable approaching Miramax's new management about a DVD of his cut. He found the original dailies from 16 years before and got to editing. All the reshoots were thrown out, and 36 of the missing 40 minutes were recovered. The 105-minute cut was saved. When he saw it, a pre-arrest Harvey Weinstein was contrite; he said that the market finally caught up with the movie. Whatever, dude. 

Christopher's cut is overdubbed with a narration from Phillippe's character. The kiss between Phillippe and Meyer, as mentioned, was restored, as was a scene wherein Steve Rubell rejects an offer to go down on Phillippe, instead wanting to watch him have sex with the Hayek character. There's more cocaine consumption in the director's cut as well, as well as multiple new scenes with Breckin Meyer. The overall tone is a little darker, which was what Christopher wanted. 

If you see "54," be sure it's the 105-minute director's cut. The theatrical cut was okay, and was only seen in 1998 as an oddity for rising teen idols, and an impressive dramatic turn for Mike Myers, who had only made comedies up to that point. /Film has called "54" one of Myers' best.

Just to muddy the waters, the 2012 Blu-ray release of "54" was an "extended cut" that added back a few of Christopher's scenes but kept a lot of the studio-shot stuff. That cut runs 100 minutes. Don't watch that one. Make sure it's the 105-minute version. It's dirtier, queerer, and just better overall. "54" was rescued.