‘Tis a pity she’s a whore. One of the biggest film hits of the 1990s makes its way onto Blu-ray and it looks fantastic. Hopefully, your daughters won’t watch it and decide to take up the “world’s oldest profession,” but it does offer a romantic comedy escape for around two hours.
Edward Lewis (Richard Gere) is a man who doesn’t want for much as he’s made billions with his corporate deals. However, when he borrows a friend’s sports car he doesn’t know exactly how to drive it and ends up on Hollywood Boulevard looking for the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.
Hollywood Boulevard is an avenue where the ladies of the evening stand and wait for their next playing customer. Lewis’ car is approached by Vivian (Julia Roberts) looking to snag an expensive john for her next client. Lewis only wants directions and Vivian is happy to provide them… for a fee.
She hops in the care to “escort” Edward to the hotel and her comment on his crappy driving gets her behind the wheel of the expensive Lotus Esprit. Edward is charmed by Vivian and hires her for the night.
The next day, Edward’s lawyer Phil (Jason Alexander) calls to say that businessman James Morse (Ralph Bellamy) and his grandson David (Alex Hyde-White) wants to talk to them about selling his business. Edward decides to hire Vivian for the week so that he can take her to the meeting to keep it social.
Edward and Vivian start to spend more and more time together and thanks to hotel manager Barnard (Hector Elizondo) the prostitute begins her transformation from a lady of the evening into a lady of society. As the two fall in love can Vivian’s profession and Edward’s lifestyle mix?
You can compare it to Pygmalion or My Fair Lady, but Pretty Woman is pure fantasy. In that it’s a grand film that deals both with good in people and those of the higher classes realizing that they’re not all they think they are. It’s pure Hollywood fantasy though as prostitution is given the gloss that only Hollywood can.
I know it’s only a movie, but these poor gals that have stooped so low are in for some hard times and if they think that Richard Gere on a white horse (or Lotus Esprit) is ever going to ride into their life they’ve got another thing coming. Supposedly the original concept dealt with the dark side of prostitution, but was cut out to make it a more acceptable film.
The film certainly was a huge hit. It had a $14 million dollar budget and a 463 million dollar worldwide take – it made some pimps rich and made a star of Julia Roberts. I guess if you want to take the film seriously it will make you mad that the sad life of a hooker is made to look appealing, but you should check those feelings aside and be prepared for the Hollywood gloss.
It’s a fun film and one that we can take some inspiration to hopeless romantics that our knight in shining armor will find us and hopefully he or she will be handsome, rich, and driving a fancy car.
Roberts and Gere would become the Hollywood ideal as their chemistry sizzles. There’s a cavalcade of fine performances peppering the film and Hector Elizondo definitely got a career boost with his fantastic performance. Pretty Woman is one of the defining films of the period and gave us a new superstar in Julia Roberts.
Pretty Woman is presented in a 1080p high definition transfer (1.85:1) and looks better than any other home video release of the title. Special features include a commentary from director Gary Marshall.
All of the rest of the special features are presented in standard definition. They include a 2 minute blooper reel, a 4 minute segment about the wrap party for the film that has Gere, Roberts, and Marshall singing, the 9 minute “LA: The Pretty Woman Tour” where Marshall takes you to some of the locations used in the film, a 3 minute “1990 Production featurette,” the 4 minute Natalie Cole “Wild Women Do” music video, and the 2 minute theatrical trailer.
Pretty Woman is Hollywood fantasy at its finest. You’ll forget about the horrible life of a prostitute and be smitten with Julia Roberts and Richard Gere. It’s a feel good picture that is now a “look good” picture in this excellent high def presentation.
Pretty Woman [Blu-ray] is now available at Amazon . Visit the DVD database for more information.
Your Talkback on this Story