Boogie Nights

How this film uses it

Anderson opens the film with a 3-minute shot through the nightclub on a Steadicam, a stabilized camera that glides as the operator walks. It introduces every major character in one continuous movement. The showy skill of the take tells you the film will use its ambitious style to hold a chaotic world together.

Where to see it

The opening club tracking shot. It begins outside, moves through the entrance, finds Jack Horner, tracks to the bar, finds Rollergirl and then discovers Eddie. The film's entire social world gets mapped in one unbroken movement.

How this film uses it

Anderson scores the 1970s sequences with real pop music of the era (like 'Best of My Love'). The songs are cheerful, and they play over scenes of exploitation and addiction. The decade's soundtrack ends up tied to the myth of the decade and shares in the blame for it.

Where to see it

The drug deal gone wrong at Rahad Jackson's house. 'Sister Christian', 'Jessie's Girl' and '99 Luftballons' play while the firecrackers explode and the deal collapses into violence. The bright pop music makes the disaster more horrifying.

How this film uses it

Dirk Diggler's story rises and falls in a clean curve. The Valley gives him identity and belonging, and the drugs take both. Anderson builds the rise and fall with the symmetry of a classical tragedy, and he applies it to a porn star.

Where to see it

The Rahad Jackson drug deal. Dirk, Reed and Todd try to sell baking soda as cocaine, and the deal ends in a shootout that kills Todd. It is the point where Dirk's rise turns into a fall.

How this film uses it

Anderson introduces a dozen significant characters (Rollergirl, Reed Rothchild, Little Bill, Amber Waves, etc.) and gives none of them a backstory. You know each one only by what they do in the present, in the San Fernando Valley. The community is built entirely out of behavior, with no history behind it.

Where to see it

The pool party. The whole ensemble is there. Nobody gets introduced, and relationships are set up through behavior and glances. You can see how the community is organized from how people move around each other.