'Showgirls' Celebrates 20 Years: 10 Life Lessons from One of the Most Infamous '90s Movies (VIDEO)

The Elizabeth Berkley dance film is 20 years old, and yes, we can learn a thing or two from it

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Photo: CLOSE MURRAY/CORBIS SYGMA

Twenty years ago this week, Showgirls flopped at the box office. And we’re talking a big-time fail here: After promotion as the ultimate exercise in cinematic eroticism, critics panned it and audiences largely opted not to pay to see the infamously NC-17 spectacle. But two decades later, the movie isn’t without its merits.

(This is usually the point in the article where we’d post the film’s original trailer, but we actually can’t for Showgirls, because even the theatrical promo is NSFW. Watch it here, at your own risk.)

In fact, there are a few life lessons to be learned from Nomi Malone, the hapless, dancing drifter played by Saved by the Bell star Elizabeth Berkley. Showgirls‘ reputation precedes it, but here are a few take-aways from one of the more controversial movies in recent memory.

(And yes – the video clips include NSFW language.)

1. Hitchhiking is dangerous; bring protection.

Nomi relies on the kindness of strangers to get to Las Vegas, where the film’s plot unfolds. However, not all strangers are that kind, and Nomi is at least prepared to deal with the unkindest. (But seriously, don’t hitchhike. It’s not a good idea. If you take one message away from the film’s first ten minutes, it should be this.)

2. You want something? Practice, practice, practice.

As a dancer, Nomi lacks professional training. But she doesn’t let that stop her, and she watches the dancers she aspires to join from the audience, mimicking their moves perfectly. In short: More than anything else, it takes hard work to achieve your goals.

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3. Improvise when you need to.

When Nomi gets her first real dancing audition, she shows up dressed inappropriately. Knowing it’s her one chance, however, she dashes backstage, throws on some extra makeup and tears off her clothes in an effort to approximate what the other dancers are wearing. The lesson? A Project Runway classic: Make it work, with whatever you have, however you can in the time provided.

4. Pronunciation is important.

If you’re just wanting to be Joe Shmoe, you can speak however you want. If you’re trying to impress by dropping names, however, you should probably know how to pronounce them. Anyone who has watched Showgirls knows that it’s “ver-SACH-ee,” not “ver-SAYS.” Learning how to pronounce other fashion labels, however, is up to you.

5. It’s the little touches that will get you noticed.

Nomi can dance, but it’s actually her nicely done fingernails that grab the attention of Cristal (Gina Gershon), and ultimately pave the way for her to show off her talents. The lesson? It pays to keep an eye on the details. Later in the movie, when Nomi suits up in her sexiest look to avenge a friend, she still takes time to make sure her nails are perfect. A girl needs to have priorities.

6. Knowing yourself, really and truly, is more important than anything.

The movie’s final scene has Nomi hitchhiking out of Vegas for Los Angeles, and she ends up with the same driver who took her there in the first place. He asked her if she gambled while in Sin City, and she says yes. What did she win? “Me,” Nomi responds.

If you’re overwhelmed with the glitz and the sex and everything else about Showgirls, you may not realize what a moment this is for our protagonist: Nomi (literally “no me”) arrives in town without an identity and leaves with a sense of who she really is and what’s actually important to her. Laugh all you want about finding morals in Showgirls, but that’s all any of us can ask for in life.

7. Blame isn’t always shared equally – or fairly.

In the wake of Showgirls‘ release in theaters, Berkley and Gershon took the brunt of the criticism against the actors who appeared in it. Most complaints against the movie called it exploitative and misogynistic, but curiously one actor whose career rebounded rather quickly is Kyle MacLachlan, who plays the film’s male lead, as foul a character as any in the film.

True, MacLachlan had a solid following from his role on Twin Peaks beforehand, but Berkley had Saved by the Bell. Yet it’s more often Showgirls that gets brought up in the context of Berkley’s career, and almost never in the context of MacLachlan’s. There are other factors in this comparison, but if you wanted to make an argument about how male actors and female actors are treated differently, Showgirls might be as good a place as any to start.

8. You can survive one poorly-received turn in your career.

Pictured above is actress Lin Tucci, who in the film plays Mama Bazoom, the bawdy “house mom” for the girls at the strip club where Nomi works before she becomes a legitimate dancer. She was nominated for a Golden Raspberry for Worst Supporting Actress for her performance in the film, but today, she’s arguably better known for playing Anita DeMarco, a recurring inmate on the acclaimed Netflix series Orange Is the New Black. Similarly, one of the backup dancers appearing in Nomi’s big show is none other than Carrie Ann Inaba, who today is one of the judges on Dancing with the Stars. The point is this: Setbacks aren’t endings. They’re just bumps in the road if you keep at what you’re doing.

9. Don’t let your past define you.

When it’s revealed that Nomi worked as a prostitute before her ascent to showgirl stardom, she protests repeatedly that she’s no longer the thing she once was. It’s actually a tactic that too many of us have trouble using in real life: You’re not what you used to be, if you can mentally put it behind you. However, there are occasions in which the flip side of this is also true

10. Alternatively, own your past.

In June, Berkley attended an L.A. screening of Showgirls along with a legion of fans who, despite its history and its reviews and everything else about the movie, enjoy it wholeheartedly. After the screening, Berkley spoke to the audience about what it was like to be in a movie savaged by critics but also how it feels to be validated long after the fact.

“I’m not going to spend a lot of time on that moment, because why do that? We don’t live in the past,” Berkley said. “But I found my own resiliency and my power and my confidence – not only through what I had to find out, but because of you guys. I want to thank you guys for giving me this gift of truly getting a full-circle moment of experiencing the joy with you. You guys and the love you have for this movie have made this the cult film that it is.”

So, on occasion, it may be better to make peace with a painful past. Given the passage of time, people may come around to realizing there’s value in something or someone they once dismissed.

A worthwhile end note: Showgirls may not have been met with accolades upon its release, but the film, made on a $45-million budget, ultimately took in more than $100 million as a video rental – you know, from people who felt more comfortable watching at home rather than a theater – and today is one of the best-selling movies that MGM has ever released.

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