Behind the Music : Studio 54 (1998)

Run Time - 90 min.  |   Countries - United States  |  
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Synopsis by Nathan Southern

As a rule, the VH-1 cable network's documentary series Behind the Music specialized in candid looks at the experiences belying numerous musical icons and supergroups, such as Blondie, Genesis and Megadeth. This constitutes one of the rare episodes of the program that doesn't focus on a music act. Instead, the subject is a nightclub: the controversial and legendary Studio 54, run by Steve Rubell from 1977 through 1980. The club became something of a focal point for the hedonism of the "me decade," encouraging everything from cocaine use (an animated moon with a giant cocaine spoon would periodically descend over dancers) to frequent sexual acts between patrons. It was also a focal point for celebrities, with everyone from Andy Warhol to Michael Jackson to Margaux Hemingway turning up to enjoy the festivities. This program utilizes a great deal of footage from the club's heyday and archival photographs, plus interviews with historians and others who reflect on the iconic establishment, and discusses the events (such as financial misdealing) that brought Rubell's empire tumbling to the ground. This program aired in the spring of 1998, only four or five months before director Mark Christopher's disappointing ensemble drama about the club, 54, hit theaters.