I remember when I was about 5 or 6 I would get home from school and most days my mother and one or two of her friends would be in the kitchen talk, smoking and drinking coffee. There was something comforting about playing in the next room listening to their conversations. Not sure many kids have this same experience today. (the smoking aside). Certain parts of their conversations used to stick with me, especially when they were talking about men in the neighbourhood or movies they enjoyed. I remember one day in particular them discussing seeing 'American Gigolo'. I did not even know what the word gigolo meant, but I knew one day I had to see that movie.
Cut to 7 or 8 years later I have my own tv in my room with my own vcr (a beta machine given to me by a relative no less). Beta was already on the way out and there was only one place that I knew to rent beta tapes. Walking down the isle I saw the case for 'American Gigolo' and the memory of that kitchen conversation came flooding back. Home I went with AG (and Star Wars...whenever I rented something with male nudity, I always rented Star Wars as well.).
Richard Gere was a site to behold. Now I was still to young to really like the movie (actually I am not sure I like the movie today) but I was old enough to enjoy Mr. Gere. Although the far off frontal was a highlight, to me it was Gere hanging upside down wearing his inversion boots that had me wild.
American Gigolo is informally considered the second installment in director Paul Schrader's "lonely man" trilogy, following the Martin Scorsese directed Taxi Driver (1976) and preceding Light Sleeper (1992).
It is a blessing to me that John Travolta got cold feet and turned down the role that went to Gere. This is not the only role that Travolta has turned down only to be taken by Gere; it had previously happened with Days of Heaven (1978), and occurred again when Travolta was offered the lead in both An Officer and A Gentleman (1982) and Chicago (2002) Besides Gere and Travolta, the other actors that were offered the lead role were Christopher Reeve (who reportedly turned down a million dollar fee) and Chevy Chase (can't really see that one).
