Pretty Woman

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"Pretty Woman" redirects here. For the song sometimes known as "Pretty Woman", see Oh, Pretty Woman.

Pretty Woman
Directed by	Garry Marshall
Produced by	Arnon Milchan Steven Reuther
Written by	J.F. Lawton
Starring	Richard Gere Julia Roberts
Music by	James Newton Howard
Cinematography	Charles Minsky
Editing by	Raja Gosnell Priscilla Nedd-Friendly
Distributed by	Buena Vista Pictures
Release date(s)	March 23, 1990
Running time	119 min.
Language	English
Budget	$14,000,000 (est.)
IMDb profile

Pretty Woman is an American romantic comedy motion picture that was one of the top films at the box office in 1990. The title character, a prostitute named Vivian Ward, was played by Julia Roberts, who received a Golden Globe Award for her role. She was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress. Screenwriter J. F. Lawton was nominated for a Writers Guild Award and a British Academy Award.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

1 Plot
2 Overview
3 Music
4 Facts and Figures
5 Primary cast
6 Awards
7 See also
8 External links

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The film opens with Lewis Enterprises CEO Edward Lewis (Gere) and his lawyer Phil Stuckey (Alexander) attending a party with many others, in which Edward has a fight over the phone with his girlfriend. Wanting to go home, Edward borrows Phil's car (a silver Lotus Esprit) to drive through the Hollywood Boulevard to the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel......that is, until he loses his way.

Around the same time, a prostitute named Vivian Ward (Roberts), while out with her friend Kit DeLuca (Giacomo), spots Edward in his car struggling with the gearbox. Low on money due to Kit's drug-buying, Vivian offers Edward a date, but Edward instead asks for directions. Vivian agrees, but charges him $10. Instead, Edward agrees to pay her $20 for her to guide him to the Hotel.

Upon arriving, Edward disguises Vivian in a raincoat so that she will be permitted into the penthouse with him, where she agrees to spend the night with him for a fair $300.

The next day, Edward speaks on the phone with Phil, who tells him that if he is to meet with the Morses, the joint owners of Morse Industries, he should go with a date, so Edward persuades Vivian to spend the week with him, and she agrees to do so for $3000.

Going to work, Edward leaves Vivian with a credit card to use for clothes shopping, but the snobbish owners of the shop instead shun Vivian for her prostitute appearance. Returning to the Hotel, Vivian meets the manager, Barney Thompson (Elizondo), to whom she expresses her frustration. Barney then phones a friend of his who owns a clothes shop and sends Vivian to buy clothes there. Vivian returns from the shop with a cocktail dress, and gratefully thanks Barney for his kindness.

That night, after Barney teaches Vivian proper table manners, Edward and Vivian go to the Voltaire resturaunt, where they meet the elderly James Morse and his grandson David. They talk about business during the meal, but the discussion grows colder and colder until they reach a point where James and David storm out of the resturaunt.

Returning to the Hotel, Edward goes down to the Lobby and plays the piano for the cleaners until 3 AM, when Vivian comes to check on him. Politely asking the cleaners to leave the room for a while, Edward and Vivian make love on the piano.

The next day, after Vivian tells Edward about the snobs who shunned her, Edward agrees to escort Vivian to another clothes shop, where they meet the manager Mr. Hollister (Larry Miller). Edward manages to bribe Hollister with a really offensive and obscene amount of money to have the staff suck up to Vivian. But after Edward leaves for a meeting with his business employees, the staff get carried away and literally wait on her by ordering a pizza and giving her a free tie. On her way home, Vivian visits the snobbish shop and informs them of the huge profits they could have made had they not shunned her.

The following afternoon, after a bath together, Edward and Vivian go to a Polo Match, where Vivian meets Phil and his wife Elizabeth. They also see David Morse, who turns out to also be a Polo player for the losing team. Curious to know about Vivian, Phil pesters Edward non-stop, eventually forcing Edward to reveal that Vivian is actually a prostitute he picked up in the Hollywood Boulevard the night he borrowed Phil's car. Phil laughs hysterically as Edward goes to speak to Senator Adams, who provided him with information regarding the activities of Morse Industries.

Meanwhile, Phil goes and tells Vivian that Edward revealed his secret, unintentionally hurting Vivian and angering her at Edward for his indiscretion. This leads to a nasty fight between Edward and Vivian when they get back to the hotel, which results in Vivian packing her things, ready to leave, but Edward apologizes and says that he was also hurt when he saw her talking to David Morse. Vivian accepts his apology and agrees to stay.

The next day, Edward decides to take the day off work and puts Phil in charge of things. Edward and Vivian then catch a plane to San Francisco to see the opera, which Vivian comes to adore. Edward takes another day off, much to Phil's annoyance and frustration, since he believes that this may interfere with business. That night, Vivian sees Edward sitting up, but asleep. She passionately kisses him, which wakes Edward up, and they make love.

On Edward and Vivian's penultimate day together, Edward receives a phone call from Phil, who tells him that the Morses have surrendered and decided to give up their company. During the meeting, Edward asks for a private conversation with James Morse, in which he tells Morse that he no longer wishes to take over his company, but rather help him run it. Calling the others back inside, Edward departs and playfully asks Phil to finish the meeting.

Back at the hotel, Vivian packs up her things for an early departure when the doorbell rings. Vivian answers and sees that it is Phil, who has come to speak to Edward, who is taking a walk in the hotel gardens for a while. But Phil doesn't seem to be himself, since he is trying to keep his anger and frustration bottled up inside. Phil has a drink and sits down with Vivian. He tries to touch her, but she hits his hand away and he unintentionally releases his anger on Vivian, who bites his hand and makes him even more angry, causing him to try to rape Vivian. Edward arrives at the last minute and drags the completely berserk Phil to the door, where he punches him across the face to calm him down. Fending Phil off with stupid excuses, Edward angrily tells Phil to leave the hotel room.

After Phil leaves, Edward and Vivian nurse themselves, but Vivian then leaves with her things after a warm goodbye. On her way out, she also meets and bids farewell to Barney Thompson.

The next day, Edward prepares to catch his plane to New York, but decides to pay Vivian a visit to persuade her to come with him to the Big Apple. Handing her a bouquet of roses, Edward takes Vivian in his arms and kisses her warmly.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Overview

Pretty Woman is the highest-grossing film of the romantic comedy genre, and possibly the most well-known. Set in Hollywood during the early 1990s, its themes include the tension between romantic love and social class: the main characters represent utter opposites in social class and wealth, while both work in occupations considered indecent by mainstream society, and yet are given sympathetic depiction. The film can be seen as a modern adaptation of the Pygmalion myth, and also bears striking resemblences to George Bernard Shaw's play of the same name, which also formed the basis for the Broadway musical My Fair Lady.

The male lead is a businessman Edward Lewis (played by Richard Gere). While ruthless in business — he is a "corporate raider" — he is portrayed as intelligent, sensitive, and pensive, unlike the more common stereotype of the late 1980s financial tycoon as coarse and narcissistic (and often nouveau riche). Asking for directions to his hotel, he meets a prostitute, Vivian. (In the United States, as in much of the world, prostitutes who work on the streets come disproportionately from the lower classes, and Vivian suffers from financial desperation.) Because of her deprived background, she is naïve and unaware of social graces, resulting in mild embarrassment for herself and Edward, but good-natured, cheerful, and unpretentious. In contrast to class and occupational archetypes — she's smart, kind, and perceptive. An unlikely love relationship grows between Edward and Vivian, and throughout the movie they struggle with the differences in social class and values.

[edit] Music

The film features the song "Oh, Pretty Woman" by Roy Orbison, the title of which inspired that of the movie. Roxette's "It Must Have Been Love" reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in June 1990. The soundtrack also features "The King of Wishful Thinking" by Go West, "Show Me Your Soul" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers and "Wild Women Do" by Natalie Cole.

The opera featured in the movie is La Traviata, which also served as inspiration for the plot of the movie. The piano piece which Richard Gere's character plays in the hotel lobby was composed by and performed by Gere.

[edit] Facts and Figures

In the scene where Philip tries to rape Vivian, Edward was originally supposed to shout "Get out! I never want to see you again!" at Phil. This was changed to just "Get Out!", since the filmmakers thought it too harsh for Edward to fire his lawyer and ten-year best friend over a mishap with a woman he had only known for six days.

Possibly due to the controversial subject matter, the movie was heavily edited. Groundbreaking on account of its sympathetic depiction of an occupation thought dishonorable and indecent by most Americans, the film has been described as featuring "a prostitute with a heart of gold".

The necklace that Vivian tries on at one point in the film really was worth $250,000, and there was an armed security guard present on set, standing behind the director, when the scenes with it were being shot, to ensure it wouldn't be stolen.

Various rewrites of the original script portrayed Vivian as hypersexual and a heavy drug user. These traits, considered by producer Laura Ziskin to be detrimental to the otherwise sympathetic portrayal of her, were removed or incorporated into the character of Vivian's friend, Kit. These "cut scenes" have been found in public view, and some were included on the DVD released on the movie's 15th anniversary. One such scene has Vivian offering Edward, "I could just pop ya good and be on my way", indicating a disinterest in "pillow talk". In another, she is confronted by drug dealers outside of The Blue Banana, and rescued by Edward.

Roberts has said that the body on the movie's cover is not her own; her head was pasted on a photograph of her body double. She also claims that the double was used for shots of Vivian's body in the opening scene in which her face is not seen. However, the director's commentary track on the 10th & 15th anniversary DVDs states that these scenes did not use a body double, and that Vivian's face is not shown because the viewer is not yet supposed to know her natural hair color, so that they will be surprised later in the film when she removes her wig.

The escargot restaurant scene was filmed at the Rex, now called Cicada (Slippery little devils!)

This movie might have been influenced in part by the movie That Touch of Mink, starring Cary Grant and Doris Day.

Meg Ryan, Daryl Hannah and Molly Ringwald turned down the role of Vivian.

The more recent film, The Princess Diaries, a parallel to the Pretty Woman film, has many of the same supporting cast members and the same lines used in Pretty Woman. Garry Marshall is the director of both films.