Day 66 Perfect (1985)

Thirty years after this movie was released, there was a libel lawsuit over the accuracy of a Rolling Stone article, which the magazine lost. They settled with the relevant groups and an investigation by the Columbia Journalism Review, concluded that the story was a mess, and the Washington Post called it a complete crock. Maybe Jann Werner should have been a little more careful about playing a thinly veiled version of himself in a prescient film starring John Travolta. When asked in the film why she doesn’t want to be featured in the story he is writing, Curtis’s character Jessie replies “because I’ve read magazines.” That was in 1985 and the status of journalism has not really improved.

This movie is schizophrenic, it wants to be about the sexy health club movement of the era, and it wants to condemn that movement simultaneously. It shows a journalist with some integrity about the promises he made to a story source, who also deliberately pursues the heath club story without the objectivity it deserves, in other words, he found information to tell the magazines version of the story, instead of telling the story of the subjects. It is exactly the kind of bias that journalists get justly accused of every day, and the whole process was endorsed by the Rolling Stone, on who’s articles the movie was based.

Let’s talk about the other story in a little more detail. Travolta plays Adam Lawrence, the journalist writing both stories. He is intrigued by the character of Jessie and the whole health club scene. Or at least it looks that way as he befriends a number of the club members and uses his relationships to get content and quotes for the article. Most of this material is designed to titillate us with long sequences of fit young adults working out in tight fitting clothing. There are literally scenes that last as long as the soundtrack song being used to score the sequence. They involve the cast in thrusting and gyrating in a provocative manner as part of aerobic workouts. Jamie Leigh Curtis in her leotards is usually posed in front of a mirror so we can observe her body from multiple perspectives. Travolta still has his workout form from “Staying Alive” where Stallone helped him sculpt his body for that picture. There is really nothing suble about it.

Millennials will almost certainly chuckle at the computer references and the use of phones and phone answering machines. The archaic nature of the technologies is unavoidable but it sometimes necessary to reflect the times. The workout clothes and the hairstyles of the secondary characters will also amuse. This movie has a reputation as an enjoyable “bad” movie, and I can see why. It is not the fault of the actors, they are all fine, it is simply obvious that this was an effort to make a commercially successful film, more than it was to tell a dramatic story.

Dee and I saw this at the Alhambra Place. I think it might have been the second movie we saw there after the James Bond film, “A View to a Kill”. I can’t remember the exact details but I did have a set to with another audience member. They were loud and I asked them to hold it down, and they got a little mouthy. I think we moved up a couple of rows because they kept talking. I also remember that I was wearing a pair of shorts that would definitely be out of place in modern fashion. I guess I was worried that I might be underdressed for a tussle. It never came to that, and I don’t think I saw this movie again except maybe once on the old SelectTV Channel, which was an over the air movie service, sort of like HBO but with a schedule only afternoons and evenings.