Truth or Dare/In Bed with Madonna (documentary)
| Truth or Dare aka In Bed With Madonna | |
|---|---|
| File:Truthordare.jpg Promotional poster for Madonna's 1991 rockumentary Truth or Dare | |
| Directed by | Alek Keshishian |
| Produced by | Madonna Tim Clawson Lisa Hollingshead Jay Roewe |
| Starring | Madonna |
| Cinematography | Christophe Lanzeburg Robert Leacock Doug Nichol Dan Pearl Toby Phillips Mark Reshovsky |
| Edited by | Barry Alexander Brown |
| Music by | Madonna |
| Distributed by | Miramax Films |
Release dates | May 10 1991 May 17 1991 (worldwide) |
Running time | 114 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Truth or Dare (known as In Bed with Madonna outside the United States and Canada) is a documentary chronicling the life of US pop superstar Madonna behind the scenes of her 1990 Blond Ambition Tour. Released in 1991, the film was generally well-received by critics (although condemned by a few, including bell hooks) and fared well at the box office. As of 2006, it is the fifth-highest grossing documentary of all time (after Fahrenheit 9/11, March of the Penguins, An Inconvenient Truth, and Bowling for Columbine) with a worldwide gross of $29 million.
Synopsis
Madonna has always had a special relationship with the media. While many stars try desperately to avoid the paparazzi, Madonna has the power to manipulate the media to her advantage. Giving director Alek Keshishian carte blanche to film her during her Blond Ambition Tour, the result is a controversial "rockumentary" with live performances (filmed in color) and backstage scenes (in black and white).
Plot
Truth or Dare actually begins in August 1990, the day after the final show of the Blond Ambition Tour in Nice. Madonna is seen cleaning up her hotel room while, in a voice-over, she explains that she is not nearly as emotional as the rest of her group over the end of the tour. She's already grieved, she says, but it will all hit her at a later date, and she hopes she'll be in a safe place when it happens.
A flashback occurs, and it is April 1990; the tour is about to kick off in Japan. Everything is a mess, however - there are sound problems, and Madonna somehow failed to realize that the tour is during the rainy season in Japan. The show goes on as scheduled, but because it is so cold and wet (like a New York blizzard, Madonna compares), the dancers have to scrap their costumes for warmer attire. Madonna, in a retrospective voice-over, confesses that the only thing keeping her from "slashing my wrists" is the thought of returning to North America and performing the show as it was meant to be performed.
In America, Madonna is able to meet the families of her dancers, who have become like children to her. One dancer in particular, Oliver, meets with his father for the first time in several years, while Madonna talks with her father, Silvio "Tony" Ciccone, on the phone. Though she insists that she can get him tickets any night of the week, he is reluctant to impose on his daughter, still seemingly unaccustomed to her wealth.
The Blond Ambition Tour stops next in Los Angeles, where sound problems abound. Despite reassurances that her performance was top-notch, Madonna can only focus on the technical problems and yells at her manager, Freddy DeMann, for allowing so many people from the music industry, who appeared bored by her performance, in the front rows. As she rants, then-boyfriend Warren Beatty smiles to himself. Though he eventually tries to console her, he is distracted by the cameras, and walks away laughing.
Backstage, Madonna parties with several celebrities, including Dick Tracy co-stars Al Pacino and Mandy Patinkin, and fellow singer Olivia Newton-John. Kevin Costner also appears backstage and deeply offends Madonna by referring to her show as "neat", and then tells her that they won't be making "that other deal" (the role of Rachel Marron in The Bodyguard). Disgusted, Madonna stuffs a finger down her throat and pretends to gag after he leaves. Meanwhile, despite the lively atmosphere, Warren still seems to be bothered by the cameras' presence.
During her stay in Washington, D.C., Madonna attends the premiere of Dick Tracy with Warren Beatty, with whom she co-starred. In another voice-over, she describes a dream that she had the night before: Mikhail Gorbachev came to see her show, and she thought of how jealous Warren Beatty would be that she met him first. She ultimately declares it to be "a good dream".
On the final night of the show in Toronto (May 29), Madonna is informed that plainclothes officers saw the previous day's performance, and they are prepared to arrest her if she goes through with the simulated masturbation scene at the end of "Like a Virgin". Madonna refuses to change her show, telling Donna and Niki, "Last time I was on tour, Sean was in jail. I guess it's my turn." Freddy DeMann bets that the threat of arrest will only make Madonna go further, and no one is willing to take his bet. Eventually, according to a news report, Toronto police decided not to arrest the singer, claiming to the media that no such threats had ever occurred.
After Toronto, the Blond Ambition Tour goes to Madonna's hometown of Detroit. In a voice-over, Madonna expresses the difficulty she has going back home, especially since fame seems to change one's loved ones. At the end of "Holiday", Madonna calls her father on stage and sings "Happy Birthday to You" to him. Backstage, Tony and his wife, Joan, compliment Madonna (and Christopher) on their work on the show, though Tony expresses his displeasure at some of the more "burlesque" aspects of the concert, to which Madonna answers with a child-like "Dad!".
After the show, Madonna and Christopher wait for their older brother, Martin to show up, and discuss his alcohol and drug problems while they wait. By the time he shows up, Christopher has left and Madonna has gone to bed. While in Detroit, Madonna also reunites with her "childhood idol", Moira McFarland-Messana, who, among other things, "... taught me how to use a tampon - not very well, I might add." During their meeting, Moira gives Madonna a painting she had made, entitled "Madonna and Child", and asks Madonna to be the godmother to her unborn child, whom they both hope to be a girl after four boys.
Before leaving Detroit, Madonna visits her mother's grave as "Promise to Try" plays in the background. She explains that it's the first time she's visited her mother's grave since she was a little girl, and describes her mother, who died of breast cancer when Madonna was five, as being "like an angel" and very religious, and remembers thinking that she must have done something to merit her mother being taken away. Madonna lies down beside her mother's grave as Christopher watches, leaning against a tree, and Madonna whispers that, "I'm going to fit in right here. They're going to bury me sideways."
As the tour continues, Madonna's throat problems worsen while Warren becomes more fed up with the cameras. During a throat examination in Madonna's hotel room, with the cameras still rolling, Warren chastises her for the documentary, telling her that the atmosphere is driving everyone insane, even if no one verbalizes it. Madonna ignores Warren, and when Madonna declines to have the rest of her examination done off camera, Warren starts to laugh, saying, "She doesn't want to live off camera, much less talk... What point is there of existing [off-camera]?"
Due to Madonna's throat problems, she is forced to cancel some of her shows. In New York, Madonna's doctor instructs her not to talk, and she finds herself isolated in her apartment with only her assistant, Melissa, as contact to the outside world. Everything seems to fall apart as a result, and she loses contact with the dancers. Things worsen when Star reports that Madonna has dumped Warren Beatty for one of her dancers, Oliver Crumes. The other dancers torment him as a result, and Madonna is forced to go into maternal mode and chastises them. Tensions increase when Sharon, one of the make-up artists, is drugged and sodomized while out partying. In a prayer circle before the final show in New York, an AIDS benefit in memory of Keith Haring, Madonna attempts to pull everyone back together; it is one of the few scenes in the movie where she is seen crying.
The third leg of the tour kicks off in Europe with everyone in much better spirits. Madonna and the dancers visit Chanel in Paris, fool around at Melissa's birthday party (Madonna reads a humorous but loving poem to her assistant), and imitate Madonna's 1984 "Like a Virgin" music video. The mood crashes, however, as the tour nears Italy, where the Pope is attempting to have the Blond Ambition Tour banned. Despite a press conference, Madonna is forced to cancel two shows as a result.
Best friend and comedienne Sandra Bernhard appears to cheer up Madonna, who is becoming bored with partying solely with her dancers. Sandra asks who would really blow her away, and, after a while, Madonna answers, "That guy who's in all of Pedro Almodóvar's films - Antonio Banderas." When Almodóvar throws a party in Madrid and invites the furture Evita co-stars, Madonna is thrilled, and spends a whole week thinking up ways to seduce Banderas and make him hers. Unfortunately, it turns out that Antonio is married, bringing Madonna's two-year crush to a disappointing end.
While Madonna works in her hotel room, voice-overs from her family, friends, and co-workers candidly describe the star. Though she's happier now than she was on her last tour, Sandra Bernhard doesn't think that she takes enough time to enjoy her successes, instead worrying about technical mistakes. Others describe her as "difficult to reach" and untrusting of many, as well as "impatient", "often unhappy", and "sometimes a bitch". Donna De Lory says, "I just feel like she's a little girl lost in the storm sometimes. You know, there's just a whole whirlwind of things going on around her, and sometimes she gets caught up in it."
As the tour winds down, the group decides to play a game of Truth or Dare?. One dancer is dared to expose his penis on the patio, while two more are dared to French kiss each other. Madonna is dared to simulate oral sex on a glass water bottle, which she does with gusto. She is later asked "Who has been the love of your life for your whole life? Your biggest love", to which Madonna replies without hesitation, "Sean. Sean."
Later, Madonna invites each of her dancers, one-by-one, to join her in her bed, where she imparts some words of wisdom to each while heavily goofing off. At the end of the segment, all of the dancers join her, and they goof off for the camera.
While the show's closing act, "Keep It Together", plays, a montage of Madonna saying good-bye to all of her teary-eyed dancers is shown. The film ends, after the credits, with a clip of Madonna, hair in her outrageous Blond Ambition ponytail, telling director Alek Keshishian to, "Cut it, Alek! Cut it, God damn it!"
During the documentary, an abbreviated, studio-dubbed performance of "Express Yourself" is shown, along with the full versions of "Oh Father" and "Like a Virgin", a short clip of "Like a Prayer", and the full versions of "Holiday", "Live to Tell", "Vogue", and "Keep It Together", in that order.
Promotional videos
The live versions of "Like a Virgin" and "Holiday" were released as music videos on MTV to promote the film.
Lawsuit
On January 21, 1992, three of the Blond Ambition dancers - Oliver Crumes, Kevin Stea, and Gabriel Trupin, filed a lawsuit against Madonna. The suit claimed that the singer had invaded her dancers' privacy during the filming of Truth or Dare, as well as charging her with fraud and deceit, intentional misrepresentation, suppression of fact, and intentional infliction of emotional distress for displaying the men's private lives in the documentary.
In a commercial for MTV's Rock the Vote campaign later that year, Madonna joked about the lawsuit, saying, "You're probably thinking that's not a very good reason to vote... So sue me! Everybody else does."