Bound (film)
Encyclopedia
Bound is a 1996 neo-noir
crime
thriller film directed by the Wachowski brothers. Violet (Jennifer Tilly
), who longs to escape her relationship with her mafioso
boyfriend Caesar (Joe Pantoliano
), enters into a clandestine affair with alluring ex-con
Corky (Gina Gershon
), and the two women hatch a scheme to steal $2 million of mafia money.
Bound was the first film directed by the Wachowskis, and they took inspiration from Billy Wilder
to tell a noir story filled with sex and violence. Financed by Dino De Laurentiis
, the film was made on a tight budget with the help of frugal
crew members including cinematographer Bill Pope
. The directors initially struggled to cast the lesbian characters of Violet and Corky before securing Tilly and Gershon. To choreograph the sex scenes, the directors employed sex educator Susie Bright
, who has a bit part in the film.
Bound received positive reviews from film critics who praised the humor and style of the directors as well as the realistic portrayal of a lesbian relationship in a mainstream film. Detractors of the film criticized the excessive violence and superficiality of the plot. The film won several festival awards.
for the Mafia
and they have been together for five years.
Later, Violet overhears Caesar and his Mafia associates beating and torturing Shelly (Barry Kivel), a man who has been skimming money from the business. Upset by the violence and cruelty, Violet seeks solace from Corky. She tells Corky that she wants to make a new life for herself, but that she needs her help. Knowing that Caesar will find the nearly $2 million Shelly took and count it in their apartment, the two women hatch a scheme to steal the money. Corky, already wary of Violet's intentions, is unsure whether to trust her.
Shelly is shot and killed by Johnnie (Christopher Meloni
), the son of Mafia boss Gino Marzonne (Richard C. Sarafian
), and Caesar returns to the apartment with a bag of bloody money. Angry at Johnnie for killing Shelly in a fit of rage and splattering blood everywhere, Caesar proceeds to wash, iron and hang the money to dry.
Violet explains to Corky that Caesar and Johnnie hate each other, and that Gino and Johnnie will be coming to pick up the money from Caesar. The plan is as follows: When Caesar has finished counting the money, Violet will get him a drink to relax him before he showers. Corky will be next-door, waiting until she hears Caesar turn on the shower. When he does, Violet will drop the bottle of Scotch that is for Gino and tell Caesar that she is going to buy more. As she leaves the apartment, she will let Corky in, who will steal the money from a briefcase and leave. Violet will then return with the Scotch and tell Caesar that she just saw Johnnie leaving, but that Gino was not with him. Suspicious, Caesar will check the briefcase, find the money gone, and assume Johnnie has taken it. Corky and Violet think Caesar will be forced to skip town because Gino will assume he has been robbed by Caesar, not his son.
Everything goes as planned until Caesar finds the money gone. He realizes that if he runs, Gino will think he took the money. He decides he has to get the money back from Johnnie. Panicking, Violet threatens to leave. Caesar pulls out his gun and forces her to stay, thinking that maybe she and Johnnie have stolen the money and framed him.
Corky waits next-door with the money while Gino and Johnnie arrive. After watching Johnnie flirt with Violet and taunt him, Caesar pulls out a gun and tells Gino that his son stole the money. In an angry panic, he kills them both. He tells Violet that they have to find the money, dispose of the bodies, and pretend Gino and Johnnie never arrived, lest their Mafia pals find the money or men missing. Unable to find the money at Johnnie's apartment, Caesar telephones Micky (John P. Ryan
), a Mafia friend, telling him that Gino has yet to arrive.
After discovering Corky and Violet stole the money, Caesar ties them up, gags them, threatens to torture them, and demands to know where it is. When Micky arrives to see what is going on, Caesar tells him Gino was in a car accident and Micky leaves for the hospital. Corky tells Caesar where she has hidden the money, and he goes next-door to find it. Violet escapes and makes a phone call to Micky, telling him that Caesar stole the money and forced her to keep quiet. In the meantime, Corky tries to stop Caesar from taking the money, but he beats her to the ground. Just as he is about to kill her, Violet arrives and pulls a gun on Caesar, telling him that Micky is on his way and that he should run while he can. Caesar tells Violet that he knows she will not shoot him, to which she replies, "Caesar, you don't know shit", before killing him.
Later, Micky, who believes Violet's story, tells her that he will find Caesar, and that there is no need to involve the police. Micky wants Violet to be his girlfriend, but she tells him that she needs a clean break—which she makes by driving off hand-in-hand with Corky.
has said that after working as scriptwriters on Assassins
, the Wachowski Brothers made Bound as an "audition piece" to prove that they knew what to do on a movie set. They had the idea to write a story about how one might see a woman on the street and make assumptions about her sexuality, but how those assumptions might be wrong. They wanted to play with stereotypes and make an entertaining film that contained sex and violence, because those are the kinds of films that they like to watch. Seeing film noir
as a genre within which they could tell a contained story and twist conventions, they described Billy Wilder
as a big influence.
When executives at some studios read the script, they told the Wachowskis that if they changed the character of Corky to that of a man, they would be interested. The brothers declined, saying "that movie's been made a million times, so we're really not interested in it." Dino De Laurentiis
, the executive producer on Assassins, offered to finance Bound and his company produced it, giving them "free rein" with regard to the story. The film's budget was $6,000,000.
, and Jennifer Tilly read for the part of Corky. She loved the role and was looking forward to playing a character very different from previous parts in her career. When the part of Violet became available, and Gina Gershon came in to read for Corky, Tilly agreed that Gershon would make a better Corky. She realized that she identified with the character of Violet, a woman "underestimated by all the men around her" who has to "play the game".
She describes it as the best role she had ever had. Gina Gershon suggested Joe Pantoliano to the Wachowskis for the part of Caesar. His first lead role in a film, he describes it as his favorite.
, California. The Wachowski's original director of photography resigned on the grounds that he could not do the film with the limited budget he had available, nor did he know anyone he believed could. The brothers subsequently hired cinematographer Bill Pope
, who knew " a bunch of cheap guys". Pope became heavily involved in creating the visual noir style of the film. He and the Wachowskis drew from their love of comics and were influenced by Frank Miller's
neo-noir Sin City
series in particular. Pope's sound counterpart was sound director Dane Davis. One of his ideas was to give Corky a cat
-like quality by making a "swishing" sound every time she walks past the camera in the scene where she and Violet plan the theft.
The Wachowskis asked Joe Pantoliano to watch John Huston
's The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
and to focus on Humphrey Bogart
's character in order to prepare the paranoia of Caesar. Gershon's influences for her role were James Dean
, Marlon Brando
and Clint Eastwood
. Both Gershon and Tilly were nervous about filming the sex scenes and prepared by drinking tequila
.
Very little improvisation took place during the filming due to the directors' extensive planning and clear vision for the film. Not everything went as expected, however, as the physical exchanges in the script caused some injuries. Barry Kivel, whose character Shelly was violently beaten in Caesar's bathroom, received a head injury from his head being banged against the toilet. In the scenes between Corky and Caesar near the end of the film, Gina Gershon hit her hand so hard when she knocked a gun from Joe Pantoliano's hand that she required stitches.
. The Wachowskis were fans of Bright and sent her a copy of the script with a letter asking her to be an extra in the film. When she read the script she loved it, particularly as it was about women enjoying having sex and not apologizing for it. Disappointed that they never described exactly what was happening in the sex scenes, she asked if she could be a sex consultant for the film and they agreed. The main sex scene set in Corky's apartment was filmed in one long shot. The Wachowskis believed that this would look more realistic than several shots edited together. Although it should have been a closed set, there were actually many people present, moving the walls of the set in order to allow full movement of the camera around the actors.
Bright appeared as Jesse, the woman Corky tries to talk to in the bar. Comedienne Margaret Smith
played Jesse's girlfriend and the extras in the bar scene were Bright's friends—"real life San Francisco dykes".
". They wanted to define all of Bounds characters by the "sort of trap that they were making out of their lives". Violet is trapped in her life with Caesar, and in the first scene, Corky is literally inside Violet's closet, bound and gagged by Caesar. This scene is echoed later in the film when Violet says "I had this image of you inside of me..." This theme of being trapped is exacerbated by the claustrophobic feeling created by the fact that most of the film takes place in Corky's apartment, Violet and Casear's apartment, or the apartment next door where Corky is working.
Susie Bright described some of the specifically lesbian themes of the film. One is the concept of the hand as a sex organ, highlighted by lingering camera shots of Corky and Violet's hands. Another is the repeated use of water as a symbolic motif to represent women, present for example when Corky is retrieving Violet's earring from the sink. Bright describes it as a movie that is "wet" (feminine) as opposed to "hard" (masculine). She says the scene where Corky and Violet have their first conversation is full of "lesbian signs". She highlights the fact that Violet, away from Caesar, is wearing jeans and able to be less overtly feminine. Jennifer Tilly says that whenever Violet is talking to men, her voice becomes high-pitched and "girly"—making her seem vulnerable and ensuring she is taken care of. Joe Pantoliano agrees, saying that the result is that "everyone in the film wants to be with Violet". When she is with Corky, Violet can drop the act and talk at a more natural pitch. According to Bright, the more subtle lesbian themes of the film were noticed and appreciated at the LGBT
film festival screenings.
(MPAA) as R for "strong sexuality, violence and language." To achieve that rating, the directors had to cut part of the first sex scene between Corky and Violet. The MPAA were most concerned with the images of what Larry Wachowski called "hand-sex". It was rated R in Australia, R18 in New Zealand and 18 in the United Kingdom. In Canada it was rated as R in Manitoba
and Ontario
, 18 in Nova Scotia
and 16+ in Quebec
.
The film premiere
d on August 31, 1996, at the Venice Film Festival
and in September went on to play at the Toronto Film Festival. It opened in U.S. theaters on October 4, 1996 distributed by Gramercy Pictures
, showing in 261 theaters. It closed after three weeks. It opened in the United Kingdom on February 28, 1997.
Bound was released on Region 1 DVD on November 12, 1997, by Republic Pictures
. It featured the original theatrical trailer
and an audio commentary
by the directors and stars. It was released on Region 2 DVD on August 25, 2003, by Pathé Distribution featuring original theatrical trailers, audio commentary by the directors and stars, cast and crew biographies and a production featurette
. Its Region 4 DVD release, distributed by Reel and featuring an audio commentary, came on August 14, 2006.
, it ranked at 161 for all films released in the United States in 1996, and at 74 for R-rated films released that year. As of June 2007, its all-time ranking for LGBT
-related films is 54.
website Rotten Tomatoes
gave it a "fresh" rating of 88% based on 34 reviews, while Metacritic
gave it a score of 61% based on 19 reviews. The Wachowskis were widely acclaimed by critics for their debut which was described as clever, sophisticated and stylish. Roger Ebert
said that their skillful film making showed virtuosity and confidence. Marjorie Baumgarten writing for The Austin Chronicle called it an impressive debut saying that the Wachowskis have "style to burn". James Kendrick called it a darkly comical and stunning film, saying it signalled the arrival of the Wachowskis on the film scene. Detractors of the film included Todd McCarthy for Variety
, who said that the directors had no sense of humor and lacked depth, that the film was pretentious, superficial and heavy-handed.
On the release of Bound, the Wachowskis were compared by many to the Coen Brothers
. Rita Kempley for The Washington Post
went so far as to call them "Coen Brothers clones". In particular, similarities were drawn between Bound and the Coen Brothers' first film, 1984 neo-noir Blood Simple
. Bryant Frazer for Deep Focus called it an "obvious precursor". Critics noted resemblances to the films of Quentin Tarantino
and Alfred Hitchcock
.
Janet Maslin for The New York Times
said that the grisly violence in Bound would likely limit its audience and Ebert said that its shocking violence would offend some audiences. Some critics said that the violent behavior of the characters had no moral justification. Rita Kempley for The Washington Post
called it "well-nigh unwatchable cruelty for its own sake". McCarthy, who called the central relationship between the two women unbelievable and unsympathetic, said "just because Violet and Corky fall for each other doesn't mean they somehow fall into a privileged state of grace in which vile behavior can be forgiven." Other critics were less concerned, calling the violence "comically excessive" and "Tarantino-like".
Bound was praised for being perhaps the first mainstream film to have a LGBT
relationship at its heart without homosexuality
being central to the plot. Despite the presence of "unapologetically gay" lead character of Corky, it is not considered a "lesbian movie". Emanuel Levy said that this is a weakness, that mainstream films with broadening storylines "do not necessarily represent a positive development in the making of gay and lesbian films" and that Bound has "little, if anything, to do with lesbian cinema". Jonathan Rosenbaum
for the Chicago Reader called it a "welcome change" to have a lesbian couple as the main characters in a mainstream film. Sarah Warn
for AfterEllen.com called Corky "the closest thing to a realistic and sympathetic butch lesbian we've seen in a mainstream movie". Barry Walters for the San Francisco Chronicle
praised the film for showing gay characters that have an active sex life. The sex scenes, described as explicit and steamy, were admired for being tasteful, discreet and realistic. Warn called them "some of the best lesbian sex scenes to date in a mainstream movie".
The three lead actors were complimented for their performances. Ebert said that Gershon and Tilly were electric together, and Frazer said that he would have liked to have seen more of their love story. Some critics, however, described their onscreen relationship as unbelievable and unsympathetic. Gershon was seen to have made a comeback after her role in the less well received 1995 film Showgirls. Tilly's performance was compared to her Academy Award-nominated part in Bullets Over Broadway
. Pantoliano was described as "a lot of fun" and having the "trickiest scenes in the movie".
. At the 1997 Fantasporto
festival in Portugal, the Wachowski brothers were awarded the International Fantasy Film Award for best film, and Jennifer Tilly picked up the award for best actress. Bound won the 1997 GLAAD Media Award
for Outstanding (wide-release) Film.
, composed by Don Davis
, was given a promotional release on November 25, 1997, on the Super Tracks Music Group, but has never been released commercially. Having her character Corky play a jaw harp was Gina Gershon's idea. The directors were significantly limited by their budget when it came to choosing songs for the soundtrack. They had wanted to use "The Girl from Ipanema
" and Frank Sinatra
songs, but could not afford to. The four songs used in the film were not included on the score release.
Neo-noir
Neo-noir is a style often seen in modern motion pictures and other forms that prominently utilize elements of film noir, but with updated themes, content, style, visual elements or media that were absent in films noir of the 1940s and 1950s.-History:The term Film Noir was coined by...
crime
Crime film
Crime films are films which focus on the lives of criminals. The stylistic approach to a crime film varies from realistic portrayals of real-life criminal figures, to the far-fetched evil doings of imaginary arch-villains. Criminal acts are almost always glorified in these movies.- Plays and films...
thriller film directed by the Wachowski brothers. Violet (Jennifer Tilly
Jennifer Tilly
Jennifer Tilly is an American actress and poker player. She is an Academy Award nominee, and a World Series of Poker Ladies' Event bracelet winner. She is the older sister of actress Meg Tilly.-Early life:...
), who longs to escape her relationship with her mafioso
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
boyfriend Caesar (Joe Pantoliano
Joe Pantoliano
Joseph Peter "Joe" Pantoliano is an American film and television actor. He played the character of Ralph Cifaretto on The Sopranos, Bob Keane in La Bamba, Cypher in The Matrix, Teddy in Memento, Francis Fratelli in The Goonies, Guido "the Killer Pimp" in Risky Business, and Jennifer Tilly's...
), enters into a clandestine affair with alluring ex-con
Convict
A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison", sometimes referred to in slang as simply a "con". Convicts are often called prisoners or inmates. Persons convicted and sentenced to non-custodial sentences often are not termed...
Corky (Gina Gershon
Gina Gershon
Gina L. Gershon is an American film, television and stage actress, singer and author, known for her roles in the films Cocktail , Showgirls , Bound , Best of the Best 3: No Turning Back , Face/Off , The Insider , Demonlover , Category 7: The End of the World , P.S...
), and the two women hatch a scheme to steal $2 million of mafia money.
Bound was the first film directed by the Wachowskis, and they took inspiration from Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder was an Austro-Hungarian born American filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, artist, and journalist, whose career spanned more than 50 years and 60 films. He is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Hollywood's golden age...
to tell a noir story filled with sex and violence. Financed by Dino De Laurentiis
Dino De Laurentiis
Agostino "Dino" De Laurentiis was an Italian film producer.-Early life:He was born at Torre Annunziata in the province of Naples, and grew up selling spaghetti produced by his father...
, the film was made on a tight budget with the help of frugal
Frugality
Frugality is the quality of being frugal, sparing, thrifty, prudent or economical in the use of consumable resources such as food, time or money, and avoiding waste, lavishness or extravagance....
crew members including cinematographer Bill Pope
Bill Pope
William Homer "Bill" Pope, A.S.C. is an award-winning American cinematographer, best known for his work on Sam Raimi's films and the Matrix trilogy.-Filmography:1989 - Pet Sematary1990 - Darkman1991 - Closet Land...
. The directors initially struggled to cast the lesbian characters of Violet and Corky before securing Tilly and Gershon. To choreograph the sex scenes, the directors employed sex educator Susie Bright
Susie Bright
Susannah "Susie" Bright is an American writer, speaker, teacher, audio-show host, and performer, all on the subject of sexuality....
, who has a bit part in the film.
Bound received positive reviews from film critics who praised the humor and style of the directors as well as the realistic portrayal of a lesbian relationship in a mainstream film. Detractors of the film criticized the excessive violence and superficiality of the plot. The film won several festival awards.
Plot
Corky (Gina Gershon), an ex-con who has just finished a five-year jail sentence, arrives at an apartment building to start work as a painter and plumber. On her way up to the apartment, she encounters the couple who live next-door, Violet (Jennifer Tilly) and Caesar (Joe Pantoliano). After Caesar has gone out, Violet flirts with Corky and asks her to help retrieve an earring that has fallen down her sink. After Corky extracts the earring, Violet admits she lost it on purpose in order to get closer to Corky, and starts to seduce her. They are interrupted by the arrival of Caesar and Corky goes back to work. When she leaves for the day, Violet follows her to her car. They go to Corky's apartment and have sex. The next morning, Violet tells Corky that Caesar is a money laundererMoney laundering
Money laundering is the process of disguising illegal sources of money so that it looks like it came from legal sources. The methods by which money may be laundered are varied and can range in sophistication. Many regulatory and governmental authorities quote estimates each year for the amount...
for the Mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
and they have been together for five years.
Later, Violet overhears Caesar and his Mafia associates beating and torturing Shelly (Barry Kivel), a man who has been skimming money from the business. Upset by the violence and cruelty, Violet seeks solace from Corky. She tells Corky that she wants to make a new life for herself, but that she needs her help. Knowing that Caesar will find the nearly $2 million Shelly took and count it in their apartment, the two women hatch a scheme to steal the money. Corky, already wary of Violet's intentions, is unsure whether to trust her.
Shelly is shot and killed by Johnnie (Christopher Meloni
Christopher Meloni
Christopher Peter Meloni is an American actor. He is best known for his television roles as NYPD Detective Elliot Stabler on the NBC police drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and as inmate Chris Keller on the HBO prison drama Oz.-Early life:Meloni was born the youngest of three children in...
), the son of Mafia boss Gino Marzonne (Richard C. Sarafian
Richard C. Sarafian
Richard C. Sarafian is an Armenian-American TV and film director. Richard Sarafian has complied a versatile career that has spanned over five decades as a director, actor and writer. He is most popular for his film Vanishing Point . He is the father of: Richard Sarafian Jr., Tedi Sarafian, Damon B...
), and Caesar returns to the apartment with a bag of bloody money. Angry at Johnnie for killing Shelly in a fit of rage and splattering blood everywhere, Caesar proceeds to wash, iron and hang the money to dry.
Violet explains to Corky that Caesar and Johnnie hate each other, and that Gino and Johnnie will be coming to pick up the money from Caesar. The plan is as follows: When Caesar has finished counting the money, Violet will get him a drink to relax him before he showers. Corky will be next-door, waiting until she hears Caesar turn on the shower. When he does, Violet will drop the bottle of Scotch that is for Gino and tell Caesar that she is going to buy more. As she leaves the apartment, she will let Corky in, who will steal the money from a briefcase and leave. Violet will then return with the Scotch and tell Caesar that she just saw Johnnie leaving, but that Gino was not with him. Suspicious, Caesar will check the briefcase, find the money gone, and assume Johnnie has taken it. Corky and Violet think Caesar will be forced to skip town because Gino will assume he has been robbed by Caesar, not his son.
Everything goes as planned until Caesar finds the money gone. He realizes that if he runs, Gino will think he took the money. He decides he has to get the money back from Johnnie. Panicking, Violet threatens to leave. Caesar pulls out his gun and forces her to stay, thinking that maybe she and Johnnie have stolen the money and framed him.
Corky waits next-door with the money while Gino and Johnnie arrive. After watching Johnnie flirt with Violet and taunt him, Caesar pulls out a gun and tells Gino that his son stole the money. In an angry panic, he kills them both. He tells Violet that they have to find the money, dispose of the bodies, and pretend Gino and Johnnie never arrived, lest their Mafia pals find the money or men missing. Unable to find the money at Johnnie's apartment, Caesar telephones Micky (John P. Ryan
John P. Ryan (actor)
John P. Ryan was an American character actor, best known for his role as Warden Ranken in the 1985 film Runaway Train.Ryan died from a stroke in Los Angeles, California in 2007 at the age of 70.-Filmography:...
), a Mafia friend, telling him that Gino has yet to arrive.
After discovering Corky and Violet stole the money, Caesar ties them up, gags them, threatens to torture them, and demands to know where it is. When Micky arrives to see what is going on, Caesar tells him Gino was in a car accident and Micky leaves for the hospital. Corky tells Caesar where she has hidden the money, and he goes next-door to find it. Violet escapes and makes a phone call to Micky, telling him that Caesar stole the money and forced her to keep quiet. In the meantime, Corky tries to stop Caesar from taking the money, but he beats her to the ground. Just as he is about to kill her, Violet arrives and pulls a gun on Caesar, telling him that Micky is on his way and that he should run while he can. Caesar tells Violet that he knows she will not shoot him, to which she replies, "Caesar, you don't know shit", before killing him.
Later, Micky, who believes Violet's story, tells her that he will find Caesar, and that there is no need to involve the police. Micky wants Violet to be his girlfriend, but she tells him that she needs a clean break—which she makes by driving off hand-in-hand with Corky.
Conception
Film producer Joel SilverJoel Silver
Joel Silver is an American Hollywood film producer, co-creator of the sport of Ultimate, co-founder of Dark Castle Entertainment and owner of Silver Pictures.-Life and career:...
has said that after working as scriptwriters on Assassins
Assassins (film)
Assassins is a 1995 American action film written by the Wachowskis and Brian Helgeland, directed by Richard Donner, and starring Sylvester Stallone, Antonio Banderas and Julianne Moore.-Plot:...
, the Wachowski Brothers made Bound as an "audition piece" to prove that they knew what to do on a movie set. They had the idea to write a story about how one might see a woman on the street and make assumptions about her sexuality, but how those assumptions might be wrong. They wanted to play with stereotypes and make an entertaining film that contained sex and violence, because those are the kinds of films that they like to watch. Seeing film noir
Film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
as a genre within which they could tell a contained story and twist conventions, they described Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder was an Austro-Hungarian born American filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, artist, and journalist, whose career spanned more than 50 years and 60 films. He is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Hollywood's golden age...
as a big influence.
When executives at some studios read the script, they told the Wachowskis that if they changed the character of Corky to that of a man, they would be interested. The brothers declined, saying "that movie's been made a million times, so we're really not interested in it." Dino De Laurentiis
Dino De Laurentiis
Agostino "Dino" De Laurentiis was an Italian film producer.-Early life:He was born at Torre Annunziata in the province of Naples, and grew up selling spaghetti produced by his father...
, the executive producer on Assassins, offered to finance Bound and his company produced it, giving them "free rein" with regard to the story. The film's budget was $6,000,000.
Casting
The Wachowskis struggled to cast the roles of Violet and Corky, seemingly because of the lesbian content of the film. Few actresses were interested. The part of Violet was expected to go to Linda HamiltonLinda Hamilton
Linda Carroll Hamilton is an American actress best known for her portrayal of Sarah Connor in The Terminator and its sequel Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Catherine Chandler in the television series Beauty and the Beast, for which she was nominated for two Golden Globes and an Emmy...
, and Jennifer Tilly read for the part of Corky. She loved the role and was looking forward to playing a character very different from previous parts in her career. When the part of Violet became available, and Gina Gershon came in to read for Corky, Tilly agreed that Gershon would make a better Corky. She realized that she identified with the character of Violet, a woman "underestimated by all the men around her" who has to "play the game".
She describes it as the best role she had ever had. Gina Gershon suggested Joe Pantoliano to the Wachowskis for the part of Caesar. His first lead role in a film, he describes it as his favorite.
Filming
Bound was shot in thirty-eight days in Santa MonicaSanta Monica, California
Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, US. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and...
, California. The Wachowski's original director of photography resigned on the grounds that he could not do the film with the limited budget he had available, nor did he know anyone he believed could. The brothers subsequently hired cinematographer Bill Pope
Bill Pope
William Homer "Bill" Pope, A.S.C. is an award-winning American cinematographer, best known for his work on Sam Raimi's films and the Matrix trilogy.-Filmography:1989 - Pet Sematary1990 - Darkman1991 - Closet Land...
, who knew " a bunch of cheap guys". Pope became heavily involved in creating the visual noir style of the film. He and the Wachowskis drew from their love of comics and were influenced by Frank Miller's
Frank Miller (comics)
Frank Miller is an American comic book artist, writer and film director best known for his dark, film noir-style comic book stories and graphic novels Ronin, Daredevil: Born Again, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Sin City and 300...
neo-noir Sin City
Sin City
Sin City is the title for a series of neo-noir comics by Frank Miller. The first story originally appeared in "Dark Horse Presents Fifth Anniversary Special" , and continued in Dark Horse Presents #51–62 from May 1991 to June 1992, under the title of Sin City, serialized in thirteen parts. Several...
series in particular. Pope's sound counterpart was sound director Dane Davis. One of his ideas was to give Corky a cat
Cat
The cat , also known as the domestic cat or housecat to distinguish it from other felids and felines, is a small, usually furry, domesticated, carnivorous mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and for its ability to hunt vermin and household pests...
-like quality by making a "swishing" sound every time she walks past the camera in the scene where she and Violet plan the theft.
The Wachowskis asked Joe Pantoliano to watch John Huston
John Huston
John Marcellus Huston was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. He wrote most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered classics: The Maltese Falcon , The Treasure of the Sierra Madre , Key Largo , The Asphalt Jungle , The African Queen , Moulin Rouge...
's The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (film)
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is a 1948 American film written and directed by John Huston, a feature film adaptation of B. Traven's 1927 novel of the same name, in which two Americans Fred C. Dobbs and Bob Curtin during the 1920s in Mexico join with an old-timer, Howard , to prospect for gold...
and to focus on Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor. He is widely regarded as a cultural icon.The American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema....
's character in order to prepare the paranoia of Caesar. Gershon's influences for her role were James Dean
James Dean
James Byron Dean was an American film actor. He is a cultural icon, best embodied in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause , in which he starred as troubled Los Angeles teenager Jim Stark...
, Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...
and Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood
Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...
. Both Gershon and Tilly were nervous about filming the sex scenes and prepared by drinking tequila
Tequila
Tequila is a spirit made from the blue agave plant, primarily in the area surrounding the city of Tequila, northwest of Guadalajara, and in the highlands of the western Mexican state of Jalisco....
.
Very little improvisation took place during the filming due to the directors' extensive planning and clear vision for the film. Not everything went as expected, however, as the physical exchanges in the script caused some injuries. Barry Kivel, whose character Shelly was violently beaten in Caesar's bathroom, received a head injury from his head being banged against the toilet. In the scenes between Corky and Caesar near the end of the film, Gina Gershon hit her hand so hard when she knocked a gun from Joe Pantoliano's hand that she required stitches.
Sex scenes
The sex scenes were choreographed by feminist writer and sex educator Susie BrightSusie Bright
Susannah "Susie" Bright is an American writer, speaker, teacher, audio-show host, and performer, all on the subject of sexuality....
. The Wachowskis were fans of Bright and sent her a copy of the script with a letter asking her to be an extra in the film. When she read the script she loved it, particularly as it was about women enjoying having sex and not apologizing for it. Disappointed that they never described exactly what was happening in the sex scenes, she asked if she could be a sex consultant for the film and they agreed. The main sex scene set in Corky's apartment was filmed in one long shot. The Wachowskis believed that this would look more realistic than several shots edited together. Although it should have been a closed set, there were actually many people present, moving the walls of the set in order to allow full movement of the camera around the actors.
Bright appeared as Jesse, the woman Corky tries to talk to in the bar. Comedienne Margaret Smith
Margaret Smith (comedian)
Margaret Smith is a six-time Emmy Award winning standup comic, actor, writer and producer.Originally from Chicago, Illinois, Smith is known for her deadpan and often acerbic delivery, reminiscent of Eve Arden...
played Jesse's girlfriend and the extras in the bar scene were Bright's friends—"real life San Francisco dykes".
Themes
The Wachowskis describe several themes present in Bound. They say that the film is about "the boxes people make of their lives", that it is not only gay people who "live in closetsCloseted
Closeted and in the closet are metaphors used to describe lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning and intersex people who have not disclosed their sexual orientation or gender identity and aspects thereof, including sexual identity and sexual behavior.-Background:In late 20th...
". They wanted to define all of Bounds characters by the "sort of trap that they were making out of their lives". Violet is trapped in her life with Caesar, and in the first scene, Corky is literally inside Violet's closet, bound and gagged by Caesar. This scene is echoed later in the film when Violet says "I had this image of you inside of me..." This theme of being trapped is exacerbated by the claustrophobic feeling created by the fact that most of the film takes place in Corky's apartment, Violet and Casear's apartment, or the apartment next door where Corky is working.
Susie Bright described some of the specifically lesbian themes of the film. One is the concept of the hand as a sex organ, highlighted by lingering camera shots of Corky and Violet's hands. Another is the repeated use of water as a symbolic motif to represent women, present for example when Corky is retrieving Violet's earring from the sink. Bright describes it as a movie that is "wet" (feminine) as opposed to "hard" (masculine). She says the scene where Corky and Violet have their first conversation is full of "lesbian signs". She highlights the fact that Violet, away from Caesar, is wearing jeans and able to be less overtly feminine. Jennifer Tilly says that whenever Violet is talking to men, her voice becomes high-pitched and "girly"—making her seem vulnerable and ensuring she is taken care of. Joe Pantoliano agrees, saying that the result is that "everyone in the film wants to be with Violet". When she is with Corky, Violet can drop the act and talk at a more natural pitch. According to Bright, the more subtle lesbian themes of the film were noticed and appreciated at the LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
film festival screenings.
Rating and distribution
Bound was rated by the Motion Picture Association of AmericaMotion Picture Association of America
The Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. , originally the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America , was founded in 1922 and is designed to advance the business interests of its members...
(MPAA) as R for "strong sexuality, violence and language." To achieve that rating, the directors had to cut part of the first sex scene between Corky and Violet. The MPAA were most concerned with the images of what Larry Wachowski called "hand-sex". It was rated R in Australia, R18 in New Zealand and 18 in the United Kingdom. In Canada it was rated as R in Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
and Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, 18 in Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
and 16+ in Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
.
The film premiere
Premiere
A premiere is generally "a first performance". This can refer to plays, films, television programs, operas, symphonies, ballets and so on. Premieres for theatrical, musical and other cultural presentations can become extravagant affairs, attracting large numbers of socialites and much media...
d on August 31, 1996, at the Venice Film Festival
Venice Film Festival
The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...
and in September went on to play at the Toronto Film Festival. It opened in U.S. theaters on October 4, 1996 distributed by Gramercy Pictures
Gramercy Pictures
Gramercy Pictures was a film distributor launched in 1992, a joint venture of PolyGram Filmed Entertainment and Universal Pictures. Gramercy, a so-called "mini-major," was the distributor of PolyGram movies in the United States and Canada...
, showing in 261 theaters. It closed after three weeks. It opened in the United Kingdom on February 28, 1997.
Bound was released on Region 1 DVD on November 12, 1997, by Republic Pictures
Republic Pictures
Republic Pictures was an independent film production-distribution corporation with studio facilities, operating from 1934 through 1959, and was best known for specializing in westerns, movie serials and B films emphasizing mystery and action....
. It featured the original theatrical trailer
Trailer (film)
A trailer or preview is an advertisement or a commercial for a feature film that will be exhibited in the future at a cinema. The term "trailer" comes from their having originally been shown at the end of a feature film screening. That practice did not last long, because patrons tended to leave the...
and an audio commentary
Audio commentary
On disc-based video formats, an audio commentary is an additional audio track consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with video...
by the directors and stars. It was released on Region 2 DVD on August 25, 2003, by Pathé Distribution featuring original theatrical trailers, audio commentary by the directors and stars, cast and crew biographies and a production featurette
Featurette
Featurette is a term used in the American film industry to designate a film whose length is approximately three quarters of a reel, or about 20–44 minutes in running time - thus midway between a short subject and a feature film; thus it is a "small feature"...
. Its Region 4 DVD release, distributed by Reel and featuring an audio commentary, came on August 14, 2006.
Box office
Bound grossed $3,802,260 in the United States. In its opening weekend, showing at 261 theaters, it earned $900,902, which was 23.7% of its total gross. According to Box Office MojoBox Office Mojo
Box Office Mojo is a website that tracks box office revenue in a systematic, algorithmic way. Brandon Gray started the site in 1999. In 2002, Gray partnered with Sean Saulsbury and they grew the site to nearly two million readers when, in July 2008, the company was purchased by Amazon.com through...
, it ranked at 161 for all films released in the United States in 1996, and at 74 for R-rated films released that year. As of June 2007, its all-time ranking for LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
-related films is 54.
Critical response
The review aggregatorReview aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services . This system stores the reviews and then uses them for purposes such as: creating a website for users to view the reviews, selling information to third parties about consumer tendencies and creating databases for...
website Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
gave it a "fresh" rating of 88% based on 34 reviews, while Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
gave it a score of 61% based on 19 reviews. The Wachowskis were widely acclaimed by critics for their debut which was described as clever, sophisticated and stylish. Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
said that their skillful film making showed virtuosity and confidence. Marjorie Baumgarten writing for The Austin Chronicle called it an impressive debut saying that the Wachowskis have "style to burn". James Kendrick called it a darkly comical and stunning film, saying it signalled the arrival of the Wachowskis on the film scene. Detractors of the film included Todd McCarthy for Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
, who said that the directors had no sense of humor and lacked depth, that the film was pretentious, superficial and heavy-handed.
On the release of Bound, the Wachowskis were compared by many to the Coen Brothers
Coen Brothers
Joel David Coen and Ethan Jesse Coen known together professionally as the Coen brothers, are American filmmakers...
. Rita Kempley for The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
went so far as to call them "Coen Brothers clones". In particular, similarities were drawn between Bound and the Coen Brothers' first film, 1984 neo-noir Blood Simple
Blood Simple
Blood Simple is a 1984 neo-noir crime film. It was the directorial debut of Joel Coen and the first major film of cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld, who later became a noted director...
. Bryant Frazer for Deep Focus called it an "obvious precursor". Critics noted resemblances to the films of Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...
and Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
.
Janet Maslin for The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
said that the grisly violence in Bound would likely limit its audience and Ebert said that its shocking violence would offend some audiences. Some critics said that the violent behavior of the characters had no moral justification. Rita Kempley for The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
called it "well-nigh unwatchable cruelty for its own sake". McCarthy, who called the central relationship between the two women unbelievable and unsympathetic, said "just because Violet and Corky fall for each other doesn't mean they somehow fall into a privileged state of grace in which vile behavior can be forgiven." Other critics were less concerned, calling the violence "comically excessive" and "Tarantino-like".
Bound was praised for being perhaps the first mainstream film to have a LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
relationship at its heart without homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
being central to the plot. Despite the presence of "unapologetically gay" lead character of Corky, it is not considered a "lesbian movie". Emanuel Levy said that this is a weakness, that mainstream films with broadening storylines "do not necessarily represent a positive development in the making of gay and lesbian films" and that Bound has "little, if anything, to do with lesbian cinema". Jonathan Rosenbaum
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Jonathan Rosenbaum is an American film critic. Rosenbaum was the head film critic for the Chicago Reader from 1987 until 2008, when he retired at the age of 65...
for the Chicago Reader called it a "welcome change" to have a lesbian couple as the main characters in a mainstream film. Sarah Warn
Sarah Warn
Sarah Warn is an American writer and the former editor of entertainment website AfterEllen.com.-Biography:Warn graduated from in Tacoma, WA in 1992. She then attended Wellesley College in 1996 with a degree in women's studies, and received a master's degree in theological studies from Harvard...
for AfterEllen.com called Corky "the closest thing to a realistic and sympathetic butch lesbian we've seen in a mainstream movie". Barry Walters for the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
praised the film for showing gay characters that have an active sex life. The sex scenes, described as explicit and steamy, were admired for being tasteful, discreet and realistic. Warn called them "some of the best lesbian sex scenes to date in a mainstream movie".
The three lead actors were complimented for their performances. Ebert said that Gershon and Tilly were electric together, and Frazer said that he would have liked to have seen more of their love story. Some critics, however, described their onscreen relationship as unbelievable and unsympathetic. Gershon was seen to have made a comeback after her role in the less well received 1995 film Showgirls. Tilly's performance was compared to her Academy Award-nominated part in Bullets Over Broadway
Bullets Over Broadway
Bullets Over Broadway is a 1994 crime-comedy film written by Woody Allen and Douglas McGrath and directed by Woody Allen. It stars an ensemble cast including John Cusack, Dianne Wiest, Chazz Palminteri, and Jennifer Tilly....
. Pantoliano was described as "a lot of fun" and having the "trickiest scenes in the movie".
Awards
Bound won the Grand Jury Award — Honorable Mention at the 1996 L.A. Outfest, and in the same year won an Honorable Mention at the Stockholm International Film FestivalStockholm International Film Festival
The Stockholm International Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Stockholm, Sweden. It was launched in 1990 and has been held every year in the second half of November...
. At the 1997 Fantasporto
Fantasporto
Fantasporto, also known as Fantas, is an international film festival, annually organized since 1981 in Porto, Portugal. Giving screen space to commercial feature films, auteur films and experimental projects from all over the world, Fantasporto has created enthusiastic audiences, ranging from...
festival in Portugal, the Wachowski brothers were awarded the International Fantasy Film Award for best film, and Jennifer Tilly picked up the award for best actress. Bound won the 1997 GLAAD Media Award
GLAAD Media Awards
The GLAAD Media Award is an accolade bestowed by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation to recognize and honor various branches of the media for their outstanding representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and the issues that affect their lives...
for Outstanding (wide-release) Film.
Music
The scoreFilm score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
, composed by Don Davis
Don Davis (composer)
Donald Romain Davis is an American film score composer, conductor, and orchestrator. Best known for his work on The Matrix, he has worked on a variety of films, from horror to comedy.- Early life :...
, was given a promotional release on November 25, 1997, on the Super Tracks Music Group, but has never been released commercially. Having her character Corky play a jaw harp was Gina Gershon's idea. The directors were significantly limited by their budget when it came to choosing songs for the soundtrack. They had wanted to use "The Girl from Ipanema
The Girl from Ipanema
"Garota de Ipanema" is a well-known bossa nova song, a worldwide hit in the mid-1960s that won a Grammy for Record of the Year in 1965. It was written in 1962, with music by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Portuguese lyrics by Vinicius de Moraes. English lyrics were written later by Norman Gimbel.The...
" and Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
songs, but could not afford to. The four songs used in the film were not included on the score release.
Track listing
- "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You) (song)"I Never Loved a Man " is a 1967 soul single released by American singer Aretha Franklin. It became a defining song for the Memphis-born, Detroit-raised musician, in that it became the first big hit of her career. The song peaked at number one on the Rhythm and Blues charts and number nine on the...
" (Ronny Shannon) performed by Aretha FranklinAretha FranklinAretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All... - "Hallelujah I Love Her SoHallelujah I Love Her So"Hallelujah I Love Her So" is a rhythm and blues single written by and released by American singer Ray Charles in 1956 on the Atlantic label.The song peaked at number five on the Billboard R&B chart and much like "I Got a Woman" and "This Little Girl of Mine" before it was a song based on a gospel...
" (Ray CharlesRay CharlesRay Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...
) performed by Ray Charles - "Hopeless Faith" performed by The Hail Marys
- "She's a LadyShe's A Lady"She's a Lady" is a song written by Paul Anka and performed by Tom Jones, and released in 1971. It is his highest charting U.S. release, peaking at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. It is one of Tom Jones's most famous recordings. The song reached #4 on Billboard's Easy Listening survey and spawned a...
" (Paul AnkaPaul AnkaPaul Albert Anka, is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and actor.Anka first became famous as a teen idol in the late 1950s and 1960s with hit songs like "Diana'", "Lonely Boy", and "Put Your Head on My Shoulder"...
) performed by Tom JonesTom Jones (singer)Sir Thomas John Woodward, OBE , known by his stage name Tom Jones, is a Welsh singer.Since the mid 1960s, Jones has sung many styles of popular music – pop, rock, R&B, show tunes, country, dance, techno, soul and gospel – and sold over 100 million records...