When the summer of 1998 rolled around, Miramax was at the height of its indie darling status with a balance of youth market titles and prestige art house hits to keep critics and audiences lining up at the box office. Two films in particular were supposed to be surefire hits in this period: Rounders, a Matt Damon and Edward Norton poker drama, and 54, a flashy look at American hedonism at the end of the '70s. Both films were subjected to the studio's legendary meddling that had become expected by that point, with 54 getting the worst of it by far with a slew of reshoots and additional filming radically transforming what was supposed to be a carefully modulated character study. That tactic failed spectacularly with the film getting dismissive reviews and even more disappointing turnout, with curiosity about the original cut from director Mark Christopher refusing to die down as the years went by. In the meantime Miramax was unperturbed and scoring big Oscar wins with two films released soon after this one, Shakespeare in Love and Life Is Beautiful, while another '98 look at the same era and location, Whit Stillman's The Last Days of Disco, got a far warmer reception. It also didn't help that Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights had come out in 1997 at the same time this film was being shot, setting a bar for a cinematic portrayal of that turn of the decade debauchery that no one else could possibly hurdle. Eventually a director's cut of 54 turned up as a not officially sanctioned screening of a VHS copy at Outfest in 2008, and the positive response led to the assembly of a much better quality director's cut finally released in 2015. The differences between the two are so radical they essentially feel like different movies sharing the same cast, a fascinating case study in how the production process can utterly overhaul a project across the board.

No matter which version you watch, the basic setup is similar with young Shane (Phillippe) fresh out of high school and pumping gas in Jersey City where he lives with his family including sister Grace (Matarazzo). On a night out in New York City with his buddies (including a young Mark Ruffalo), Shane is chosen to enter the exclusive doors of disco hot spot Studio 54 run by Steve Rubell (Myers). Willing to doff his shirt and able to handle famous personalities, Shane is quickly hired as a busboy and hits it off with bartender Greg (Meyer) who lives with aspiring disco singer Anita (Hayek). The three become close and end up living together, and as Shane makes his way up the ladder in the club (and bounces in and out of several beds), the high life is bound to come crashing down sooner or later.

A full list of the differences between the two versions would take up many pages, but the biggest change here is the entire dynamic between Shane, Anita, and Greg, with the pansexual tension between them in the original cut apparently too much for suits to handle (despite the fact that it was way tamer than the comparable studio film Threesome from four years earlier). Neve Campbell, who was riding high from Party of Five and Scream at the time, had a glorified cameo in the original version as a glamorous soap star and a symbol of Shane's dreams; presumably to make everything more palatable for suburban audiences, she was a big focus of the reshoots to turn her into a much bigger love interest complete with a heavily tweaked ending. Inadvertently, the main casualty in the end was Phillippe whose initially solid performance was flattened out by new, clunky narration (by the writers of Rounders, natch) and a seriously baffling character arc. On the other hand, Myers turned out to be very impressive with a great dramatic turn that proved to be a big surprise after his run of hit comedies and years on Saturday Night Live. The two versions also look very different, with the theatrical pushed to look as bright and vivid as possible compared to the original intended darker look reflective of a late '70s movie aesthetic.

Numerous DVD editions of this film were released over the years including the U.S. and pretty every country in Europe, all containing an anamorphic transfer of the theatrical cut (or in some cases a slightly different "unrated" cut featuring a quick, innocuous outtake shot of Phillippe hooking up in a car). The theatrical version made its way to U.S. Blu-ray from Lionsgate in 2013 from an okay HD scan that looks like it was prepared for broadcast use, and the director's cut first hit streaming platforms before getting a 2021 Blu-ray release from Paramount. The extremely elaborate editing involved in creating the director's cut (using negative trims, the existing HD scan, and a VHS copy, as well as different color timing and credits and an overhauled sound mix) mean it could really only be created once with obvious limitations. The VHS material mostly amounts to fairly quick shots and isn't enormously distracting, but you'll definitely spot it when you see it.

In 2026, Cinématographe finally gave the film the special edition it needed to really cover the insane history of this film from conception through the decades-long process of getting it reassembled. The three-disc set features one UHD and two Blu-rays, with the UHD featuring a new 4K scan from the original camera negative of the theatrical version with HDR10-compatible Dolby Vision. The quality here is a huge improvement over the dated master used for the earlier Blu-ray, with much deeper blacks and better detail. The first Blu-ray contains both the theatrical cut and the director's cut (from the usual HD master since that's how it was created), both with DTS-HD MA 5.1 and 2.0 English options with optional English SDH subtitles. Christopher contributes new audio commentaries for both cuts with Cinématographe's Justin LaLiberty, and as you'd expect he's full of stories including the differences between the original Toronto shoot and the New York reshoots and added scenes, the "on the nose" replacement narration, Hayek filming her big singing number, the color timing choices, his own experiences at 54, and tons more. Christopher's original commentary with director of photography Alexander Gruszynski for the initial director's cut release is ported over here, while filmmaker and writer Drew Burnett Gregory does a new commentary for the theatrical cut covering Christopher's background (including the mentorship of Paul Schrader who encouraged this "American Graffiti, but disco"), the differences between the two versions, the varying levels of queer elements, the major cast members, and more.

The third disc is devoted entirely to the video bonus features kicking off with a new Christopher video interview, "I'm Dead" (41m37s), covering his Columbia film school days, the process of evolving the concept for this film after a disco-themed short film, and the process of making the film, seeing it radically overhauled, and putting it all back together again. In "Nothing Is for Certain" (17m43s), editor Lee Percy shares his thoughts on the time period, his memories of New York City from that era, working with the huge 54 set in Toronto (where they held the wrap party), the rhythms of the music choices, the shock of being ordered to redo the film, and the creation of all the period detail. In "54-ness" (9m5s), producer Dolly Hall covers her work with other Columbia grads before this, her own take on the film about "love and family," the use of the club setting, her indie film background, and the film's release. In "Awesome Party" (32m48s), associate producer Jonathan King looks at his time at Miramax, his first meeting with Christopher in 1995, his involvement in the director's cut, and the studio climate in the late '90s. In "Let's Do the Work" (18m40s), David Kittredge explains how he came to editing the director's cut, the mutual friend who connected him to Christopher, the misguided thinking behind the theatrical recut, and the approach to reconstituting the original vision with all the elements available. Finally "In the Trenches Together" (14m33s) is a new interview with Gruszynski about his career as a cinematographer, his take on capturing the '70s atmosphere, and his own experiences he could draw on for inspiration. Also included is a 15m19s batch of archival EPK interviews with Christopher, Hayek, and Phillippe.

An entire "Behind the Scenes" section features the 2016 featurette "The Making of 54: The Director's Cut" (12m21s) with most of the participants here talking about the film's intentions and the rebuilding of the story, a 1m7s glimpse at the sound mixing of the director's cut, a 13m21s reel of b-roll footage from the set, a 15-image behind the scenes photo gallery, and 57 photos from the director's cut premiere in France. A 66m22s reel of deleted scenes (sourced from VHS) features numerous takes and alternate angles of eight scenes, the most notable being a quick but fun cameo by Saturday Night Fever's Karen Lynn Gorney and the full "Knock on Wood" performance. Finally the video essay "Finding Yourself" (12m22s) looks at how that title idea weaves through the film and its history among other late '70s-themed projects, including notes on the real-life figures you can spot references throughout. As usual, the elaborate packaging comes with an illustrated booklet featuring the essays "When Do I Get to Screen My Way: The Cuts and Calculus of 54" by Alex Gootter (about the film's fateful test screenings and post-production nightmare), "'Welcome to My Party, Handsome': 54's Very American Death and Rebirth" by Dan Mecca about the film's attributes and gradual rise from the ashes, and "Extinction-Level Event on a Disco Planet: 54 (Director's Cut)" by Sean Abley about the Shane and Rubell characters here contextualized within the whole story of the club and the disco movement including the notorious "Disco Sucks" rally that brought it all crashing down.

Director's Cut (Blu-ray)

Reviewed on July 23, 2026