Madonna: Truth or Dare (also known as In Bed with Madonna internationally) is a 1991 American documentary film directed by Alek Keshishian chronicling the life of entertainer Madonna during her 1990 Blond Ambition World Tour. Madonna approached Keshishian to do an HBO special on the tour after watching his Harvard senior project. Initially planned to be a traditional concert film, Keshishian was so impressed with the backstage life that he persuaded Madonna to make it the focus of the film. Madonna funded the project and served as executive producer. The film was edited to be in black-and-white, in order to emulate cinéma vérité, while the performance scenes are in color.
Madonna: Truth or Dare was screened out of competition at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival and was given a limited release on May 10, 1991; two weeks later, it had its worldwide release. It opened to positive reviews although certain scenes, such as one where Madonna visits her mother's grave, were criticized. Madonna was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress. With a worldwide gross of $29million, it was the highest-grossing documentary of all time, until Bowling for Columbine surpassed it in 2002. Truth or Dare has been noted as a groundbreaking film for its casual portrayal of homosexuality, and was compared to Paris Is Burning (1990). It has also had an impact on reality television and celebrity culture, inspiring parodies and other music-related documentaries.
Synopsis The film begins on August 6, 1990, the day after the final show of the Blond Ambition World Tour in Nice, France. Madonna reminisces in her hotel room about the tour and how its completion would affect her.
In a flashback to April 1990, the tour is about to kick off in Japan. Madonna did not realize that it was rainy season. Because of this, she and the dancers switch their tour costumes for warmer attire. In a voice-over, Madonna 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 is meant to be. In the United States, she meets the families of her dancers. Oliver Crumes, one of the dancers, sees his father for the first time in several years. In Los Angeles, sound problems arise; despite reassurances, Madonna focuses on the technical problems and yells at her manager Freddy DeMann for allowing so many people from the music industry in the front rows. After the show, she meets with several celebrities; Kevin Costner offends her by calling the show "neat" and she pretends to gag after he leaves.
On the final Toronto show, the crew receives a visit from the local police who threaten to arrest Madonna for "lewd and indecent display", specifically the masturbation scene during the performance of "Like a Virgin"; she refuses to change the show. DeMann believes the threat of arrest will only make Madonna go further. According to a news report, Toronto police decide not to arrest her, claiming that no threats were made. The next stop is Madonna's hometown of Detroit. In a voice-over, she expresses the difficulty she has going back home. At the end of "Holiday", Madonna calls her father Tony Ciccone on stage and sings "Happy Birthday to You". Backstage, Tony and his wife Joan compliment the show, though Tony expresses his displeasure at some of the more "burlesque" aspects. Madonna and her brother Christopher wait for their older brother Martin to show up while they discuss his substance abuse problems. Later, she reunites with her "childhood idol" Moira McPharlin-Messana, who gives her a painting she made entitled "Madonna and Child", and asks her to be godmother to her unborn child. Before leaving Detroit, Madonna visits her mother's grave for the first time since she was a child, as "Promise to Try" plays in the background. She lies down beside the grave as Christopher watches from afar.
As the tour continues, Madonna's throat problems worsen while her boyfriend Warren Beatty becomes more fed up with the cameras. During a throat examination in Madonna's hotel room, Beatty chastises her for the documentary, telling her the atmosphere is driving everyone insane. Madonna ignores him, and when she declines to have the rest of her examination done off camera, he starts laughing, saying, "She doesn't want to live off-camera, much less talk... What point is there of existing off-camera?". Due to her throat problems, she cancels some of her shows. In New York City, her doctor instructs her not to talk and she finds herself isolated in her apartment with only her assistant Melissa Crowe. Madonna is upset at losing contact with the dancers.
The third and final leg of the tour kicks off in Europe with everyone in better spirits. As the tour nears Italy, Pope John Paul II attempts to have it banned, forcing Madonna to cancel one of two shows in Rome. Sandra Bernhard appears to cheer up Madonna. Madonna tells Sandra that she's interested in meeting Antonio Banderas. When Pedro Almodóvar throws a party in Madrid, Madonna spends a week thinking up ways to seduce Banderas, but it turns out that he is married. While Madonna works in her hotel room, voice-overs from her family, friends and co-workers describe the star. Though she is happier now than she was on her last tour, Sandra does not think that she takes enough time to enjoy her successes. Others describe her in unflattering terms.
As the tour winds down, the group plays a game of truth or dare? and Madonna is dared to perform fellatio on a glass bottle. She's then asked who has been the "love of your life for your whole life?", to which she replies without hesitation, "Sean. Sean". She then invites her dancers and backup singers, one by one, to join her in bed, where she imparts "words of wisdom" to each. While the show's closing act, "Keep It Together", plays, a montage of Madonna saying good-bye to her dancers is shown. The film ends with a clip of Madonna telling director Alek Keshishian to go away and, "Cut it, Alek! Cut it, Goddamnit!"
Tour
The Blond Ambition World Tour was Madonna's third concert tour. It supported her fourth studio album Like a Prayer and the Dick Tracy soundtrack I'm Breathless. In January 1989, Pepsi-Cola announced that they had signed a US$5 million deal with Madonna to feature her and her single "Like a Prayer" on a television commercial. The deal also included Pepsi sponsoring Madonna's next world tour, announced then as the Like a Prayer World Tour. After the release of the music video for "Like a Prayer", which featured a church and Catholic symbols such as stigmata, Ku Klux Klan-style cross burning and Madonna kissing a black saint (Leon Robinson), religious groups worldwide including the Vatican immediately protested due to its blasphemous use of Christian imagery and called for a national boycott of Pepsi and PepsiCo's subsidiaries. The company revoked the commercial and canceled Madonna's sponsorship contract. Sire Records officially announced the Blond Ambition World Tour on November 16, 1989.
The concert, which was directed and choreographed by Vincent Paterson, was divided into five segments: Metropolis, inspired by the 1927 German expressionist film of same name; Religious by religious themes; Dick Tracy by the film of the same name and cabaret; Art Deco was inspired by early Hollywood films using the works of artist Tamara de Lempicka, and the fifth was an encore. The art direction was developed by Madonna's brother Christopher Ciccone, while the costumes were created by designer Jean-Paul Gaultier. It received positive reviews from contemporary critics, who praised its fashion and theatricals and received the Most Creative Stage Production Award at the Pollstar Concert Industry Awards. It was also a commercial success, grossing over US$62.7 million from 57 concerts.
Background and production The documentary was directed by Alek Keshishian from Propaganda Films, who had previously worked on music videos by Elton John and Bobby Brown. David Fincher, who had previously directed Madonna's music videos for "Express Yourself", "Oh Father" and "Vogue", was originally attached to direct, but pulled out shortly before the tour started. Madonna became interested in working with Keshishian after seeing his Harvard senior project - a short film titled Wuthering Heights. According to author J. Randy Taraborrelli, "her gut instincts told her that the handsome, long-haired film maker with fresh ideas was the kind of hip, cool artist who could lend the film the right edge". She approached Keshishian about doing an HBO special on the tour and flew him to Japan, where the it kicked off in April 1990. Initially to be a traditional concert film, Keshishian rented "everything that had been done in the music documentary and concert arena", but decided to not watch any of them, as he came to the conclusion that he wanted to do something different. He found the backstage scene to be "a Fellini-esque dysfunctional family" and persuaded Madonna to do an actual film focusing on that, with some performances interspersed; "when I realized it could be more, everyone was telling her, 'Don't be crazy. Look at what happened with Rattle and Hum and how it didn't make money'. She decided to go with my opinion, rather than the others", the director recalled. Madonna herself funded the project and served as its executive producer. During an interview with James Kaplan from Entertainment Weekly, she explained:
It's something that I felt compelled to do. I was very moved by the group of people I was with. I felt like their brother, their sister, their mother, their daughter — and then I also thought that they could do anything. And that we could do anything on stage. Because the show was so demanding, so complex — whenever you go through something really intense with a group of people it brings you closer together. And ultimately, though I'd set out to document the show, just to get it on film, when I started looking at the footage I said, 'This is so interesting to me. There's a movie here. There's something here'.
Madonna later told Good Morning America that her main intention was "to explode the myth that we raise up on a pedestal people we turn into icons. We make them inhuman and we don't give them human attributes so they're not allowed to fail, they're not allowed to make mistakes". Taraborrelli pointed out that Madonna gave Keshishian "full access to her world, complete entrée to her life during the tour's four months". To record Madonna and those around her with ease, the director would place the cameras behind one-way mirrors; he would have his crew wear black at all times, and gave them specific orders not to interact with the subjects. Each night after filming, he would log the day's events on a computer to keep track of the footage. The interviews with the tour's dancers and staff were done the first two weeks in Japan, while the performances were shot during the three Paris shows in July; this allowed Keshishian to "plan the numbers, to sit where I wanted them to be".