A Certain Sacrifice
A Certain Sacrifice is a 1985 American drama film co-written and directed by Stephen Jon Lewicki and starring Madonna, Jeremy Pattnosh and Charles Kurtz. It was Madonna's first movie, filmed from September 1979 through June 1981, but not released until 1985.[3]
A Certain Sacrifice
Stephen Jon Lewicki
Jeremy Pattnosh
Robert Manganaro Morris
Madonna
Jeremy Pattnosh
Charles Kurtz
Stephen Jon Lewicki
Stephen Jon Lewicki
Robert Manganaro Morris
Jeremy Pattnosh
Vidimax Home Entertainment
Virgin Video
Worldvision Home Video
October 1, 1985
60 minutes[1]
United States
English
$20,000[2]
A Certain Sacrifice is an independent-underground art film,[4][5][6][7] shot on-and-off over two years in New York City on a low-budget of just $20,000.[2][8] Madonna finished her scenes in late 1980.[9] The video release sold 50,000 copies in its first-week, and the film developed a certain cult status among some of Madonna's fans and collectors by that time.[10]
Plot[edit]
Madonna plays the part of Bruna,[1] a Lower East Side resident who lives with three "love slaves" (one woman, one man, and one trans woman). Bruna meets Dashiell (Pattnosh) in the water fountain in Washington Square Park and the two "fall in love". Bruna later tells her lovers she does not need them anymore, resulting in them attacking her sexually. Later, Bruna is raped by Raymond Hall (Kurtz) in a bathroom at a coffee shop. To exact retribution, Bruna enlists her love slaves and Dashiell to abduct the rapist. They dress up as prostitutes and lure him into a limousine. They lead him to a theatre where a Satanic sacrifice is performed. Dashiell later wipes Raymond's blood all over Bruna.[8][11][12]
Production and development[edit]
A Certain Sacrifice is a Super 8 film.[11] It was made on a low-budget between $12,000 to $20,000.[13][8] The film marks the acting debut of Madonna and the directorial debut of Stephen Jon Lewicki,[13] an aspiring filmmaker.[12] Various authors have regarded the movie as an underground art film.[2][4][5][6][7]
Despite Madonna's second thoughts about having participated in this movie, Lewicki had nothing but compliments for her. One of his oft-repeated stories was how he "discovered" Madonna and was amazed that she hand-wrote a three-page letter for a part that did not even pay. She was only paid $100, only because she was short on her apartment rent and Lewicki paid to help out. In Christopher Andersen's 1991 biography, Madonna Unauthorized, Lewicki stated: "That woman has more sensuality in her ear than most women have anywhere on their bodies".[14][15][16][17]
Actor Jeremy Pattnosh wrote and performed several songs in the film, including: "Certain Sacrifice" and "Screamin' Demon Lover". Years later, in a 2000 Channel 4 documentary on Madonna's early years (titled Madonna: Naked Ambition), her Breakfast Club bandmate Dan Gilroy recalled: "I did not like that fellow who made A Certain Sacrifice, I felt he was using them big-time [...] it needed a laugh-track, something".