The film was screened out of competition at the 34th Berlin International Film Festival. "The Washington Post" called it "Bob Fosse's latest stylish stinker." Gene Siskel of "The Chicago Tribune" placed the film on his top-10 list of the best films of 1983, while taking into account that the film was very unpleasant to watch. Roger Ebert, film critic for the "Chicago Sun-Times" and Siskel's cohost in the long-running TV series "At the Movies", gave the film four-out-of-four stars and deemed it an "important movie".