From: v101pyrw@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Michelle L. Zafron)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies
Subject: BASIC INSTINCT: I hated it (spoilers)
Date: 6 Apr 92 23:28:00 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: University at Buffalo
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

Apparently I've missed all the discussion on BASIC INSTINCT, but seldom has
a film provoked me this much and I HAVE to talk about it.  So bear with me.

Spoilers follow:

Okay, now maybe it's me, maybe I've just seen too many movies.  But, there were
no surprises in the plot for me.  I knew right off that the shrink was 
implicated somehow.  I came up with two scenarios about 15 minutes into the 
film: 1.Catherine did it  or  2.the shrink did it.  About an hour or so into
the film I decided that they were both guilty.  

What totally amazed me was the feeling of utter detachment I had during this 
movie.  I was watching carefully but remained completely uninvolved.  
Occasionally, I got annoyed at blatant attempts at manipulation, but that was
about it.  But when I left the theater, these incredible feelings of revulsion
swept over me.  I am ashamed to have paid money to see this movie.

The supporting cast was easily the best thing about the film.  But most of them
were actors who we've all seen before--they do good solid work and that's it.
Michael Douglas was doing the performance from FATAL ATTRACTION.   It was
essentially the same type of character, but I would have enjoyed seeing some
differentiation.  Sharon Stone--really didn't impress me too much, but then
her character was supposed to be enigmatic so I suppose that explains the lack
of depth.  The actress playing her lover, Roxy? impressed me far more.

One of the few posts still in the system here about the film mentioned the music
favorably.  Was it me or did the Jerry Goldsmith score blatantly borrow from
Bernard Herrman?  

And let's talk about the Hitchcockian ripoffs...excuse me...homages.  It was 
kind of cute to see Sharon Stone modelling Kim Novak's french twist from 
VERTIGO, so was the San Francisco setting.  I even liked the opening crane 
shots.  But the film didn't just make a couple of inside references to Hitchcock
--they borrowed shamelessly and that bugged me.

The film has also given homophobic movements an incredible boost by portraying 
homosexuality as aberrant and dangerous, but I'm not going to get into this
now.

The sex scenes were boring.  A lot of you are probably falling off your seats at
this, but after the first couple of minutes, I started thinking things like
"Man, she must have a great set of boxsprings on that bed."  Somehow, I doubt
that Mr. Verhoeven intended me to feel that way.  The nudity didn't bother me,
it just bored me (and BTW, how come we never see male frontal nudity for more 
than a couple of seconds?  I'm not particularly anxious to see this, but I'm
curious as to why we don't).  Than of course there was the scene in the 
interrogation room where we learn that like the late Tallulah Bankhead, 
Catherine does not wear undies.  My first thought was "doesn't San Francisco
get pretty cold?"  Less was definitely not more in this case.

These are all pretty cosmetic criticisms, upon reflection, I think I hated the
movie because the character of Catherine was the perverted fantasy of the ice
queen who blows hot and cold and remains in control of her emotions throughout.
The kind of woman who "deserves" to be hurt.  That is wrong.  

Every woman in that film came across as either perverted and homicidal.  While 
the only normal, healthy character in the film was the partner, the women came 
off far worse then the men.  The men were portrayed as crude, stupid, sexist 
authority figures who thought with their primary sex organs, but they were not, 
for the most part portrayed as being dangerous or deadly.  The women were these 
terrible creatures who looked normal (the excon as played by Dorothy Malone--a
devoted wife and mother who went crazy) or who occupied positions of weatlh 
and influence (Catherine and the shrink) and who are ultimately deadly 
creatures.

Sorry for going on so long about the film...
--Michelle L. Zafron (v101pyrw@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu)
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"Suppose that you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress.  But
 I repeat myself."
                                 --Mark Twain   
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Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies