From: v101pyrw@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Michelle L. Zafron)
Subject: REVIEW: BASIC INSTINCT
Reply-To: v101pyrw@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Michelle L. Zafron)
Organization: University at Buffalo
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1992 18:26:08 GMT
Followup-To: rec.arts.movies
Summary: r.a.m.r. #01318
Keywords: author=Zafron

				  BASIC INSTINCT
				  [**Spoilers**]
		       A film review by Michelle L. Zafron
			Copyright 1992 Michelle L. Zafron

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
fifteen 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 Herrmann?

     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 by the
way, 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).  Then 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 ex-con as played by Dorothy Malone--a
devoted wife and mother who went crazy) or who occupied positions of
wealth 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)