From: underdog@leland.Stanford.EDU (Dwight Joe)
Subject: Review of "Basic Instincts"
Summary: It's mindgames galore.
Keywords: mindgames
Organization: Miners for a Heart of Gold
Date: Mon, 5 Oct 92 05:49:48 GMT


I posted the following to another newsgroup, but I thought that it might
be interesting for this group as well since the movie is about a romance,
twisted as it might be.

(By the way, if you find that the use of the word "fuck" is offensive,
then don't read this review of "Basic Instincts".  I use that word liberally,
because it proves to be effective for what I to say to the rather contemporary
audience that reads this newsgroup.  I think that "fuck" is the key word
for this movie; you'll agree if you've seen it.  8^) )




This review of "Basic Instincts" departs from the traditional type
of review; I shall delve much more into the psyche of the movie.
The entire movie is a ~100-minute mind game among 3 main characters
who are mind-fucking each other.  The sex fucks are only part of the
story.


Nick
----
He is the protagonist who's had something eating at him for years.
Earlier in his career, he had been consuming coke, which was ruining
his judgment as a police office.  His lapses in judgment caused him
to shoot 4 tourists at a shopping mall.  His wife knew about his problem,
couldn't live with it, and committed suicide.

Ever since, he has been like a man with a restless mind that cannot 
pause for even a second.  The restlessness just eats him and eats him.  He
wants to relax but can't.  The pressures don't destroy him or cause him
to "crack", but they eat at him and eat at him.  Whether by his doing
or by the circumstances of life, he's been fucked.


Katharine
---------
She is the antagonist.  She enjoys playing mind games.  She enjoys
fucking people--men and women.  Her career is to get into people's
minds, manipulate people to obtain what she wants, and to spew it all
out into a novel.  The main mindgame in the movie was framing Elizabeth
with the murders.

Yeah.  She's the antagonist, but she is just what Nick needs.  Somehow,
her mindgames provide the kind of excitement that functions as a valve
to release all the pressures in Nick's mind.  In the sex scene involving
Elizabeth, Nick was trying like all "hell broke loose" to use the sex
with her to release his mental pressures, but he was not successful.

Don't you see?  It takes a little more than sex.  It takes Katharine's
mind games to make it work.  When Katharine fucks Nick's mind, Nick
will try to fuck her back.  Nick knows that even if he can't fuck her
back on her level, he'll get to fuck her using the old standby--the sexual
fuck.  He always has the last fuck, so he thinks that he "wins" (the
mindgame contest).  That provides the release for all his mental
pressures.

The trouble with Elizabeth is that she just provided the "win".  Katharine
provided the both the "game" (the mindgame) and the "win".


Elizabeth
---------
Elizabeth was a tragic victim.  She was a bisexual, and so was Katharine.
She wasn't really playing a full-blown mind game; she was just lying
to hide her background.  The obvious reason is that she would lose her
job as the resident police psychologist.

(If I understood the movie correctly, Katharine framed Elizabeth.
Katharine planted the pictures and clippings in Elizabeth's home.
The minor "give away" is the murder scene in the elevator, which matched
exactly the description in the final page of Katharine's latest
book about a flaky policeman.  The major "give away" is the final
shot in the movie with the ice pick at the bottom of Nick's bed, where
Nick had just done another "mental release" with Katharine.)


Final Comments
--------------
I find it difficult to evaluate whether this movie is enjoyable in the
general sense.  The movie isn't very deep, and there is no general theme
to it.  It says nothing about society.  Some people will simply not like
this movie because of the lack of depth.  Does "mind-gaming" demonstrate
"depth"?  I'm not so sure.

The type of person who would enjoy this movie might be (1) someone who
understands mindgames, (2) someone who resembles Nick 8^), (3) someone
who practices mindgames, etc.


Evaluation
----------
So, what would I give this movie?

Funny, I'm not even sure why, but ...

4 stars out of 5
2 thumbs up  (3 thumbs up for Sharon Stone  8^) )

(If I recollect correctly, Siskel and Ebert gave it 2 thumbs down.)


Responses?  If you have comments, then please (1) send e-mail or (2) send
e-mail and post what you e-mailed.  Thanks.

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