And now the bad...
Sep. 28th, 2012 01:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ivyficThis category really only has one entry: Basic Instinct. I don't know why I watched this. It came up on a list of films filmed in San Francisco, and it's had such a prominent place in the culture, I don't know, I figured cultural literacy or something.
Here's the thing about this movie: it's not for me. It has no interest in women, either as an audience or as anything other than erotic objects. Also, the version on Netflix streaming, I learned after watching it, is the unrated version. Which means there's a lot more sex, but it also means you get to see someone stabbed repeatedly in the face with an ice pick two minutes into the film.
So let's start with the most famous scene in the thing. The leg crossing. Sharon Stone has said that she didn't know where the lights were pointed when they were filming this and didn't know what was visible and is uncomfortable with it. To this I...kind of call bullshit? I mean, maybe that's her line, and it should be respected, but she's naked and writhing for most of the time she's on screen. It's not like the type of movie she was in would have been a surprise to her.
As for the actual shot--I don't know. I don't find crotch all that erotic. I mean, a woman's crotch, sitting down, looks kind of like an armpit. Plus, we, the audience, know she's not wearing underwear cause we watched her get dressed--she's not wearing anything but the dress, which is white, and just makes me think...underwear exists for a reason. The fact that this character never wears it (or a bra) just makes me wonder about hygiene.
As for the plot, well. It's supposed to be a mindfuck, but it isn't. Cause Sharon Stone did it. It's blindingly obvious from the start that she did, and doubt is never thrown on this, though we are supposed to be tricked into seeing her as a victim, I guess, I don't know.
Here is the plot. Stone's boyfriend is ice picked to death in the exact manner a character exactly like her boyfriend is killed in a book she wrote. IT'S SO IMPROBABLE IT'S AN ALIBI!!!
Meanwhile, Michael Douglas is a cop on some sort of disciplinary action because he maybe shot some tourists while coked up. This is all intimated, never actually explored. But he's seeing the department's psychologist about it--and screwing her. Which everybody appears to know is going on, and nobody has a problem with this violation of the psychiatrist's ethical code, or it perhaps biasing her evaluation.
In any case, he is screwing the psychiatrist, who is a wet tissue of a character. She spends the whole movie running puppy-like after Douglas, feebly trying to wedge him and Stone apart (and apparently that woman's vagina is like superglue, cause there's no prying any of her lovers off of her). Early in the movie Douglas rapes the psychiatrist. And I do mean rape--they go home to sleep together, but in the middle she says no and he doesn't stop. I think this is meant to show us that just meeting Stone has made Douglas's character darker and more erotically charged, and I think it's meant to just be rough sex. But it was uncomfortable making--and, incidentally, not in the American theatrical release. Afterwards she still says she loves him, of course.
As for the mystery about whether or not Stone killed her boyfriend (SPOILER: she did), there's this hint that her parents died mysteriously and maybe she did it. And one of her college professors died mysteriously and maybe she did it. Neither of these questions are actually answered, btw. I think we're supposed to assume that she did, only her guilt is supposed to be ambiguous for most of the movie? I don't know.
Oh! Important thing about the film! Stone is bisexual. Very very bisexual. Especially when men are watching her make out with chicks. The film got flack for its portrayal of lesbian/bi women as twisted psychos who exist for men's titillation and--yeah. That's what they are in this film. If a woman sleeps with another woman it permanently warps her brain, didn't you know?
So Stone reveals to douglas that there was this girl she slept with in college who then stalked her. And the girl turns out to be...the psychiatrist! Duh duh DUH! This is where the plot got a little confused. The psychiatrist gave Douglas's files to an IA guy who sold them to Stone. Then the IA guy gets shot. But it turns out he was looking into this college stalking incident. Only it's a she said, she said, with each of them saying the other one was a crazy stalker, and the only police report about it checked out to the dead guy.
At the end of the film, Douglas goes to Stone's house (she is described by another character as having a "magna cum laude pussy"--I just had to include that). This whole time, she's been writing a book, this one about a cop who shot some tourists while high on cocaine, modeled on Douglas. So she's been sleeping with him for "research." And telling him that in the book, the cop falls for the wrong woman and dies. Douglas pleads for the character not to die, thinking he is metaphorically pleading for their relationship. Oh ho ho. She says someone has to die.
So he goes to Stone's house, and she tells him her book is finished so he can go now, she's done with him. Before he huffs off, he sees pages of the book, talking about how the cop finds his partner's body, legs sticking out of an elevator.
Douglas then goes to hang with his partner. They are going to get to the bottom of this ten-year-old college stalking thing. Cause I guess if psychiatrist stalked Stone, that means she's the killer? Cause she's so obsessed with Stone, she killed someone in the manner of her book cause... ???
Douglas and partner go to an apartment building. Partner tells Douglas to wait in the car. Douglas does. Partner gets into an elevator. No! Don't go in the elevator! It mysteriously stops on every floor, as Douglas suddenly realizes in the car that oh shit! His partner shouldn't go in elevators! He goes running up the stairs as the elevator doors open and--partner gets stabbed to death with an ice pick. Like, stabbed twenty times. In the face.
Douglas runs up, finds his partner's legs sticking out of the elevator. Then--the psychiatrist shows up! Douglas flips out and pulls his gun on her. She puts her hand in her pocket...and he blows her away. She dies saying, "I love you," because never let it be said this character had more than one motivation.
Here's the part that doesn't make sense. (Yes, here.)
All the other cops show up to investigate this cop-killing/cop-shooting. They find a bloody ice pick, a trenchcoat, and a wig in a stairwell. They conclude psychiatrist was the killer aaaaall alooooong, and must have dropped the weapon when she heard Douglas approaching. Now, excuse me if my CSI is showing, the killer stabbed the partner to death MULTIPLE TIMES AT CLOSE RANGE. She would be COVERED IN BLOOD. Douglas arrives like thirty seconds too late. Why is NOBODY noticing that the psychiatrist is not at all covered in blood? Not any part of her? How can anybody think she is plausibly the murderer in this case. And if she were, why would that mean that she'd then killed everybody else?
IT MAKES NO SENSE.
The movie ends with Stone and Douglas in bed together, and she's reaching down below the bed...and it's for an ice pick. OMG SHE'S THE KILLER! To which I say, no shit! Isn't it heavily implied that she killed her parents and her teacher for kicks? There's this did the psychiatrist stalk her or the other way around thing, but I don't see how that materially bears on whether or not Stone stabs people for fun.
Also, since she has managed to frame the psychiatrist for everything and has gotten away with it--why would she then be contemplating killing Douglas? Wouldn't that just exonerate psychiatrist and get her caught for everything? Or no, of course not, her pussy is magic and it would free her from all consequences.
I mean, the fuck. The movie's basically going plot shmot DANGER MAKES SEX EVEN HOTTER. I had thought there was more to making this movie a phenomenon than a crotch shot, but it turns out...no. That's really it.
Here's the thing about this movie: it's not for me. It has no interest in women, either as an audience or as anything other than erotic objects. Also, the version on Netflix streaming, I learned after watching it, is the unrated version. Which means there's a lot more sex, but it also means you get to see someone stabbed repeatedly in the face with an ice pick two minutes into the film.
So let's start with the most famous scene in the thing. The leg crossing. Sharon Stone has said that she didn't know where the lights were pointed when they were filming this and didn't know what was visible and is uncomfortable with it. To this I...kind of call bullshit? I mean, maybe that's her line, and it should be respected, but she's naked and writhing for most of the time she's on screen. It's not like the type of movie she was in would have been a surprise to her.
As for the actual shot--I don't know. I don't find crotch all that erotic. I mean, a woman's crotch, sitting down, looks kind of like an armpit. Plus, we, the audience, know she's not wearing underwear cause we watched her get dressed--she's not wearing anything but the dress, which is white, and just makes me think...underwear exists for a reason. The fact that this character never wears it (or a bra) just makes me wonder about hygiene.
As for the plot, well. It's supposed to be a mindfuck, but it isn't. Cause Sharon Stone did it. It's blindingly obvious from the start that she did, and doubt is never thrown on this, though we are supposed to be tricked into seeing her as a victim, I guess, I don't know.
Here is the plot. Stone's boyfriend is ice picked to death in the exact manner a character exactly like her boyfriend is killed in a book she wrote. IT'S SO IMPROBABLE IT'S AN ALIBI!!!
Meanwhile, Michael Douglas is a cop on some sort of disciplinary action because he maybe shot some tourists while coked up. This is all intimated, never actually explored. But he's seeing the department's psychologist about it--and screwing her. Which everybody appears to know is going on, and nobody has a problem with this violation of the psychiatrist's ethical code, or it perhaps biasing her evaluation.
In any case, he is screwing the psychiatrist, who is a wet tissue of a character. She spends the whole movie running puppy-like after Douglas, feebly trying to wedge him and Stone apart (and apparently that woman's vagina is like superglue, cause there's no prying any of her lovers off of her). Early in the movie Douglas rapes the psychiatrist. And I do mean rape--they go home to sleep together, but in the middle she says no and he doesn't stop. I think this is meant to show us that just meeting Stone has made Douglas's character darker and more erotically charged, and I think it's meant to just be rough sex. But it was uncomfortable making--and, incidentally, not in the American theatrical release. Afterwards she still says she loves him, of course.
As for the mystery about whether or not Stone killed her boyfriend (SPOILER: she did), there's this hint that her parents died mysteriously and maybe she did it. And one of her college professors died mysteriously and maybe she did it. Neither of these questions are actually answered, btw. I think we're supposed to assume that she did, only her guilt is supposed to be ambiguous for most of the movie? I don't know.
Oh! Important thing about the film! Stone is bisexual. Very very bisexual. Especially when men are watching her make out with chicks. The film got flack for its portrayal of lesbian/bi women as twisted psychos who exist for men's titillation and--yeah. That's what they are in this film. If a woman sleeps with another woman it permanently warps her brain, didn't you know?
So Stone reveals to douglas that there was this girl she slept with in college who then stalked her. And the girl turns out to be...the psychiatrist! Duh duh DUH! This is where the plot got a little confused. The psychiatrist gave Douglas's files to an IA guy who sold them to Stone. Then the IA guy gets shot. But it turns out he was looking into this college stalking incident. Only it's a she said, she said, with each of them saying the other one was a crazy stalker, and the only police report about it checked out to the dead guy.
At the end of the film, Douglas goes to Stone's house (she is described by another character as having a "magna cum laude pussy"--I just had to include that). This whole time, she's been writing a book, this one about a cop who shot some tourists while high on cocaine, modeled on Douglas. So she's been sleeping with him for "research." And telling him that in the book, the cop falls for the wrong woman and dies. Douglas pleads for the character not to die, thinking he is metaphorically pleading for their relationship. Oh ho ho. She says someone has to die.
So he goes to Stone's house, and she tells him her book is finished so he can go now, she's done with him. Before he huffs off, he sees pages of the book, talking about how the cop finds his partner's body, legs sticking out of an elevator.
Douglas then goes to hang with his partner. They are going to get to the bottom of this ten-year-old college stalking thing. Cause I guess if psychiatrist stalked Stone, that means she's the killer? Cause she's so obsessed with Stone, she killed someone in the manner of her book cause... ???
Douglas and partner go to an apartment building. Partner tells Douglas to wait in the car. Douglas does. Partner gets into an elevator. No! Don't go in the elevator! It mysteriously stops on every floor, as Douglas suddenly realizes in the car that oh shit! His partner shouldn't go in elevators! He goes running up the stairs as the elevator doors open and--partner gets stabbed to death with an ice pick. Like, stabbed twenty times. In the face.
Douglas runs up, finds his partner's legs sticking out of the elevator. Then--the psychiatrist shows up! Douglas flips out and pulls his gun on her. She puts her hand in her pocket...and he blows her away. She dies saying, "I love you," because never let it be said this character had more than one motivation.
Here's the part that doesn't make sense. (Yes, here.)
All the other cops show up to investigate this cop-killing/cop-shooting. They find a bloody ice pick, a trenchcoat, and a wig in a stairwell. They conclude psychiatrist was the killer aaaaall alooooong, and must have dropped the weapon when she heard Douglas approaching. Now, excuse me if my CSI is showing, the killer stabbed the partner to death MULTIPLE TIMES AT CLOSE RANGE. She would be COVERED IN BLOOD. Douglas arrives like thirty seconds too late. Why is NOBODY noticing that the psychiatrist is not at all covered in blood? Not any part of her? How can anybody think she is plausibly the murderer in this case. And if she were, why would that mean that she'd then killed everybody else?
IT MAKES NO SENSE.
The movie ends with Stone and Douglas in bed together, and she's reaching down below the bed...and it's for an ice pick. OMG SHE'S THE KILLER! To which I say, no shit! Isn't it heavily implied that she killed her parents and her teacher for kicks? There's this did the psychiatrist stalk her or the other way around thing, but I don't see how that materially bears on whether or not Stone stabs people for fun.
Also, since she has managed to frame the psychiatrist for everything and has gotten away with it--why would she then be contemplating killing Douglas? Wouldn't that just exonerate psychiatrist and get her caught for everything? Or no, of course not, her pussy is magic and it would free her from all consequences.
I mean, the fuck. The movie's basically going plot shmot DANGER MAKES SEX EVEN HOTTER. I had thought there was more to making this movie a phenomenon than a crotch shot, but it turns out...no. That's really it.
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Date: 2012-09-29 01:24 am (UTC)she is described by another character as having a "magna cum laude pussy"--I just had to include that
IDEFK I didn't realize there was an academic ranking for those....are there standardized tests?