Basic Instinct. (18.)
Directed by Paul Verhoeven. 1992.
Starring Sharon Stone, Michael Douglas, George Dzundza, Jean Tripplehorn, Dennis Arndt, Leilani Sarelle and Wayne Knight. A new 4K restoration out on 4K UHD Collector's Edition, Steelbook, Blu-Ray, DVD and Digital from June 14th. 128 mins.
Basic Instinct is a classic. It may or may not be any good but you can't help yourself. It has an unusual honesty – it's a major motion picture that advertises itself as being as dirty and nasty as a minor one, that is every bit as nasty and dirty as it claims to be. It's a massive Hitchcock homage and as such the correct critical line to take is to wag the finger really quite sternly because all the great Hitchcock films worked on suggestion and by leaving things to the imagination. Leaving anything to the audience's imagination has never been in Paul Verhoeven's nature: he wouldn't trust them to come up with something as depraved as he had in mind. I'm not saying Hitch would've approved of Basic Instinct, but I'm sure he'd have loved the freedom to make it, to actually film everything that was in his head.
Reasons why Basic Instinct is a great film.
First, a phenomenal score by Jerry Goldsmith. Hitchcock's composer Bernard Herrmann could do menace and he could do romantic but I'm not sure he ever bound them together quite as deliriously as Goldsmith does in the main theme to this. It's lush, swooning music that is in love with the menace and the danger. Seeing this when it came out, 29 years ago, I remember Goldsmith's music being the first thing I connected with. The opening murder scene lets us know that this is going to be a bit more fruity sexually than we were accustomed to, but also a lot more lurid. (I forgot that the icepick goes through the bloke's eye.) The score is there to reassure us that we should trust our ears more than our eyes: this was going to be a sordid little endeavour, but classy with it.
Second, Sharon Stone. Obviously. What a staggering act of career acceleration, going from nobody to movie star in just over two hours. Her biggest role before this was as Schwarzenegger's "wife" in Verhoeven's Total Recall, and she wasn't especially memorable in that. Cast as a voracious bi-sexual sex-machine psychopath, she plays it as a constant act of seduction. She measures her self worth by the distance men, and women's, tongues are hanging out. And it works on everyone, her sexual confidence is more seductive than the nudity and the sex scenes. She's evil and manipulative but in an almost childish way. She seems so happy playing her little games.
She's so great to watch it's such a shame that stardom didn't work out for her. Her other great role is Ginger in the Scorsese gangster flick Casino, where she is the best thing in it. You believe a calculating, controlled figure like De Niro would risk everything for her because she's so completely seductive. It's way beyond sexiness, she exudes life.
Third, let's chuck a little credit in the direction of Michael Douglas. There must have been some smug self-congratulation in getting to be a cop back on the Streets of San Francisco, but without Karl Maldern, a pride in going from unfancied superstar son to Oscar-winning star. Obviously, he's overshadowed by Stone and he's not as sharp as her in covering up the idiocies of his character but perhaps that is deliberate. If Stone is playing a male fantasy figure, he's playing a male reality figure, a dopey berk who thinks he's sharp but has trouble seeing beyond the end of his hard-on. Douglas makes him just nasty enough to not be contemptible.
Of course, none of this should take away from the fact that it is absolute toss. Throughout the numerous extras included on the two discs, the quality of Joe Eszterhas's $3million script is frequently asserted. Everybody says that it was so good because it was ready to shoot without any additions or rewrites. Maybe, but it is absolute nonsense. Pity poor Dzundza, cast as Douglas's partner, a detective who only ever speaks banalities. "It must be really be something making stuff up all the time," he tells Stone in the car after they've picked her up for questioning. Yeah, it must be when just a single line like that can earn you thousands on it own; a bit less having to say them. I think Dzundza must truly be some kind of great actor to be able to play this role and retain some dignity.
I wouldn't begrudge Eszterhas the money if the plotting was dynamic and inventive but nothing anybody does makes any sense, especially towards the end. Watching the last hour, ask yourself what the reason and motivation are for the characters' action and I doubt you'll be able to find one.
But it works, and it stands the test of time. Verhoeven works it for all its seedy exploitation but does so with refinement. When he isn't ripping off Hitchcock, he's ripping off Brian De Palma ripping off Hitchcock. He's a high-minded exploiter, delivering sex and violence as a riposte to American puritanism. It seems bizarre now that the gay community made such a noise about the film being homophobic when the film is a celebration of sexual freedom – even for psychopaths.
Extras
New documentary – Basic Instinct: Sex, Death & Stone.
New featurette – an Unending Story – Scoring Basic Instinct.
Cast & Crew Interviews
Screen tests.
Storyboard comparisons.
A choice of Audio Commentaries: Verhoeven with camera man Jan de Bont; Camille Paglia.
Directed by Paul Verhoeven. 1992.
Starring Sharon Stone, Michael Douglas, George Dzundza, Jean Tripplehorn, Dennis Arndt, Leilani Sarelle and Wayne Knight. A new 4K restoration out on 4K UHD Collector's Edition, Steelbook, Blu-Ray, DVD and Digital from June 14th. 128 mins.
Basic Instinct is a classic. It may or may not be any good but you can't help yourself. It has an unusual honesty – it's a major motion picture that advertises itself as being as dirty and nasty as a minor one, that is every bit as nasty and dirty as it claims to be. It's a massive Hitchcock homage and as such the correct critical line to take is to wag the finger really quite sternly because all the great Hitchcock films worked on suggestion and by leaving things to the imagination. Leaving anything to the audience's imagination has never been in Paul Verhoeven's nature: he wouldn't trust them to come up with something as depraved as he had in mind. I'm not saying Hitch would've approved of Basic Instinct, but I'm sure he'd have loved the freedom to make it, to actually film everything that was in his head.
Reasons why Basic Instinct is a great film.
First, a phenomenal score by Jerry Goldsmith. Hitchcock's composer Bernard Herrmann could do menace and he could do romantic but I'm not sure he ever bound them together quite as deliriously as Goldsmith does in the main theme to this. It's lush, swooning music that is in love with the menace and the danger. Seeing this when it came out, 29 years ago, I remember Goldsmith's music being the first thing I connected with. The opening murder scene lets us know that this is going to be a bit more fruity sexually than we were accustomed to, but also a lot more lurid. (I forgot that the icepick goes through the bloke's eye.) The score is there to reassure us that we should trust our ears more than our eyes: this was going to be a sordid little endeavour, but classy with it.
Second, Sharon Stone. Obviously. What a staggering act of career acceleration, going from nobody to movie star in just over two hours. Her biggest role before this was as Schwarzenegger's "wife" in Verhoeven's Total Recall, and she wasn't especially memorable in that. Cast as a voracious bi-sexual sex-machine psychopath, she plays it as a constant act of seduction. She measures her self worth by the distance men, and women's, tongues are hanging out. And it works on everyone, her sexual confidence is more seductive than the nudity and the sex scenes. She's evil and manipulative but in an almost childish way. She seems so happy playing her little games.
She's so great to watch it's such a shame that stardom didn't work out for her. Her other great role is Ginger in the Scorsese gangster flick Casino, where she is the best thing in it. You believe a calculating, controlled figure like De Niro would risk everything for her because she's so completely seductive. It's way beyond sexiness, she exudes life.
Third, let's chuck a little credit in the direction of Michael Douglas. There must have been some smug self-congratulation in getting to be a cop back on the Streets of San Francisco, but without Karl Maldern, a pride in going from unfancied superstar son to Oscar-winning star. Obviously, he's overshadowed by Stone and he's not as sharp as her in covering up the idiocies of his character but perhaps that is deliberate. If Stone is playing a male fantasy figure, he's playing a male reality figure, a dopey berk who thinks he's sharp but has trouble seeing beyond the end of his hard-on. Douglas makes him just nasty enough to not be contemptible.
Of course, none of this should take away from the fact that it is absolute toss. Throughout the numerous extras included on the two discs, the quality of Joe Eszterhas's $3million script is frequently asserted. Everybody says that it was so good because it was ready to shoot without any additions or rewrites. Maybe, but it is absolute nonsense. Pity poor Dzundza, cast as Douglas's partner, a detective who only ever speaks banalities. "It must be really be something making stuff up all the time," he tells Stone in the car after they've picked her up for questioning. Yeah, it must be when just a single line like that can earn you thousands on it own; a bit less having to say them. I think Dzundza must truly be some kind of great actor to be able to play this role and retain some dignity.
I wouldn't begrudge Eszterhas the money if the plotting was dynamic and inventive but nothing anybody does makes any sense, especially towards the end. Watching the last hour, ask yourself what the reason and motivation are for the characters' action and I doubt you'll be able to find one.
But it works, and it stands the test of time. Verhoeven works it for all its seedy exploitation but does so with refinement. When he isn't ripping off Hitchcock, he's ripping off Brian De Palma ripping off Hitchcock. He's a high-minded exploiter, delivering sex and violence as a riposte to American puritanism. It seems bizarre now that the gay community made such a noise about the film being homophobic when the film is a celebration of sexual freedom – even for psychopaths.
Extras
New documentary – Basic Instinct: Sex, Death & Stone.
New featurette – an Unending Story – Scoring Basic Instinct.
Cast & Crew Interviews
Screen tests.
Storyboard comparisons.
A choice of Audio Commentaries: Verhoeven with camera man Jan de Bont; Camille Paglia.
