Review of Basic Instinct (10th Anniversary Special Edition)

Introduction

It`s a mark of how dire the successive pictures in the brief renaissance of the grand guignol Hollywood sex thriller were (`Body of Evidence`, `Boxing Helena` etc.) that this glossy body-rock has become the respectable one. It`s clearly not a mark of this film`s originality or sensitivity: authority-bucking cop Nick Curran (Michael Douglas) investigates the sadomasochistic murder of an ex-rock star that leads him to the man`s peroxide femme f***-buddy Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone). This being the work of ‘tits-n-ass’ merchant Joe Eszterhas, the cop is closet kinky, the demonically seductive vamp is a bi-free-spirit with an obsessively butch girlfriend (her name, as it happens, is Roxy.) So, before you can say `holy beaver`, the a-list nymphos are shedding their clothes, humping indiscriminately while navigating through a typically labyrinthine and ridiculous plot leading to the usual misdirection twist ending... oh, and plenty of gyrating hips and photogenic grinding.

Video

Jan De Bont`s sprawling, baroque `Scope camerawork looks very good, if not quite great in this transfer. The `elegant-MTV` aesthetic has not aged particularly well, and there are moments when the sharpness of the image seems fuzzy in comparison with newer releases. However, it`s still pretty good and free of any obvious imperfections.

Audio

You can chose between a regular 5.1 track or the novelty of DTS. Neither is particularly stunning, although Jerry Goldsmith`s Herrmann inspired score is expressive and excessive in just the right measures. Otherwise it amounts to five channels of simulated moaning.

Features

Disc Two is a bit sparse, there`s a cute retrospective documentary that takes a particularly dismissive view of the anti-queer controversy that the film created before it had even finished production. There are a selection of (mostly smutty) storyboards and comparisons, two trailers, a featurette and an amusing feature that compares the theatrical release to the very badly dubbed network broadcast. Disc One has a couple of commentary tracks: a back-slapping Euro-fest on track 1, with director Paul Verhoeven and cinematographer Jan De Bont pointing out very obvious allusions to Hitchcock and the command power of Stone`s performance. Track 2 foregrounds the film`s iconic status, and, less plausibly, its artistic significance with feminist critic Camille Paglia taking over to unleash an entertaining but rather literal textual analysis. Good, but mostly just a tease.

Conclusion

Despite all the swollen hip-joints, this is a conventionally preposterous thriller, predictable if not totally un-engaging. It`s fitting that dirty old Dutchman Verhoeven would give birth to, and eventually bury the Sex Movie (with the similarly toned `Showgirls`) as `Basic Instinct` is the movie that marked its greatest financial success: Stone’s predatorial performance is memorable enough, with the endless terrible attempts at its replication making her seem like more of an iconoclast (and less of an actress) that she actually is. The dialogue of the never tactful Joe Eszterhas is sleazier than usual; while Douglas just looks plain sleazy, giving poor Ms. Stone rashes on her thighs and sauntering around in his wrinkly birthday suit saying things like “she’s the f*** of the century”, a comment with which he clearly possesses the life-span to clarify.

It’s one of those foot-work narratives that weaves Douglas around in pointless serpentine twists and turns, doing interviews, being intimidated with sexually precocious/aggressive women, doing some more Q&A, f***ing someone’s brains out, more talk, a bit of gory Verhoeven style violence, a bit more rumpy, more talking and the oft-lamented ‘Jagged Edge’ twist. Despite the pretensions of this “10th Anniversary Edition”, little can disguise the fact that this is a cheap and cheerfully nasty slasher/noir with some decadent Euro-sex to jazz it up for the early 90s audience of young, horny but uncommunicative couples. Whether or not its hit and run antiseptic raunch will have the same effect on the now bitter, passive aggressive parents of three they have become, is another question.