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Product:	Basic Instinct (10th Anniversary Special Edition, DVD)
Date:	10/05/02 (1355 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Slick, Pacy, Unhollywoody

Disadvantages: Slease

Hurrah! At last a DVD that I can recommend, this one has extras and everything folks, so prepare yourself for a few hours serious viewing. I am particularly referring to the Anniversary Special Edition here... please note the US version of this - with an ice pick pen - is the one pictured here... sadly we in the UK don't get a toy!


Certificate: 18
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Writer: Joe Eszterhas
Stars: Michael Douglas, Sharon Stone, George Dzunda, Jeanne Tripplehorn
Runtime: 128 minutes
Made: USA 1992
Rating: Three-and-a-half (or four if, unlike me, you don't think Verhoeven overdoes the sex thang)

Paul Verhoeven is certainly no stranger to controversy, with Robocop labelled ultra-violent and Showgirls ultra-sleazy. Basic Instinct manages to combine the best (?) of both worlds - with the saving grace of a tense plot and great acting.

Nick Curran (Michael Douglas) is a hard-bitten detective with a Past. He killed a couple of tourists once while high on coke and the memory lingers on, as does his relationship with his police shrink (Jeanne Tripplehorn). When a rock star is murdered in the throes of orgasm with an ice-pick - an attention-grabbing opening sequence to a film if ever there was one - by an unknown partner, Curran is called in to investigate. His hard exterior proves fragile, however, when he meets the prime suspect, author Catherine Tramell - Sharon Stone on fantastic form as the femme fatale - and finds himself bewitched by her charms, which she doesn't hide under a bushel or, indeed, underwear.

People in Catherine's life have a nasty habit of giving up breathing. To make matters worse, the mode of their passing tends to be violent and mirrored in her novels - her latest is about a cop who 'falls for the wrong girl'. Is Catherine a ruthless, psychotic killer or merely a bad girl who taints everything she touches? Curran's character is equally complex, seemingly con
trite about his past in one scene, displaying a worrying propensity for sexual violence in the next.

Much was made at the time of the film's release about the fact that Catherine is bisexual, openly flaunting her relationship with Roxy (the very sultry Leilani Sarelle) at the same time she pursues Nick in the name of book research. The US gay community claimed Verhoeven's film reinforced stereotypes, while he said her bisexuality was not an issue, an argument which proves compelling as you watch the film. For little, if any, mention is made of the fact that she is bisexual; she just is and it really doesn't seem to bother anyone except Roxy, who begins to have some murderous thoughts herself.

The word 'Hitchcockian' is bandied about so much these days that it has almost ceased to carry any weight, but Verhoeven is definitely attempting to emulate the Master here, and is frequently successful. Many of the aerial shots of San Francisco are resonant of Hitchcock, and some of Stone's costumes were based on those of Kim Novak in Vertigo. But Hitch never had it so seedy - Verhoeven drags us into the boudoir at every possible moment, and while the issue of whether Ms Stone really shows her all when she crosses her legs in the infamous interrogation scene is likely to be cleared up by the prescence of perfect freeze-frame - not to mention the zoom feature on some players - it is the practical date-rape of Tripplehorn in one scene which is more likely to offend.

This film goes beyond gritty and into grime without being a better movie for it. While, obviously, some of the sexual content is necessary, much is not and comes across as voyeuristic pap - perfect for teenage boys of any age. The snappy dialogue and high-calibre acting both by the central characters and the strong supporting cast - which features the ever-watchable George Dzunda as Gus, Curran's more stable sidekick - keeps the film from tipping over the brink
into Showgirls' territory.

Utlimately, Basic Instinct is an engaging and interesting thriller which bucks against the easy storylines so often trotted out by Hollywood and has lost little of its impact in the ten years since it was made.


--DVDetails--

Region: 2
Ratio: 16:9 Anamorphic Widescreen

Sound: English 5.1 dts, English 5.1 Dolby Digital, German 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish Dolby Surround

Subtitle tracks: English, German, Spanish, Portugese, Dutch, Turkish

Extras: Scene selection, audio commentary by Paul Verhoeven and Jan De Bont, audio commentary by feminist critic Camille Paglia, "Blonde Poison" (The Making of Basic Instinct), Cleaning up Basic Instinct, featurette, photo gallery, storyboard comparisons, original screen tests, theatrical trailer, theatrical teaser.

Rating 4 star

Momentum Pictures has gone to town on the production of this disc and its efforts have paid off. The print is crisp and clear with no scratches or graining and a clear crisp soundtrack which brings out the best of Jerry Goldsmith's wonderful and haunting score.

The packaging is good too, with excellent animated menus. The scene selection lets the side down, however, as it doesn't feature a picture still from each scene, making the film hard to navigate unless you can guess what part of the movie phrases like 'Love Hurts' and 'Deadly Jealousy' refer to.

The audio commentaries are a great addition to the film, with the feminist critique by Camille Paglia particularly innovative. Verhoeven and De Bont - who was responsible for the movie's cinematography - are a joy to listen to. They seamlessly discuss the film, the characters and how they constructed many of the shots, particularly with reference to their use of lighting and Verhoeven's homage to Hitchcock, without getting too technical or too boring. They're evidently pleased with their
work, but keen to convey the complexity of it to a wider audience without recourse to technobabble. Verhoeven is unintentionally amusing from time to time too, especially when he describes the Tripplehorn/Douglas violent sex scene as 'erotic'. Er, yes, Paul, maybe in the Netherlands...

Camille Paglia's feminist critique is both informative and something of a hoot as well. Surprisingly, or perhaps not, since she was obviously paid to do this, this is one of her 'favourite' movies. She happily draws parallels with a whole raft of Hitchcock films and takes us through what she views as a dichotomy between male-dominated and female-dominated scenes in the movie. If you can manage to take her occasional references to houses looking like 'wombs nestling in the woods' this is genuinely engaging.

The only downside to both of the commentaries is that the original track of the movie is incredibly muted under them. This is fine when the commentators are making their observations, but in the lulls it makes it difficult to follow the film unless you have a volume control handy - quite a basic mistake.

Disc 2 doesn't disappoint, either. Blonde Poison, in particular, is an interesting extra and was made specifically for this anniversary edition. It features Verhoeven and De Bont along with sundry other crew members and Jerry Goldsmith, who discuss the difficulties of shooting the film in the face of animosity from the San Francisco gay community. Interestingly, people from the gay groups get their say here too, making for a fully-rounded picture of the film's conception. The only downside of Blonde Poison is that it contains little from the actors - there is only one small snippet of Douglas, taken from a 1991 interview - and is perhaps a little short at 30 minutes. It would have been interesting to know what Douglas and Stone made of the furore but, perhaps, they just don't want to discuss it.

The Featuret
te, however, does give you a chance to see what the main protagonists thought, albeit dating from the time of the movie. It is interesting, but brief.

Cleaning Up Basic Instinct gets my vote for amusing extra of the disc, as it is a montage comparing the original film version with the sanitised alternative used for TV. So, we get Gus describing Curran as an SOB on film curiously translated to 'Son of a Buck' in the televised version. If the choice of replacement words is not humorous enough, the dodgy voice doubles are certain to raise a smile. I've never come across this type of extra before but, on the strength of this, they should make it a regular feature.

Many of the remaining extras on the disc are more standard fare. There are the inevitable trailers and teasers - interesting to see that we didn't give away huge chunks of our thriller plots back then - and photo gallery. The latter is just a straightforward collection of onset snaps, without the benefit of background music. The storyboards are interesting enough, if you like that kind of thing, but the film comparison is confined to a small corner of the storyboard, making it difficult to make out unless your television is huge.

My favourite extra on the disc, though, has to be the original screen tests with Stone and Tripplehorn. Not only is it interesting to see them both without the benefit of four hours in make-up - sadly, ladies, Stone still looks gorgeous - it is also interesting to see them acting 'in the raw'. The snippets here serve to reinforce the fact that Stone is a blindingly good actress, shame she hasn't done a lot more. Tripplehorn comes across as being not so good initially, but perhaps that gives hope to all would-be starlets out there.

All in all, this is a thoughtfully constructed disc which genuinely offers the viewer something in addition to the original film. Recommended.



(Reprinted with permission, oh,
you know the drill, it's mine, see, mine, all mine!)

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