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Copyright material – 9780230336926 © Stevie Simkin 2013 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2013 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York,NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries ISBN: 978–0–230–33692–6 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. 10987654321 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne Copyright material – 9780230336926 Contents Acknowledgements . x Introduction . xi Synopsis . xvi Part 1: Making Basic Instinct From Love Hurts to Basic Instinct: Joe Eszterhas . 3 Casting Catherine . 8 ‘What Exactly Did You Have in Mind?’ Shooting the Sex Scenes . 12 … ‘And Live Happily Ever After?’ . 19 Part 2: Protesting Basic Instinct Production and Protests: The Context . 25 Protesting Basic Instinct . 29 Summit Meeting. 32 ‘Political Correctness’ and Free Speech . 36 Basic Instinct and Homophobia. 39 Disruption on Location . 42 Copyright material – 9780230336926 viii controversies Part 3: Censoring Basic Instinct Certificates and Ratings. 47 Basic Instinct at the MPAA . 50 Close Analysis: The Scenes Cut at CARA’s Request. 53 The Johnny Boz Scene Uncut . 53 Censorship of the Johnny Boz Scene . 56 The Date-Rape Scene Uncut. 58 Censorship of the Date-Rape Scene . 60 The FOTC Scene Uncut . 64 Censorship of the FOTC Scene . 66 Basic Instinct at the BBFC. 70 Media Effects?. 75 Part 4: Reviewing Basic Instinct Opening and Reception . 79 US Press Reaction . 83 Basic Instinct and the UK Press . 87 Conclusion. 92 Part 5: Reading Basic Instinct Back to the Future . 97 Basic Instinct and the Violent Woman . 100 Basic Instinct as Postmodern Neo-Noir. 106 Catherine and the Femme Fatale Archetype: The Threat to Patriarchy . 109 The Interrogation Scene . 113 Beth: The Domesticated Female . 120 Basic Instinct’s Viewing Pleasures . 122 ‘Just an Old City Cowboy’ . 126 Copyright material – 9780230336926 basic instinct ix Part 6: The Legacy of Basic Instinct Box Office Risk Addiction. 131 The Enduring Myth of the Lethal Woman . 134 Appendices Appendix A: Key Details . 145 Appendix B: Notes . 148 Appendix C: References . 151 Index . 165 Copyright material – 9780230336926 PART 1 MAKING BASIC INSTINCT Copyright material – 9780230336926 Copyright material – 9780230336926 From Love Hurts to Basic Instinct: Joe Eszterhas The story of Basic Instinct’s production history is a peculiarly Hollywood-style tale of hype, million-dollar deals and strong personalities, among which the screenwriter Joe Eszterhas is probably the most remarkable. Born in Hungary in 1944, his family moved to the United States in 1950 and settled in Cleveland, Ohio. Eszterhas’s career began in journalism, working in the early 1970s for the Cleveland Plain Dealer and then writing for Rolling Stone magazine in San Francisco.When Rolling Stone shifted its base to New York City,Eszterhas was reluctant to move, and it was at this point, casting around for a career change that would allow him to remain in the Bay Area, that he began work on his first screenplay. F.I.S.T (1978) was a drama about the truckers’union movement set in the 1930s.The director, Norman Jewison, acted as the writer’s mentor through the protracted genesis of the script, and the project ended up under the blessing and the curse of the casting of Sylvester Stallone in a lead role. Stallone had recently established himself as a major star via the runaway success of Rocky (1976), and F.I.S.T. consequently attracted more attention among critics and audiences than it might have done otherwise; at the same time, some of the dramatic focus of the movie was probably lost in the blaze of Stallone’s star billing. It was several years before Eszterhas’s next project got off the desk and into production, but Flashdance (1983), directed by Adrian Lyne, though initially a critical and commercial failure, developed via word of mouth into a massive hit, eventually grossing over $400 million worldwide. Eszterhas was now establishing himself as a major player in his own right. Genre-hopping once again, he scripted the sensationalistic courtroom dramatic thriller Jagged Edge (1985). Originally intended as a project for Jane Fonda, the actress was dropped from the project when she expressed Copyright material – 9780230336926 4 controversies dissatisfaction with the draft, demanding rewrites, according to Eszterhas himself (2005, pp. 186–7). Under Richard Marquand’s direction, the movie went ahead with Glenn Close in the Fonda role of the lawyer and Jeff Bridges as the man accused of the savage murder of his wife.The film was another word-of-mouth hit. Less successful credits followed – the appalling Bob Dylan vehicle Hearts of Fire (1987), and two thrillers, Betrayed (1988) and Music Box (1989), both directed by Costa-Gavras, and neither attracting significant audiences. Casting around for inspiration again, Eszterhas chose to exercise a growing interest in film noir by writing, apparently at breakneck pace, the first draft of ‘a thriller with a strong sexual content’that he christened Love Hurts (Eszterhas, 2005, p. 268).3 Just before sending it to his agent, Guy McElwaine, he re-opened the envelope and typed up a new cover sheet, renaming it Basic Instinct. It was now June 1990. Eszterhas, fresh from an acrimonious split with the Hollywood agency CAA headed by Hollywood power-player Mike Ovitz, was on the open market; the Basic Instinct script was, in effect, put up for auction.This was a relatively recent trend in the business: it was much more common for studios to buy ‘treatments’– story outlines – which would then be developed, often by a team of writers, under the close supervision of studio executives (McNary,1990, p. C6). But Eszterhas would become one of the leading figures in a decisive industry shift which the editor of Show Biz News described as an ‘increased emphasis on concepts and material, rather than on stars and directors’(Alex Ben Block cited in McNary,1990, p. C6).The bidding war took less than twenty-four hours to complete, with Disney, Universal,Warner Brothers,Tri-Star, Columbia and Paramount, as well as the independents Carolco, Cinergi and Imagine all involved (Variety, 1990, p. 10). The key contenders were two former associates: Cinergi was headed by Andrew Vajna,who had recently been bought out of his partnership in Carolco by the company’s co-founder Mario Kassar. Kassar and Vajna were bitter competitors, each intent on scoring the latest, hottest item on the Hollywood scene, and it was this intense rivalry that fuelled the bidding war: Kassar paid a reported $3 million to the writer plus a further million to Irvin Copyright material – 9780230336926 basic instinct 5 Winkler to produce. Eszterhas would also receive gross points on the movie’s takings once the company had broken even on its investment (Variety, 1990, p. 10).The signing shattered the previous record payout of $1.75 million for Shane Black’s The Last Boy Scout (1991) which had already taken the industry by surprise. Black had secured the deal only a couple of months earlier, in April 1990, after the success of Lethal Weapon (1987), which he had written, and its sequel (1989), for which he had provided the story. However, even while Eszterhas celebrated, trouble was brewing. In October 1990, without consulting Winkler, Carolco signed Michael Douglas for the lead role of Nick Curran (for another record sum of $15 million) and, although Eszterhas and Winkler were happy enough with the result of the casting choice, the fact that the decision had been made without consulting them seemed ominous. It was only a foretaste of what was to come. Next, Kassar insisted on nominating the director for the project. Eszterhas and Winkler wanted Milos Forman, but, having tried and failed to secure Adrian Lyne’s signature, Kassar instead chose Paul Verhoeven – a Dutch director who had scored two notable Hollywood science-fiction hits with RoboCop (1987) and Total Recall (1990). Kassar and Andrew Vajna had been executive producers on the latter, an Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle based on a Philip K. Dick short story.Kassar, a European, also knew Verhoeven’s Dutch films, including The Fourth Man (1984), a film Verhoeven has repeatedly described as, in metaphorical terms, a Basic Instinct prequel.4 An early meeting between Eszterhas and Verhoeven left the writer feeling increasingly uncomfortable: Verhoeven’s background in realism and his track record of including graphic nudity in his Dutch-made films were well known.