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(More customer reviews)Basic Instinct is certainly a film that has not only aged well with time, it makes you wish they could still make a sexy erotic thriller this good today. With so much political correctness going on these days, a film like Basic Instinct would never be made quite the same way, had it been made today. Attacked while it was being filmed for it's quote "negative depictions of the Gay community" as well as a so called "date rape" scene, the film became controversial practically the day it became green lit.
Sharon Stone became an overnight sensation portraying the rich, seductive & powerful Catherine Tramell, a role that seemed tailor made for the actress. But in fact director Paul Verhoeven (Robocop, Starship Troopers) had to fight hard to prove to both Carolco Pictures and actor Michael Douglas that she was in fact the only person suited for the role. Having worked with Stone on his last picture, Total Recall (1990), Verhoeven knew that Stone had something special to give to the part and he finally got that message through to all those mentioned. I'd go so far to say that with the exception of her Oscar nominated performance in Martin Scorsese's Casino, Catherine Tramell is still Sharon Stone's best performance.
So what's the big deal between the R-rated & Unrated versions of Basic Instinct? Basically a little more violence and a little more sex. There's more stabs with the ice pick in the Unrated version (about 3 or 4), more shots of the victim actually being stabbed (courtesy of a man made puppet designed by Rob Bottin) and that's about it for the violence. The added sex has mainly to do with the first encounter between Michael Douglas's Nick Curran, and Sharon Stone's Catherine Tramell. The added scenes are hot & very well done, but overall, the result is still the same. The only other difference is the Unrated version includes an audio commentary with director Paul Verhoeven and director of photography Jan De Bont. This commentary is not available on the R-rated version. But both versions do include the 2nd commentary by Feminist critic, Camille Paglia, who praises the film as one of her all time favorite movies. Her commentary is quite informative and really gave me a lot of insight into the film that I never noticed before. Those of you who own the Special Edition Laserdisc that came out a few years back should be urged not to get rid of it. It's special features are quite different from those on these DVD versions. Even the Paul Verhoevan Commentary is different from the one on the DVD. Plus the DVD doesn't give you the option of viewing the final shot of the film with the alternate scoring conducted by Jerry Goldmith, although it is shown during the making of documentary. Still worth keeping.
I personally love how much the movie feels like an Alfred Hitchcock film. The dress Sharon wheres for the interrogation scene is very similar to the one Kim Novak wore in Vertigo. There are many references to Vertigo in the film, as well as The Birds, North By Northwest, Rear Window and a few others. This adds a lot of class to the picture that only enhances its creativeness. It may be a long time before another picture comes close to matching it.
Basic Instinct..destined to become a classic!
"I hate rugrats". - Sharon Stone as Catherine Tramell
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