Basic Instinct - Ultimate Edition

Judging from some of the comments online, this edition of Basic Instinct is one in a long line of DVD releases. Surely, it's being re-released now to cash in on the advent of the sequel finally coming to the big screen (March 31, wide), but I don't care — I haven't purchased any of the heretofore DVDs, and I have not seen the movie in its entirety in at least a decade, so it was fun to watch again.

I originally saw this movie in theaters, in 1992 when it was steeped in controversy — the gay community objected loudly to certain themes, the religious right objected to everything, and Sharon Stone objected to having her private parts made not-so-private on the 20' big screen. (She claimed that she did not know the camera would capture anything other than her upper thigh when she did the famous leg-crossing scene, and she still maintains that position to this day on the new DVD goodies… but she is much mellower about it now and it's interesting to hear what she has to say on the topic.)

Here I have gone on for two paragraphs, assuming you already know the plot of the film. Maybe you've been writing your manifesto in a remote cabin for the past 14 years… or maybe you were only 14 when the movie came out.

Michael Douglas plays the troubled, taciturn Detective Nick Curran, a man on the edge who's soon teetering on it when he encounters the beautiful and fearless Catherine Tramell, an author whose has-been rock star boyfriend has been found murdered. It soon comes to light that the manipulative novelist has just finished a book on… the murder of an ageing rock star. His girlfriend did it, with an icepick. In the book, that is. Or maybe in real life, too? As it turns out, the beautiful bisexual has a left a string of tragedies in her wake — and all of them have been in the pages of her books.

Red herrings abound, making Basic Instinct a Hichcockian noir thriller that's sleazy, slick and stands the test of time.

Basic Instinct blends mystery with gruesome, bloody murders and no-holds-barred sex-scenes. This movie is quite similar to Verhoeven's own The Fourth Man, and could be favorably compared to Brian de Palma's Dressed to Kill and Body Double (though the murder scenes are not nearly as graphic in Basic Instinct).

In the unrated cut, we see more icepick action, more nudity, and more garishly bloody crime scenes.

DVD Features:

- Available Subtitles: English, Spanish, French

- Commentary by director Paul Verhoeven and director of photography Jan de Bont

Paul Verhoeven always does the most refreshingly straight-talking commentaries. Here he's joined by cinematographer Jan De Bont, and they talk about not only the technical aspects of the making of the film, but also anecdotes on the actors and musings on the locations and sets. They discuss the Hitchcockian themes in the movie, which I found very interesting, indeed. And, yes, they do talk about Sharon Stone's leg-crossing scene as it plays out. "She's in command," notes Verhoeven of Stone (or perhaps Tramell), "showing all ze zings!" De Bont talks about his innovative lighting techniques in that scene, and laughs about how much it was stolen over the years.

- New DVD Introduction by Sharon Stone

These are pretty superfluous, but I'm seeing them on more and more DVDs lately. This one is OK.

- New Conversation with Sharon Stone

In a brand new interview, Stone talks about everything from her arduous auditions, to "that scene" (she hasn't exactly backed down on her denial of knowing it would be in the movie, but she has become more philosophical about it), to the aftermath and what it did for her career. This is a great addition to the disc, and I'm glad Stone took the time to do it.

- Blond Poison: The Making of Basic Instinct documentary

This mini-doc has appeared on other DVD versions of Basic Instinct, but I hadn't seen it before. It's very interesting — especially the parts about the protests from the gay rights activists. The makers of this feature did a good job of showing both sides of the coin. Verhoven talks about how much he thought of the script, and how this movie changed his life… then he says, "Showgirls changed my life, and that was Eszterhas, too. Thank you, Joe Eszterhas!"

- Cleaning up Basic Instinct featurette

Four minutes, showing how the dialogue was horribly dubbed for television versions. Somewhat amusing.

- Screen Tests

Jeanne Tripplehorn and Sharon Stone.

- Storyboard Comparisons

These storyboards are pretty much x-rated — and we're told the actors all saw them before they signed up.

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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson