Basic Instinct (1992): S--t OR Shinola? Part 1 (American Giallo)

For the next installment in their American Giallo series, Bill and Jess are joined by Shannon, Bill’s sister-in-law and the winner of the Milwaukee Film Silent Auction prize to guest on the show, to discuss Paul Verhoeven’s Basic Instinct (1992). Starring Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone, this erotic thriller inspired protests from the religious right, feminists, and the LGBTQ community, all for very different reasons. The question is: Was there overlap with the Catholic review from the Catholic Film Office? Why did THEY condemn the movie?

The crew get into the movie’s reputation, its depiction of bisexuality, and the long-running debate over whether showing sexualized violence on screen is the same as normalizing it. Those questions haven't gone away, particularly in a culture that still has deep-seated problems with misogyny, SA, and not holding men accountable for their actions. This was recorded in the wake of the Cornell 7 case and right before the airing of Shane Gillis’s misogynist and controversial SNL monologue, which makes revisiting Basic Instinct at this moment far more prescient than the podcast had ever intended. 

Finally, Bill just HAD to talk about Joe Eszterhas and Mel Gibson's wacky adventures trying to make a movie about the Maccabees.

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