Dan Gallagher's biggest mistake... - Fatal Attraction (1987) Discussion

[–] highpriestess32 9 years ago

Judging by what I have seen (and I have watched this scene and the movie a dozen or more times), the wounds were actually rather superficial. I believe the blood would have clotted or certainly replenished itself long before she bled to death. The only way she could have bled to death would have been slowly and in a bath. "See a doctor" isn't what you advise if a person is at risk of bleeding to death. There was no blood seeping through her bandages because she had not severed an artery or nerve.

When she shook hands with Dan at his and Beth's apartment there was a close-up of her wrist and it was barely a cat scratch type of scar that was visible. This was her way of attention seeking. Had she meant to kill herself she would have not approached him and ensured he was made aware - she would have let him leave or indeed waited for him to leave before making an attempt on her life (not that this is what you are speaking of exactly as in her intentions). 

"These days you have to boil someone before you can sleep with them"

reply

[–] kelly-527 9 years ago

Hmm, could it be committing adultery in the first place?

reply

[–] jasonblack_123 8 years ago

Er.... Surely his biggest mistake was porking Alex in the first place? Lol

reply

[–] A1nut 8 years ago

Really, it was not wearing a condom. I'm willing to bet Alex would have ended with showing up at his office to offer him Madame Butterfly tickets if she just hadn't been pregnant.

reply

[–] highpriestess32 8 years ago

I'm not so sure about that. She tried to put on a brave face but inside she was torn. We see her mooching on the floor of her apartment flicking the lamp on and off to the tape of Madame Butterfly (presumably the night she and Dan were scheduled to go, maybe not) - the tickets just lying there unused. Meanwhile we cut to Beth, Dan and their friends having a blast at the indoor bowling alley...then back to Alex who was very melancholic.

It's never made obvious to the audience though exactly when she herself discovered she was allegedly pregnant. She was bombarding him with nuisance calls at the office and on one occasion he did take the call before reiterating that he thought they'd both agreed this was not a good idea and thereafter telling his seceratary if she called again to say he was out. Admittedly Dan didn't give her much time to state she was pregnant before ending the brief conversationbut she could easily have blurted it out then or indeed written a letter to him (she had no problem depositing her vicious tape much later on).

Then of course she started bombarding his home with calls and issued him an ultimatum with regard to Dan meeting her the following day. When Dan turned up she acted as though nothing about her behaviour was irregular and STILL she banged on about how fabulous their weekend was! She told him she was not trying to hurt him but that she LOVED him before even mentioning her pregnancy. So no, in hindsight I don't imagine she would simply have let things slide. She was mentally unstable and clearly not one to be ignored as she said herself. She would have hounded Dan regardless of any pregnancy - just my thoughts anyway.

"These days you have to boil someone before you can sleep with them"

reply

[–] A1nut 8 years ago

highpriestess32, here's the problem I have with your theory. You're talking like Dan was the first married guy Alex has ever been with. I find that highly unlikely, considering how little she cared about that fact.

Here's my theory on how she works. She wants a baby, but has been told by doctors that she cannot get pregnant. Well, no harm in trying to get pregnant, right? She also wants to be reasonably certain she knows who the father is. Hence her line "Because I don't sleep around." when Dan asks how she knows it's his. There's no reason to take that as anything but the truth.

So, I think her goal is to sleep with one guy every month. Have a good time with him, wait to see if she's pregnant. If she's not, move on to the next guy. As long as she's able to find guys willing to have unprotected sex with her, she's got a chance of getting pregnant. If she's not, move on and try again. Dan just won the roulette spin with getting her pregnant.

reply

[–] highpriestess32 8 years ago

You make some interesting points there which I thought about. Nobody thus far has really gone down that route and it is an interesting point.

However and with all due regard, you felt she may have slept with a guy every month. If that's not sleeping around I don't know what is (lol). If she merely wanted a baby then she had no reason to involve the biological father. Are we to believe she only fell in her [misguided sense of] love with Dan? She'd only been in the job a couple of mere weeks which was, to me at least, very telling in hindsight. Had she relocated I wonder? Had she been sacked or forced to leave previous jobs? There was no evidence that she had in fact been sleeping exclusively with married men - that would assume she merely wanted a baby and no strings. She duped Dan in that very way by falsely insisting she required discretion. I'd be interested in your thoughts - naturally we can only profer opinions whereby the audience were kept in the dark as to her past.

"These days you have to boil someone before you can sleep with them"

reply

[–] haikela 8 years ago

I have my own theory. This is just pure speculation so there are a lot of maybes. This is related to the miscarriage she mentioned to Dan as the reason why she thought she could not get pregnant again and thus did not bother with protection during sex.

Of course it could have been just a lie, but assuming it was true, my theory is that Dan was not Alex's first obsession. She got pregnant by the previous guy, either by accident or as her ploy to trap the guy. But the relationship did not work out. Maybe the guy got the cops involved or got a restraining order against her. Maybe the guy's family got ruined or the guy actually chose to be with Alex, which led to her losing her interest (as Dan said while in the restaurant, she went for married men because she wanted what she could not get). If she lost interest in the guy, she could have gotten the baby aborted. If the guy did not give in to her, she could have induced a miscarriage to guilt him or as a desperate attempt to stop him from leaving, the same way she slit her wrists to stop Dan from leaving.

I'm more inclined to believe that the guy left despite all of Alex's stunts. The relationship did not work out so she transferred to a new job, maybe even a new city. Then a few weeks after the move, she met Dan.

Him saving her after her suicide attempt prompted the scene where she told Dan that he wasn't like other men, who would run away. It could have cemented the idea in her mind that Dan was special, someone she should not let go of, and the previous guy's rejection of her could have led her to think "I'm not letting another man abandon me again", resulting in her mental instability to escalate quickly and more extremely than before when Dan rejected her.

reply

[–] highpriestess32 8 years ago

Hi Haikela,

Actually that line you speak aboout regarding married men was undertaken at Alex's apartment on the Sunday during their pasta meal. If you recall she was saying she liked him and wanted to see him again, "is that so bad?" He retorts that it just isn't possible to which she then adds "Ah, just my luck". When he persues the point she adds the bit about all men she is interested in are married etc which leads Dan to say "Well maybe that's why you find them interesting, the fact you can't have them".

Her wrist-slitting was not a suicide attempt in my opinion. It was a superficial infliction of surface wounds designed to make him stay - erratic behaviour from a woman who has barely gotten to know her sleeping partner, so to speak! Yes, I can imagine Dan was not the first sap to fall for her manipulations. She tried to excite him during one weekend - the Sunday of which Dan partook in due to her pressure and, presumably a sense of misguided obligation ("Bring the dog, I love animals" and "I'll be a good girl, I promise").

Saying Dan wouldn't run away was another controlling technique she used to ensure he wouldn't in fact run away - reverse psychology to a degree if you like.

A1nut seems to think that a baby was all she wanted but I am inclined to think she gets/got pregnant for the sole purpose of trapping a man. She doesn't exactly strike me as good mother material LOL 

"These days you have to boil someone before you can sleep with them"

reply

[–] pfanderson5 8 years ago

Highpriestess32, I enjoyed reading all of your thoughts and perspectives on this movie.

I want to watch it again now! (I have the DVD somewhere.)

reply

[–] highpriestess32 8 years ago

Thank you so much! That is a very kind appraisal. I love this film too - it speaks volumes without being too loud 

"These days you have to boil someone before you can sleep with them"

reply

[–] A1nut 8 years ago

However and with all due regard, you felt she may have slept with a guy every month. If that's not sleeping around I don't know what is (lol).

Well, it guess it depends on your definition of "Sleeping Around". I imagine that in Alex's mind, one guy a month isn't "Sleeping Around". She will at least know who the baby daddy is. I saw an episode of Jerry Springer where a woman had brought in 19 different guys she had slept with for DNA testing and not one of them was the father. THAT chick was sleeping around!!!!

A1nut seems to think that a baby was all she wanted but I am inclined to think she gets/got pregnant for the sole purpose of trapping a man. She doesn't exactly strike me as good mother material LOL

I think you misunderstood me. I didn't say she ONLY wanted a baby. I just said that she wanted one. Once she's got the baby, the man should follow, right? The impression I got from watching this movie is that Alex would have been content just being Dan's side bitch. Maybe get to see him one day a week or something. She didn't want to be completely ignored. Whether he likes it or not, Dan does have a responsibility to her. Could you imagine if, instead of stalking his family, she had just waited until she gave birth and gotten a DNA test? Now Dan is paying child support for the next 18 years. Really, that would have been much worse than what she did do to him. How is Beth going to take that?

reply

[–] highpriestess32 8 years ago

Hi A1nut,

My apologies if I misunderstood you. It's all cool with me my friend (always enjoy your input) 

I'm really torn however on pre-empting what Alex might have done as a side salad lol. Would she have towed the line? I very much doubt that. We also must consider that even Glenn Close fought fiercely against the ending and far preferred the alternate one because she had studied the mental illness and felt that the ending proposed was inaccurate. But that's artistic licence for you and she had to cave in. She did, however, finish that bathroom scene in a very pro way regardless of her mindset and prior protestations.

There are no real heros in this aside from the innocents (Beth and Ellen). Dan got what he deserved. I have no sympathy for him nor that manipulative Sheila he messed around with.

"These days you have to boil someone before you can sleep with them"

reply

[–] A1nut 8 years ago

Alex says it several times. "I just want to be a part of your life." "I just want you to acknowledge your responsibilities." Maybe she might still have lost it even as a side hoe, but I think that might have kept her in check longer.

Dan's a lawyer. He obviously knows some criminal types. He's defended them and their friends in court. Find out if one of his clients can get him a pill that induces miscarriages. Once that baby's gone, problem solved. At least, in a perfect world. Not that I advocate abortion or inducing miscarriages mind you. I'm just looking at it from Dan's point of view.

You do bring up a good point though. I never considered that Alex had recently moved to New York. I guess I just assumed this was the first time she's flipped out on a guy. But you make a strong case that this isn't her first dance. It's probably been building up inside her until Dan unleashed her demon.

reply

[–] highpriestess32 8 years ago

No worries my friend. Thanks for the nice reply.

You see, when Alex says that line about wanting to be a part of Dan's life, this demonstrates a need to be in it regardless of any pregnancy. Before she even discovered her pregnancy she was hell-bent on "securing" him. Dan thought he was having a one-night stand and bingo! she purported to require discretion! Ergo he felt he could get away with a one off liasion. However, when he left her in the early hours and phoned his wife with some half-assed pre-emption of being out with a friend lest she had called in his absence, Alex called him. She was determined to have Dan to herself for a second day and night.

Thereafter, she flooded him with what she thought he would perceive as domestic bliss. Basically she packed in an awful lot of gestures in a misguided attempt to flatter his male ego (Madame Butterfly, fine wine, cook cooking et al).

Her past will always remain a mystery which kinda makes it all the more open to debate.

"These days you have to boil someone before you can sleep with them"

reply

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

It is heavily indicated that Alex had done this several times before by the photo album that Dan finds when searching her apartment. I'm surprised no one has mentioned this...they specifically zoom in on the article about a married professor of 42 years of age dying, and I think Alex had a hand in that. I believe the photo album was her "trophy" collection. Woman was batsh** crazy, and enjoyed ruining men's lives. Not that Dan is innocent, he's a complete douche. Dude, if you are having issues finding time for intimacy with your wife, you TALK to her about it, and MAKE time to do it, lol. You don't go out and sleep with some woman you don't really know, and not use protection while doing it.

reply

[–] linkenski-415-638787 8 years ago

Exactly the point in a way. We did not know how far down this rabbit hole of abuse would go, and neither did Dan.

reply

[–] MariaMitchell 8 years ago

He is one of the most awful bastards ever committed to celluloid for me.

You can begin to sympathise with cheaters if they have a bad marriage but he was seemingly super happy and loved up with his sweet wife and adorable little girl but *still* chose to betray them both with a grimy weekend shagfest.
Aside from the one scene in the shower where he looked pensive for four seconds, he seemed to be totally without remorse until he started to realise he could be found out and Alex was a fruitloop.

The guy's a sociopath. Haate him with a fiery passion.

reply

[–] AustralienneLee 8 years ago

He was all loved up...but not having much in the way of sex. Walking the dog...comes back and the daughters in his bed so he probably slept on the foldout couch. Pressure to move to the suburbs. He was ripe for the picking.

reply

[–] highpriestess32 8 years ago

I agree with the lack of intimacy. That was apparent in this movie. It's presumably deliberate - that they made it look as though sex was rarely on the menu to almost justify Dan's infidelity. Aside from the returning of the dog-walking to find Ellen usurping his place in the bed, there was of course the dinner party scene whereby Dan was admiring his wife as she sat in her underwear applying her make-up. He began to caress her and hey ho! the doorbell rang so the chance for a quick fumble again escaped him 👅

"These days you have to boil someone before you can sleep with them"

reply

[–] best_of 8 years ago

Too horny to care . . .

reply