MovieChat Forums > Fatal Attraction (1987) Discussion > Why Fatal Attraction is pointless, stupi...

Why Fatal Attraction is pointless, stupid, and misogynistic

posted 10 years ago by dhinged
30 replies | jump to latest

If you're triggered, feel free to call me an SJW and move on.

I saw this movie years ago when I first started Netflix as I was going through "classics". I was expecting the ultimate "Basic Instinct", but what I got instead was a movie unable to justify its own existence, and a woman-hating one at that.

Michael Douglas' character Dan Gallagher had a perfectly fine life with a good marriage, a stable relationship with his wife, nice kids, whatever, but of course having a lot of money and all these other things weren't good enough for this privileged jerk, he was fed up and disappointed that he wasn't banging some random woman.

So he leads her on, she falls in love with him, and then when she tries to have a relationship with him, he dumps her cold, she goes psycho, and tries to kill him in a bathroom.

Yes, she's psycho, but the movie basically puts all of the blame on her and nothing on him as he gets off scott-free with his marriage intact, his wife breathing a sigh of relief that person who killed her daughter's rabbit and almost her is gone.

She should be glad that it wasn't worse from this woman her husband brought into her life, right? He's a good man, I'm sure they had the best sex of their lives that night.

[–] Gwasgray 9 years ago

OP, this movie offends you so much yet you don't seem to have a problem with Basic Instinct, with its sociopathic bisexuals and axe-crazy lesbians?

[–] wylierichardson-966-922691 9 years ago

The point was simply to create a psycho-sexual thriller, with the subtext of showing the potential dangers of promiscuity. In the age of AIDS, maybe that makes sense.

[–] HarveyManfredSinJohn 9 years ago

I don't know. I can watch the film from an objective perspective, rather than being guided by what the filmmakers presumably want us to think, and IMHO, Alex is the film's heroine. Yes, she dies, and yes she's got a few screws loose, but she does screw-up Dan's life, and quite right too. Maybe everything is okay at chez Gallagher come the final shot, but it's unlikely his wife and child will ever truly forgive him in the long-term.

Thus, he has quite rightly been made to pay for his actions, and he can never truly go back to his complacent materialistic life of professional success and domestic bliss. He has erred and he has paid, and will hopefully continue to pay, if only from a psychological POV.

RIP:
David Bowie (1947-2016)
Alan Rickman (1946-2016)
Prince (Rogers Nelson) (1958-2016)

[–] lemonhead1 (424) 4 years ago

Lesbian much?

[–] drrclavan (667) 4 years ago

You lost me at "misogynistic".

[–] liscarkat (18373) a year ago

It's not misogynistic. It's one movie about one psychopathic woman. Are we never to have women villains in movies anymore, in the interest of sensitivity? Ridiculous. You are a silly SJW--I hope you've grown up some in the intervening eight years. Now I'm moving on.