MovieChat Forums > Fatal Attraction (1987) Discussion > Looking back on it, I feel more sorry fo...

Looking back on it, I feel more sorry for Alex than Dan

posted 10 years ago by yajji
12 replies | jump to latest

Playing on an emotionally unstable, lonely woman like Alex as though she was a piece of meat was absolutely sick. Dan deserved everything he got and more.

That line that Alex says "Because I won't allow you treat me like some slut you can just bang a couple of times and throw in the garbage" essentially reiterates what I feel. Dan really treated women like dirt, he absolutely objectified them. He slept with another woman while his wife was out of town, threatened to kill her when she said she'd tell his wife, threatening his wife's perfect perception of him/their marriage, then shot Alex while she was pregnant with his child. Oh yeah, Dan was a total hero. Not.

Alex was sick. It's not fair to paint her out to be some kind of villain. The original ending was much stronger and more true to the story, but of course it wasn't satisfied for the misogynistic 80s audience.

[–] highpriestess32 10 years ago

I think you are missing the facts here in that Alex pursued Dan - very much so. OK it was subtly at first but of course eventually very extremely and dangerously. Of course Dan should not have strayed, nobody thinks otherwise but Alex, in spite of her illness was manipulative and ruthless. If Dan had not suggested that drink to escape the rain then I am in NO doubt she would have conjured up a way of seducing him without making him feel threatened in some other way and at some other time. She laid out the rules in a in adult, no strings fashion.

When she visited him at the office, knowing that if she didn't she probably wouldn't have seen him again, she again tried to engage his attentions in a no-strings night at the opera. Of course there was no such possibility for any casual affair with this woman, it is just a line she used to put men at ease.

That said neither character really deserves our sympathy. They both sought to serve their own selfish needs whichever way you cut it. Beth was the only victim here.

Has anyone seen my wife? - Columbo

[–] cathy-creswell 10 years ago

And Ellen. Also that poor rabbit...

[–] daughterofolaf 10 years ago

There are two possibilities here.

A) You are "looking back on it" after decades and have not seen it but for one time when it first came out, hence your memory is foggy on the situation and story. If that's the case then you get a pass for a faded memory being the cause for such silly comments.

B) You just watched this recently, paying full attention and understanding everything yet these comments are still your genuine opinion. If that's the case then you are part of what is wrong with the world, plain and simple and you should probably get that checked out.

It wasn't me who was murdered, was it?

[–] ck1-5 10 years ago

Was Alex sick? Yes, no doubt...but that still doesn't excuse her from actions that she took, knowing full well what the implications were. When the best defense you can come up with is, "Well, Dan's no saint either!", that's pretty lame.

[–] slesleylawson 10 years ago

I think you're part of what's wrong with the world, to dismiss it as fine for a married man to sleep around and his wife not knowing. What if he gave his wife a disease? Would you blame the wife for not understanding that her husband should go with other women?

[–] daughterofolaf 9 years ago

I would like you to point out where I said what Dan did was okay and acceptable and where I dismissed his behavior. Oh, that's right, you can't. Because I didn't.

"It's Minnie Pearl's murder weapon."

[–] InherentlyYours 9 years ago

Op
Ah yes, it's must be the man at fault. And if the roles were reversed , then you'd still fault the man. Regardless of which way they played out the film ,there will at least be one person who will side with the woman, or their fun word "misogynistic" (like the other poster)

"Misogynistic" if she is the sick villain who stalks--and "misogynistic" if he is the sick villain who stalks. You particular woman are so troublesome. But no, cheater or not, a man does not deserve to be harassed and stalked and almost killed, while she gets a free pass for being "sick". She needed to be in jail or locked up in a mental hospital.

[–] !!!deleted!!! (63828261) 9 years ago

I don't feel sorry for someone who sleeps with a married man and then stalks him thinking they were going to keep seeing each other

[–] I_Love_Hutch 9 years ago

I find the scene where Alex is at home alone listening to the sad Madame Butterfly song very emotional. She's so lost.

[–] rascal67 9 years ago

If I am to feel sorry or sympathetic for Alex, it is because she was like a wounded creature and so disturbed to a point, where she could only think about tearing down Dan's life and his families, to get something she wanted. I don't think she could help herself either and if Dan didn't get her pregnant, would she have been so extreme? This was also his responsibility to tend too. He also knew he was a married man, sleeping around with a single woman. What he attracted into his life, was equally his responsibility. I also take a theme from the film, to be about women who use men to get themselves pregnant, so as to claim dibs on them.

Exorcist: Christ's power compels you. Cast out, unclean spirit.
Destinata:💩

[–] rascal67 9 years ago

The original ending was much stronger and more true to the story, but of course it wasn't satisfied for the misogynistic 80s audience.
__________
Yes, I can see how you can get "misogyny" out of the ending, where is was a man that ended up fighting a crazed psycho female to protect the females in his family and that it was a woman that actually ended up killing this pregnant, crazed, psycho female. I think you just have expectations and self-entitlements—like Alex Forrest—of how men should act and treat you with R-E-S-P-E-C-T, just for being so darn special and precious as a female. Are you a misandrist and think that men owe you something?

Exorcist: Christ's power compels you. Cast out, unclean spirit.
Destinata:💩

[–] InherentlyYours 9 years ago

IS that because you're a woman? Roman Polanski was "sick" also. Or is this a joke? At any rate, I'm glad Alex got what she deserved at the end, for hurting such a nice man.