MovieChat Forums > Basic Instinct (1992) Discussion > Gus' and Hazel Dobkins' AGE

Gus' and Hazel Dobkins' AGE

posted 8 years ago by maturity
6 replies | jump to latest

He said he couldn't get her killing spree out of his head for years, but given that the movie is set in the present (1991/1992) he would only have been about 11 when it happened in 1956 and 20 when she was released from prison in 1965. So how would he have known about it? The movie seems to be implying Gus was on the case, but he's too young. George Dzundza was born in 1945 and was maybe around 46/47 during filming. He didn't even look that old. What do others think?

Another incongruity is when Nick tells Gus that Johnny Boz was a rock star "before your time." The actor who played Boz is a year younger than Dzundza. Why did Nick say that? Time has nothing to do with it. Maybe Gus just wasn't into rock music. Boz wasn't that big a star anyway if he only had $5 million. Maybe just bad script writing because Joe Eszterhas was sloppy from using as much cocaine as Johnny Boz?

[–] maturity 8 years ago

From the Trivia section:
According to the original screenplay, the character of Gus was supposed to be 64.

Maybe they were just careless or lazy and forgot to alter related dialogue when they changed Gus's age.

[–] maturity 8 years ago

Still "before your time" doesn't make sense unless Gus was supposed to be younger than Nick.

[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] maturity 8 years ago

But people in the 50s didn't have 24 hours news and most parents would shield an 11 year old from seeing that story in the papers. Did her murders take place in San Francisco? I don't recall if that was revealed when Nick was looking at the files. It may have been in that small town north of San Francisco that she was living.

Eszterhas was probably not too attentive to details, as he said he was listening to tne Rolling Stones non-stop while writing the script and he didn't even outline things beforehand. He also admitted that it was a a mistake to leave out the whole idea of DNA. Nowadays you could not have sex with somebody and murder them without leaving DNA evidence, probably. At least skin and hair. I don't know if sweat or female fluids can be identified.

[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]