Give Me Half a Budget and Michael Douglas

Whenever I don’t know what to watch I aim for nostalgia. For most millennials that would mean Space Jam or The Never Ending Story (believe me, we’ll get there) but because of my unconventional childhood, I reach for movies my parents loved to watch during family movie nights: the trashy mid-budget thriller. These are the films that were rampant (for some reason?) during the mid to late 80s into the mid-90s. Usually, they entailed a mid-level budget and a domestic and/or professional Michael Douglas whose life becomes threatened by the actions of an absurdly beautiful (WAY OUT OF HIS LEAGUE) woman. The first movie that most will think of under this category is Basic Instinct. It is easy to see why: Sharon Stone is mesmerizing to watch and there is a lot of chemistry between the two leads. It also goes THERE with its script and is not afraid to shy away from content that would make Will H. Hays whither into nothing from anger, shock, and shame. And not just that scene either. Whether or not its memorable status is due to infamy or legitimate merits is up to you as a view; the fact of the matter is, however, that it is the pinnacle of the genre. This was a week of wondering what to watch and so I went for it—I watched not only the granddaddy of all 90s Erotic Thrillers but many others as well. And man was it something. (SPOILERS BELOW)

As I wandered deep into the waters of this long-forgotten subgenre I began to ask myself a series of questions. Why am I like this? Why were Michael Douglas, Richard Gere, and Andy Garcia in so many of these movies? Where did all this mid-budget magic go? These are all questions that I will attempt to answer, though out of order. Starting with the last one on the list: what happened to these movies? Did they really go anywhere or did they just…vanish?

In order to answer that question, I think it is important to highlight the vicious trend cycle of Hollywood. Westerns and musicals have also suffered the same death as the trashy thriller genre. They became stale and no longer viable for making money. If I were to just write off this question with a simple, easy, and boring answer I would say this: the main stars got old, the writers got old, the directors got old, and everyone else moved on. In the interest of dwelling on pop-culture attitudes and historical context, though, I also think it is important to add that in addition to loving a genre to death the cultural attitudes and anxieties that made these thrillers thrilling vanished with them.

At the beginning of the mid-century/post-World War II era noir mysteries flourished. This was the time that the femme fatale (as Hollywood presented her) was also born. World War II opened up major opportunities for women in the United States that hadn’t really been an option before. Many women began earning their own money for the first time in their lives; they became the sole breadwinners for their children, and they took over jobs like manufacturing and other labor that had typically been men’s fare. For many men, this was an uneasy reality to accept as they believed that a woman’s place was with domestic life and Hollywood reflected this attitude. With the rise of the noir genre, there was also a rise of independent female characters driven by money, selfishness (READ: self-preservation), and sexuality. They were almost always punished or reformed by the end of the film, of course. (HEYYYY Hays Code, we see you. We hate you.) These women, some of which are in iconic and great films (Double Indemnity and The Maltese Falcon come to mind), were a warning sign: a woman with financial and spiritual independence is dangerous. It was a reflection of the anxiety of the times. Eventually, these anxieties calmed down (and the Hays code era ended) and America settled into a prosperous suburban era—filled with happy musicals and even happier on-screen housewives. The attitudes waned and it wasn’t until the 70s when the disillusionment of the domestic women reemerged on screen and in public media. Women wanted to work—and not just menial or entry-level or secretary jobs but on boards.

Around the 1980s—when the shoulder pads and smoke machines wandered into the scene—this was a full-fledged accomplishment. No longer was it just the spunky Mary Tyler Moore blazing her way into the office, now there were many confident, long-legged, hot women pushing themselves into the working-woman world. These original #bossladies (yes, I know, eye roll) were, like their noir predecessors, threatening competition. So once again the social anxieties around women working (and this time “having it all”) began to rear their heads. Most of these thrillers focused on a disruption of the home or domestic life to some extent (or in the case of Basic Instinct a flat out rejection of it). Fatal Attraction may be the first that comes to mind—Glen Close moves in and tries to break up the happy domestic life of Michael Douglas because she doesn’t like being The Other Woman. In the case of Disclosure, a once slighted Demi Moore sets up “dad and husband of the year” Michael Douglas by sexually assaulting him at work and then alleging, legally, that he did so to her. Her strong, driven, morally dubious character is actually part of a conspiracy to ruin Douglas’s life both personally and professionally—there’s even a 90s VR scene to accentuate it. Don’t worry though—she gets caught and subsequently fired and takes the full fall for a scheme she didn’t even think up herself. She gets punished in the end. In 1990 Richard Gere and Andy Garcia starred in a movie called Internal Affairs. Gere’s character is a VERY corrupt and terrible cop (and excessive womanizer…seriously it’s basically a parody) and Garcia is an Internal Affairs agent trying to take him down. After a two hour dick-measuring contest between the two male leads Gere gets what’s coming to him and dies by the hand of Garcia. It’s worth noting that the thing the writers really focused on punishing the character for wasn’t the murders and setups and hits he was committing—it was the four wives, nine children, several affairs, and going after married women that the film really focuses hard on. Those are just a couple examples but they are indicative of the American neurosis around domestic upheaval. But eventually, attitudes change. People get used to a variety of acceptable home lives. Women work, people divorce, some don’t have kids or get married. It’s all normal life. So then, the erotic thriller isn’t exactly erotic or thrilling anymore, and there’s no money left to be made.

Looking at the answer to that third question I think we can also find the second. Why did so many movies star one or more of those three men? The obvious answer was that they made studios money and had the prestige to carry a film to critical success. Douglas had won two Oscars, Garcia had been nominated, and Gere had been critically praised and starred in movies that had received Oscar attention (and plenty of rom-coms). They brought in the crowds. Maybe a slight obvious answer, in the case of Douglas, was that he plays a really good everyman. He’s a likable and attractive guy—but not so attractive that he couldn’t sell the part of a family man. He’s approachable and relatable and sells the successful business-adjacent career man. He looks like the head of a household and convinces the audience that it’s something that he wants. Garcia, on the other hand, was (ahem, IS) good looking and endearing. He commands the camera, brings in women audiences, and makes for a believable rough-around-the-edges cop OR slimy villain. Just don’t watch Things To Do In Denver When You’re Dead. It’s not good.

My last question though…that’s far less interesting (especially to you, dear reader). BUT THE THING IS I LOVE THESE MOVIES. Why am I like this? Simple answer? I am my mother’s daughter. My mom rented a lot of mid-budget movies from this era of all genres. But thrillers were her bread and butter. Even to this day as thrillers and crime movies have evolved, she has evolved with them. Her reading habits also center around these mysteries of murder and misdirections. But also I view them as a time capsule into the psyche of the American mind. Change is scary—it causes severe anxieties. While most people focus hard on how these show up in horror movies it’s actually far more interesting to look at ALL genres and trends. There’s so much to learn and understand about attitudes of the past from watching a film like Disclosure. Or Double Indemnity. Or anything in between. I find cultural history fascinating, and so I love watching things that showcase every facet of that subject. And I love looking at a 30 something Andy Garcia especially in a suit. Yeah…that’s probably it.

Saturday morning in the Weekly Watches post I’ll detail all of the films that I watched surrounding this topic. One film that I didn’t really have time for was a Hitchcock remake called A Perfect Murder (starring Gwyneth Paltrow and, SURPRISE, Michael Douglas). This film was a little bit of an exception to the general topic and hypothesis that I just went over so I think it deserves its own post, which I do want to get to eventually if not next in the series. So look forward to how a multi-lingual and wealthy Gwyneth barely has any consequences for her extramarital actions and why that matters. And probably a post for Devil in a Blue Dress that REALLY deserves its own post. Basically this is a whole series.

And finally, click here if you want to see a Letterboxd List I’m making of these titles.