”I just saw `Basic Instinct` for the first time and loved it,” says screenwriter Joe Eszterhas. ”I think (director Paul) Verhoeven did a great job and it`s fully realized in terms of what I had in mind.”
Loved it? Great job? Fully realized? Can this be the same man who so publicly slammed Verhoeven for rewriting his highly controversial ”Basic Instinct” script when it was bought three years ago for a record $3 million? Since the film went into production, it has been plagued by controversy and creative friction among the main players.
First Eszterhas publicly dissociated himself from the production when Verhoeven insisted on changing his script.
Then when Verhoeven agreed to shoot the original script, Eszterhas rejoined the team, only to once again break away when gay- and lesbian-rights activists in San Francisco (where the film was shooting on location last year), demonstrated against its alleged homophobia.
That brought about the final rift between author and director. That is, until Eszterhas saw the film.
The film was the subject of demonstrations at movie theaters when it opened and outside the auditorium on Oscar night.
To hear him speak, the feisty veteran writer (”Jagged Edge,”
”Betrayed,” ”Music Box”) is again a changed man-somewhat.
”No one pressured me to come out and defend the movie,” he says.
”Anyway, I`m not an easy man to pressure. I have some reputation for that. No, I wanted to set the record straight myself.”
So why has he waited so long? ”Because I only just saw the film for the first time a few days ago,” he says.
”It`s well known we`ve had a series of noisy disagreements about it, and I simply wasn`t invited to any of the screenings.”
Instead, Eszterhas went to a small local theater in Marin County, Calif., where he lives, and paid to see his own film ”like anyone else. And guess what? I loved how Verhoeven handled my characters and the theme of
psychological manipulation.
”I think he did a brilliant job at rendering that. We all expected the action sequences to be explosive and powerful, but what stunned me is how he dealt with the games of manipulation.”
Some might argue that the writer is a master of manipulation himself. After all, going into the filming of ”Basic Instinct,” Eszterhas and Verhoeven had allegedly settled their differences when the director had publicly announced that he was abandoning all changes and that he would film the original script, complete with its bisexual killer.
Then, during filming, Eszterhas did an about-face and sided with the gay protesters, even though Verhoeven was following Eszterhas` book.
”There was a serious amount of acrimony, and all it did was hurt me both personally and professionally,” he says. ”But if the point (of the feuding) was to manipulate, then I`m not certain what I gained.”
According to Eszterhas, he, Verhoeven and others on the film had a meeting last fall with the San Francisco gay community.
”After that meeting, I suggested a number of changes,” he says. ”I felt that the script wasn`t homophobic, but I realized there were things in the script the gay community took umbrage at, and that might hurt gays on screen. Paul rejected my suggestions and felt I was overreacting and that the finished movie would not hurt gays.
”I`ve written three films about racism and the elimination of prejudice-`Betrayed,` `Music Box` and `Big Shots`-and nothing terrifies me more as a writer than the notion of something I write hurting people. But Paul felt I was overreacting, and looking at the movie he was absolutely right. It is not homophobic or anti-gay. It`s a terrific piece of entertainment.”
It`s quite a surprise, then, when Eszterhas says the protests against
”Basic Instinct” are ”absolutely justified. I felt that in terms of Hollywood and Hollywood`s record of homophobia they were totally right, because if you look at Hollywood historically, they have a point.”
As an example of ”real homophobia,” the writer cites ”that crass scene in `Bird on a Wire` where Mel Gibson trashes gay hairdressers. That was completely unnecessary. It doesn`t belong in the piece and he just does it. The only thing that scene does is cause more prejudice against gays.”
Using force is wrong
But while he supports broad protests against such negative stereotyping, Eszterhas is quick to protest the tactics used by a group that reveals the killer`s identity to theater-goers before they see the film.
”I don`t know how much it`s hurt the movie,” he says (”Basic Instinct” grossed more than $21.5 million in its first week of release),
”and I don`t think they have any right to do it, because people going to see the film don`t want the ending revealed,” he says. ”They`re being forced, against their will, and that`s not right when they`re paying good money to see it. Using force, and this is force, is wrong.”
So how does the writer reconcile the fact that he supports the protests at the same time he endorses the film?
”In my mind, `Basic Instinct` is in no way injurious to gays,” he says, ”and many critics have gone out of their way to say it`s not anti-gay, including some gay newspapers in San Francisco.
”On the other hand, you can`t deny yourself the right as a filmmaker to have gay, white, black, Italian, albino or Hungarian villains. That`s not the point. If the point is that we want to bring gays into the mainstream of society, then the way to do it is to have movies where gays can be portrayed as heroes in mainstream Hollywood productions.”
Eszterhas says he would happily reteam with Verhoeven.
”In fact, I sent him a case of champagne after I saw the movie with a note that said, `Thank you for giving me the picture of mine that I really love,` ” he says. ”I`d love to work with him again.”
”People ask me if all this has soured me on Hollywood, and the answer is, not at all,” Eszterhas says. ”It`s been a terrific experience. Paul is a man who disagreed with me personally, and we had great animosity. It never came to blows, but the meetings were very loud, and he told me there were moments when he didn`t even want to hear my name.
”But it never interfered with his love of the material, whereas most directors would have said, `To hell with this guy,` and trashed the script. But he never did. To be honest, I`ve quite enjoyed all the controversy. The life of a writer can be very lonely and boring most of the time.”
