You're not helping your case

I am currently reading a book called/about Paul Verhoeven, the director of the original, hit Basic Instinct (specifically, this book). It's pretty good, but it's in the mode of being a book for fans, by a fan-criticism goes by the wayside in favor of slavish devotion.

Interesting quote from the director, who reportedly has long wanted to do a serious film about the life of Jesus:

'The most historically correct image of Jesus and his time is to be found in The Life of Brian, the comedy by the Monty Python team.'

But here's where the book's author, Rob van Scheers, doesn't help his case. In the chapter on Basic Instinct, he's trying to draw a parallel with North By Northwest. He does this by reprinting a page or so of the dialogue from each.

Let me make myself clear: He gives us a chance to make a direct comparision between Ernest Lehman's dialogue and that of Joe Eszterhas. This is not a good move. Lehman's dialogue is sheer pleasure and Eszterhas' puts one in need of a shower.

Not that Lehman is credited, of course, which brings me to my next point. In the same chapter, Verhoeven boasts of how he childishly tried to make the date-rape scene in the movie as offensive as he could. As a kind of "I'll show you!" to the demonstrators the film had attracted.

He then praises Michael Douglas' "bravery" in playing it so explicitly. Not a word, however (in the whole book) about Jeanne Tripplehorn, who only had to play the victim of the date-rape; therefore showed no courage, and deserves no admiration.

My, my. All this good, interesting material-and I haven't even gotten to the chapter on Showgirls yet...