We’ve probably all had that eye-opening experience of at long last seeing a programming staple, after years of seeing it occasionally on network or basic cable TV (often edited for time as well as content, plus being resized for the TV screen), in its original unedited form for the first time – and being overwhelmed by the shock of the new, re the restored naughty bits.
For me, the classic example of this is finally seeing the complete **Animal House ** after 20+ years’ of knowing only its censored versions. What an eye-opener it was… Donald Sutherland’s ass! The demon-v.-angel dialogue! The stoner dialogue! Greg Mamelard’s [sp?] girlfriend giving him a handjob while wearing rubber gloves! The sorority house exhibitionist enjoying a dreamy moment! (Okay, that one was pretty well hinted at in the censored version, so it doesn’t really count).
Nor was any of this extraneous or gratuitous in the least. :dubious: (That was a trademark Belushi single-eyebrow lift, BTW.) The handjob scene, for example, goes a long way in fleshing out [no pun intended] Greg as a complicated character with a tormented inner life, what with his sexual shortcomings and disappointments, and helps explain why he derives sadistic pleasure in the frat house hazing scene, why he was the ringleader behing beating up Tim Matheson’s character, and his generally fascistic tendencies. I mean it’s not The Conformist, but I felt like saying, Greg Mamelard, I never knew ye!
Now, I have no interest in revisiting the original Basic Instinct, let alone actually renting it, for various reasons, but for good old fashioned prurient reasons I’d like to know exactly how much was revealed in the infamous crotch-level shot in the police interrogation scene. I only know this movie in its network or basic cable version; hence the ignorance.
So go ahead and tell me what I’ve been missing, and feel free to augment the thread with similar requests and revelations re other movies. Due to the revelatory purpose of this thread, it will be entirely spoiler-free, and anyone who insists on using a spoiler will be given a huge wedgie.
I’ll be willing to bet, dollars-to-donuts, that there will be a lot of poses that are very similar to that famous one in chairs. I’ll also bet that camera angles will always have you arching your neck to juuuuuuuuuust look around the corner.
I’m betting there will be no crotchage, no displays of the squish.
Rats.
Just in case anybody doesn’t know about the Celebrity Nudity Database (use your own discretion in clicking this link - it’s not usually graphic in imagery but it does say Celebrity Nudity Database in pretty big letters) it’s a site that gives exactly this type of info about thousands of movies. Type in an actor, actress or movie and it tells what you see, when, how long, could it be a double, etc… Screenit (totally worksafe) does much the same thing but doesn’t have as many entries and you can’t search by actor.
Not that I’ve ever used either site for the purpose of determining whether or not to see Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Paul Rudd or anybody else nekkid, of course.
I’m watching the Basic Instinct crotch shot right now, in slow motion, using my “unrated special edition” DVD, and sadly, you don’t really see anything but Sharon Stone’s (evidently mostly shaved) pubic hair. About the same thing you saw on Maria Bello in A History of Violence when she stepped out of the shower and her robe was open for a moment[sup]1[/sup]. No visible vulva or labia or anything – those are hidden by the curve of her thigh and some shadows. and I have to admit, I was highly disappointed when I saw this scene for the first time.
[sup]1[/sup]Except Maria Bello’s pubic hair looked normal rather than mostly shaved.
I was shocked when we bought Lonesome Dove to notice that you can see one of the cowboy’s penises in the scene where they are crossing the river wearing nothing but chaps. And I’ve never heard anyone mention it anywhere but it’s clear as day to me and my husband!
I asked a friend if he heard about the Lindsay Lohan nipple slip at some GM auto show, and he told me to check sublimedirectory dot com. There it was. Seems you can find just about any small (or large) incidence of nudity by any female (and maybe male) celebrity. Also, lots, and lots of pr0n. Have fun.
Sometimes, showing less is more. The scene was so effective and tantilizing in part because it implied as much as it actually showed, and the way it played as a room full of male cops being totally manipulated and controlled by a woman who was simply lording the power her body had over them all. These days, and in those days, naked lady pictures showing you more than you’d ever want to see are readily available. I wouldn’t claim that the Instinct crotch shot was “classy” per se, but it made its moment in part because it was so brief and shocking.
in the interests of, er, fighting ignorance, google “oops basic instinct” (without quotes, and with safesearch off - you won’t wanna do this at work… or with children in the room.) you will find screencaps that show, well, everything you missed in the t.v. version.
*Five seconds * of leg-crossing? Five?!? That’s not crossing your legs; that’s a tantric yoga exercise. Paul Verhoeven’s cameras must’ve run out of film and had to have fresh reels popped in during the making of that scene. General Washington crossed the Delaware in less time than that…
Re. **Lonesome Dove ** – I think it was originally aired [no pun intended] during a ratings period. Seriously, though, isn’t there something about cowboys that’s just intrinsically kinky? (Esp. cattle rustling… through the Vatican. ) I suppose that depending on the cowboy, that could even be an intimidation tactic in helping to keep the heifers in line, so to speak.
Continuing to branch out from Basic Instinct, anyone who’s interested in seeing either **The Good Girl ** or Sideways should really rent it on DVD… for much the same reason. In both movies, the biggest laugh happens when an excitable man is charging out of his house in the altogether, making flippy-floppy. You know you’re not going to see that on broadcast TV anytime soon…
Yeah, there’s not much to see in the basic instinct shot. And it’s more like half a second, not five. I was surprised that it raised as much furor as it did.
The only real ‘dirty bits’ shot I can think of from a mainstream movie was a shot of Susan Blakely getting out of bed in Capone. The one with Ben Gazarra, not Robert DeNiro.
And I saw that on Canadian television. It was the ‘late night move’, which were often shown uncensored. I think I was about 15, and it was a real eye-opener, I’ll tell you.
In the original, as I recall, I thought the other two actresses were far more attractive than Stone. Triplehorn in particular was terribly attractive at that point in her career.
