INDECENT PROPOSAL
(1993; dir. Adrian Lyne, w. Amy Holden Jones)

Barebones script by Slumber Party Massacre/Love Letters director suggests story as fantasy of seduction by rich indie studio mogul (Mr Sundance Rbt Redford, aka New World Roger Corman) who can Make It All Happen (bail out not-self architect [screenwriter creating blueprint for film] hubby’s unfinished dream house [skeletal condition, as her dialogue: was script as severely edited as it seems?]), she real-estate agent "seller" (dir-deliverer of story to people) of his creations; brief whoredom w/ (producer) billionaire John Gage (cf Ross Pea-rot in election-yr production) flirtation w/ majors, projecting self back into humility aftwds (the real dream) after a royal good fucking.

Wife Diana content to serve as men’s muse (gawking at bldgs hubby Dave admires while picking up after His Slovenly Genius), kissing Gage’s "dice" before rolling (Lady F/L/uck herself), likewise teaching citizenship class to noble immigrants ("primitives" to whom couple’s "dump" wd be dreamhouse, all such just-folks types thrust to perimeter of hi-gloss production) ever the nurturer, never the nurtured.

Gage hailed as Prez by fawning-naïve students (country’s own [43%] Clinton-seduction + quickly-ensuing aftertaste, Rdfd’s All the Prez’s Men Woodward-figure in significant decline) in awe of exploitative American capitalism (cf husband’s near-simultaneous "exploit me" to prospective employer [+ Bela Lugosi’s strikingly similar Ed Wood line next yr]); daughter getting to do Daddy/God/government communing w/ higher (masculine, of course) power, he jockey to her horse (!) in David’s netherworld video-gambling freakout where whorserace image becomes ecstatic Diana (is there no depth to which some actresses will stoop to make it in macho Hollywood?) – as she had similarly bet on African-American women (adding racism to sexist brew) – elevating her to kept-wmn status when Ol’ Moneybags buys her a hippo (!).

Reference to black bodyguard Shackleford (manacled to Massah John; he also the Bad Macho, restrained) maybe having killed coy reference to Rdfd’s own Jay Gatsby; threat never made good, thriller convention of evil intruder wrecking homelife + hamstringing couple (cf Pacific Hts, Cape Fear ’92, Unlawful Entry, etc etc etc) when Gage buys land out from under them (first he fucked her, then he fucked him: boy’s Oedipal tale of turning tables on castrating daddy + reclaiming what was "his" "first") shorn – as all other issues (as in similar Lyne 91/2 Weaks’ COSMO-heavy, insanely prophylactic, titillating-but-not-quite-sex scenes) – of any bite by fairy-tale happy ending (was script Pretty Woman-ed by H’wood bigwigs afraid of bummer "message" movies + going in rewrite for traditional [i.e. bankable] sexism + misogyny?).

Today (1993), when poverty-stricken America looks for handouts from corporate fatcats casting selves as our forsaken patriarchs (Mr Goodwrench + all those patricianly CEO TV spokespeople [Kmart head promising "Don’t worry – your new KM is coming," like it’s some kinda magnanimous gift]), corporations/conglomerates once presciently painted as the Terrible Father in Alien/Rollerball now embraced, citizens willingly (+ gleefully) letting selves get fucked to get by – only way of achieving "dream" today.