Body of Evidence (1993)
MGM DVD (region 1)
d. Uli Edel; pr. Dino DeLaurentiis; scr. Brad Mirman; ph. Douglas Milsome; ed. Thom Noble; m. Graeme Revell; prod d. Victoria Paul; art d. Michael Rizzo; cast. Madonna, Willem Dafoe, Anne Archer, Joe Mantegna, Julianne Moore, Jurgen Prochnow, Frank Langella (101 mins)
For better or worse, Madonna has as a singer become one of the most controversial and successful of cultural icons.
Although she has apparently always wanted to extend her stardom into acting, her films have mostly fared poorly, with perhaps only Evita breaking the critical barrier in any way, and that too just barely. However it seems that for Madonna, the one film that got away was the controversial and much attacked Basic Instinct with Sharon Stone in a role tailored for a post-Madonna morality. The enormous success of that movie must have loomed large over the production of the erotic thriller and courtroom drama Body of Evidence. Indeed, this movie is so manufactured to the singer’s apparent view of herself as a sexual catalyst that despite considerable talent behind the scenes it emerges mostly as what might be considered a pure vanity project. The only reason for this film is the attempt to contextualize Madonna as a modern enigma of female sexual power. As an actress, she is bound by the image she cultivated as a performer and cannot bring the film into more than token self-criticism: indeed the sexual arrogance and self-importance of this project as an intended answer to the cultural phenomenon surrounding Madonna is an intriguing hook but sadly makes for a rather preposterous thriller.
Body of Evidence begins with the death of an elderly man from a heart condition. His collection of private videos indicates that he was having sexual relations with Madonna and when his secretary Anne Archer testifies that Madonna is guilty, the case against her begins.
She has a defense lawyer, a rather edgy Willem Dafoe, but he cannot prevent her being indicted and taken to trial. As Dafoe investigates perhaps beyond requirements, he uncovers some startling evidence about Madonna’s propensity for sexual power games and mild sado-masochism. Slowly he falls under her erotic spell: whether or not she merely cannot help herself from seducing him or is secretly manipulating him is the tension through the film. Their sexual congress continues throughout the trial, wherein prosecutor Joe Mantegna has a surprise witness relating to Madonna’s potential sexual malevolence. By now, however, Dafoe is captivated by her and begins to share in sexual power fantasies, taking it against her when his marriage seems on the verge of collapse. It is clear that all men who enter Madonna’s sphere of influence cannot emerge unscathed, but does this in itself mean that she is capable of murder, and of the prosecutor’s opening suggestion, of using her body as the means of sex murder?
Is Madonna a sexual weapon in any real cultural sense? The hook of this film is that it is Madonna, not the character, who is on trial, although the assertion that her body is so sexually dangerous as to be a weapon verges on the absurd side of vanity.
What is intriguing is the way Madonna is developed as a kind of sexual catalyst (contaminant?) who brings out the sexual nature of the men who enter into any kind of relationship with her – it is as if she cannot help but be a sexual being and it is this fate that she must master, recognizing the sexual power she holds as an agent of change. Is this change potentially moral, social and cultural in reach, making her a transforming agent? Sex is transgression for Madonna (there is no love involved), the liberation and sexualization of the human soul and the embrace of the libido as the inherent shaper of all action, the force resented or denied by people afraid of sexual power. The attractant in Madonna is the lure of this kind of guiltless sex, but what director Uli Edel insists upon, and almost redeems the film, is the link between the guiltless and the conscienceless as the seed of a far more sinister malevolence. In this way, the German director is able to continue the fascination with the spread of sexual exploitation and the sexual despair of society he essayed to such devastating effect in Christiane F. and Last Exit to Brooklyn.
The film thus ties in most effectively with the cultural responses to Madonna as either a force in socio-sexual openness or as an agent in an American sexual decadence.
Either way, it is clear that Edel treats her as the ambiguous epitome of this sexual culture and seeks to explore how her image works as such a force of change. Madonna herself, however, is given little time for self-assessment although it is clear that she knows of the range of responses to her sexuality from male desire to female resentment. Although the film does address Dafoe’s dilemma as a man captivated by an erotic danger, his plight is almost allegorical as he is a vehicle through which we measure the change that Madonna’s sexuality is capable of eliciting in people (men). As a sexual and cultural catalyst thus, she is a figure that society seemingly cannot comprehend and it is sad that the ending takes the turn it does for it validates only the worst feelings about the sexual immorality she represents and robs it of any real subversive ambiguity. The broader question perhaps for Edel thus becomes can American culture and society allow such a challenge to its sexual propriety or is the mere fact of Madonna’s sexuality the weapon to tear down patriarchy, reducing men to helplessness. Does conscienceless sexuality make her a threat? Granted, this may be reaching for significance in a silly thriller, but it is only as an examination of the enigma of Madonna that this film really works.
DVD DETAILS:
Vision
The visual transfer on this DVD is effective and polished. It is clever in the way in starts out with cold colors and textures and gradually introduces a sense of heat as Madonna’s ambiguous sexual agenda is revealed. Some of the imagery, however, of steamy sex in firelight, is something of a cliché in countless erotic thrillers that emerged on cable and video around this time – its glossy sophistication, rich production values and prominent cast perhaps elevating it somewhat from its competition. The sense of Madonna as a force in American sexual change and a threat to conventional “decency” (or hypocrisy as the case may be) runs throughout the film and there is an ironic stress on rain early as if intending to wash away the numerous sins that follow. The film manages to be always formal and sophisticated in texture, capturing a sexual glamour with precise, impersonal efficiency. The sex scenes seem like teasing erotica with a darker edge, fascinating in the way Madonna always seeks sexual control (even turning a near-rape against the attacker by making it satisfy a potential masochistic role play). Sex and power are inseparable in this film, the ambiguities of sexual malevolence elevated to prominence.
Sound
The sound transfer on this DVD is a nicely crisp stereo surround, with full rain and fire effects for the nice juxtaposition of cold and hot, with Madonna in control of their mediation. The score is effectively sober and persistent through most of the film. There is a fine (though perhaps overstressed) use of echoing voices in the courtroom scenes – these effects fleshing out the directional possibilities of the transfer. Much of the sex talk however seems amusing rather than frank and Madonna is very self-conscious, a far from natural actress. Background ambience is effectively maintained although often surmounted by the score and never really more than that as much of the film centers on the characters’ sexual power play – the liberation of passion as leading to moral uncertainty and collapse is measured nicely in Dafoe’s wavering voice. So too Madonna captures the gulf between the seeming and the actual – despite her limitations, she is adept with the idea of herself as a much-despised but unapologetic sexual presence (forever aware of the limiting morality around her and her seemingly innate need to push and destroy it). The transfer makes for a fluid and polished aural experience.
Special Features
By way of special features are an original trailer (with music by Enigma) and a very brief promotional featurette entitled “Love or Murder” with behind the scenes footage, actors’ reflections on themes of trust in sexual relations and a mention of control issues. It also mentions the controversy over the content that led to difficulties during filming. It is too short to really elaborate on any of this. Although the above review refers to the unrated version, the R-rated version is also included on the US region 1 disc (with, as expected, much of the sexual material trimmed). The inclusion of different versions confirms that Madonna is still a cultural force and sexual provocateur that is “problematic” to American morality.
