Indecent Proposal (1993)
Paramount DVD (region 4)
d. Adrian Lyne; pr. Sherry Lansing; scr. Amy Holden Jones; novel. Jacke Engelhard; ph. Howard Atherton; m. John Barry; ed. Joe Hutshing; cast. Demi Moore, Woody Harrelson, Robert Redford, Oliver Platt, Billy Bob Thornton, Seymour Cassel, Billy Connolly (117 mins)
Director Adrian Lyne was one of the British Invasion of Hollywood in the early 1980s. It was then that a number of English directors with a background in television commercials achieved major box-office hits and relocated to Hollywood. These now big names included Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, Alan Parker and Hugh Hudson. All achieved a slick professionalism but it was Adrian Lyne who developed a clear fondness for contemporary morality tales often involving sexual politics and the theme of punishment for moral transgression. Elegant and sophisticated in look and texture, Lyne’s films were upgraded adult fantasies. Of these, 9 ½ Weeks was immediately controversial and Fatal Attraction soon proved to be both a major box-office draw and an era-defining movie. Cemented as a major director with the success of Fatal Attraction, Lyne next tackled another slick morality play in Indecent Proposal, a film with a highly provocative moral “hook”, and that effectively made Lyne the ultimate mainstream couples’ director, specializing in moral fables and wish-fulfillment fantasies for the supposed “sophisticate”. Many critics resented Lyne’s success with this field, considering the films less true moral questionnaires than clever moral gimmicks to explore immoral yearnings and their consequences with a reactionary hypocrisy. Nevertheless, Indecent Proposal was a talking point above its lukewarm critical reception.
In Indecent Proposal, Woody Harrelson and Demi Moore play a young couple who with their house and financial obligations are in terrible trouble. In desperation they journey to Las Vegas and gamble the money, hoping to achieve the quick and easy end to their economic hardships. A veteran gambler and billionaire (Robert Redford) considers Moore to be a lucky charm. When he later meets the couple and talks to them they discuss whether love is worth more than money. When they dispute his assertion that anything can be bought, Redford offers them a proposition: one million dollars for one night with Moore – that they would make this one moral compromise in order to have lifelong financial security. They think he is joking but when they realize he is serious, Harrelson and Moore then debate the offer. As this much money would end their problems and, they believe, enable their dream life; they decide that Moore will indeed go with Redford for one night. As Moore leaves, Harrelson reconsiders but cannot stop it. Moore then is escorted by the playboy Redford, who seeks to seduce her into acquiescence with his desires rather than her surrendering for money and toys thus with her motivations. The increasingly distraught Harrelson meanwhile seeks to stop them before Redford can bed Moore. In the meantime Moore reflects on why Harrelson would have let her go to begin with and warms to Redford. read more