Fatal Attraction was released in 1987 and it still is as relevant for our current times as it was almost 20 years ago.
It is the story about a married man who has a weekend affair and when he tries to break it off, the lover becomes enraged and stalks him.
Men can be stupid. Stupidity is no excuse. Women can be stupid, and their stupidity is no excuse either.
Does sex mean different things to men than to women? Is this biological or psychological or cultural or a mix of these three things.
The story of Fatal Attraction gets more interesting when Alex, Dan's lover, tells him that she is pregnant and is keeping the baby. All of a sudden a weekend of passion becomes a life long commitment.
Perhaps, in our contemporary society, sex has become too casual. It is seen more as lusty entertainment than a physical bonding that can lead to new life. Perhaps sex is serious.
As the Catholic Church has taught for centuries, sex is procreative and therefore should be reserved for married couples. During Vatican II in the 60s there was a recognition by the church that sex can also be recreative in the best sense of that word, in the sense that it creates a sense of rapport, and bonding, and kindred spiritship between couples.
The feminists hated Fatal Attraction because the movie paints Alex as a "disturbed" woman who is psychotic at the end and is probably one of the best cinematic depictions of Borderline Personality Disorder ever made, and yet Dan is "psychotic" too when he jeopardizes his marriage, his family, maybe even his career on a weekend indiscretion. Perhaps Dan is too narcissistic and suffers from Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
At any rate, this is an excellent film and I highly recommend it. It should be required viewing for people interested in Marriage and Family, Psychology, Social Work, etc.
Link: Fatal Attraction (1987).
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