I don’t know which of Glenn Close’s characters I love more, Sunny Von Bulow, Alex Forrest or Patty Hewes. I think I love her best when she’s off the rails rather than when she’s the hearth-warmer. She is now coming clean about the mental illness in her family, which was the main reason she wrote this column. But my eyes went down to these paragraphs, naturally, since Fatal Attraction was nominated for six Oscars – Best Picture, Best Director, Actress, Supporting Actress, Editing and Best Screenplay. Isn’t that astounding? Imagine if they had done the film a different way:
The original ending of Fatal Attraction actually had Alex commit suicide. But that didn’t “test” well. Alex had terrified the audiences and they wanted her punished for it. A tortured and self-destructive Alex was too upsetting. She had to be blown away.
So, we went back and shot the now famous bathroom scene. A knife was put into Alex’s hand, making her a dangerous psychopath. When the wife shot her in self-defense, the audience was given catharsis through bloodshed — Alex’s blood. And everyone felt safe again.
The ending worked. It was thrilling and the movie was a big hit. But it sent a misleading message about the reality of mental illness.
14 Responses for "Glenn Close Comes Clean"
It is a compelling piece and I totally agree with it. I have always sided with Alex Forrest and few months ago I watched it on Netflix and I had the same thought.
I think a lot of families fail to truly understand their loved ones’ mental illness as well. Maybe because of the stigma associated with mental illness. My good friend’s mother is bipolar yet I see them make no real effort to minimize her suffering or educate themselves. Medications alone don’t help either. Lets hope BringChange2Mind makes a difference.
Yeap.. a suicide would have given Close the Oscar. If I remember correctly, tho, that was a tough year for the Best Actress category; Like most of the 80’s, actually.
T.
But if memory serves me correctly, the original ending wasn’t just a suicide — Alex did indeed off herself, but left evidence indicating Michael Douglas’ character had murdered her. In other words, it was a self-annihilating act of revenge. I honestly don’t think audiences would have accepted that. In fact, I think they would have shouted rude things at the screen, and passed bad word of mouth on to their friends.
On the other hand, maybe that ending would have reinforced the movie’s potency as an AIDS allegory (as it was was viewed at the time): Take one step out of line, sleep with the wrong person, and..
The original ending is vastly superior – gone is the hammy Grand Guignol, as effective as it may be on first viewing, and in its place is something genuinely chilling, and much more fitting and believable.
I love Close, she’s one of my favorite actors for a lot of reasons.
But Paddy, couldn’t the same be said for the rest of the movies created by the gothic moralists of America – Eastwood, Scorcese, Penn, and even little Ron Howard and the like? They are the children of John Ford, who was the past master at moral catharsis through violence.
These people style themselves as muscular realists, but they are deeply sentimental at the core – and that’s why they are popular. They speak from the mainstream as if it were the true source of all things progressive, but their static works are in every way the flashier equivalent of TV. Good examples – Mystic River, an insultingly stupid film, or The Departed, in all ways inferior to Infernal Affairs, which actually had some charm, didn’t see itself as the third tablet of some serious, frowning god, and was actually fun to watch.
Adrian Lyne I think suffers from the same moralist faults, but in a very British way. He shares the same gothic moralist sensibility, and it is always, and has always been misleading.
PLEASE, SOMEONE PRODUCES “SUNSET BLVD.”
AND GIVE CLOSE HER DESERVED OSCAR!
Patty Hewes!!!!
She owes that character.
My favorite Glenn Close will always be….Jenny Fields!
The last I read, Streisand and Streep were the leading candidates for Sunset Blvd.
I don’t really want Streisand doing the same damage to Sunset Blvd that she did to A Star is Born.
Anne Bancroft would be fabulous as Norma Desmond.
I’d rather see Shirley Maclaine than Streisand.
Ryan, you mean would have been.
RIP Anne Bancroft.
Even as a big Streep fan I would like to see Close reprise the role.
[gulp]
oh my gosh dela, I dunno if I forgot that or if I seriously never knew. 2005 is one big Lost Weekend for me, for a lot of reasons. (non-alcoholic reasons).
I have to go be really sad now.
Speaking of the fabulous Anne Bancroft –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qwhlpysvjs
Great movie, have the DVD, saw the alternate ending. As it was an American movie, that ending would not have worked. It was neat in concept, but we need that cathartic, grandslam finale. We need the villain to be bad and go down hard. Remake it in Europe or Japan, put in the other ending, maybe it would work. But when I finally saw that much-lauded alternate ending, I sure was glad that they went back and shot the ending the movie needed.
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