“You will never have to do dishes.” With these words, Mickey Rourke found his way into my heart in the 1986 movie 9 1/2 Weeks. Dominance, playfulness and some pretty iconic scenes make this a movie to watch for any kinkster. Oh, and a very young Mickey Rourke and Kim Basinger. As far as I know, she is the only actress to play in two BDSM movies (she was also in Fifty Shades).
The 9 1/2 weeks story
Wall Street man John meets art gallery manager Elizabeth in a shop and immediately feels attracted to her. When they meet again at a market, they start a steamy affair. The pair laughs, plays, runs and does some light shoplifting. Additionally, John showers Lizzy with gifts, and works some D/s elements into their relationship. He tells her he will take care of her, by feeding her, shopping for her, by DOING THE DISHES! Ahem, sorry. So. For 9 1/2 weeks, John dresses her in the mornings and undresses her at night. He loves taking her control away by using blindfolds. And he gives her a watch and asks her to look at it at noon every day and imagine that he touches her. Though there’s not much SM, it is one of the more intimate and nice representations of a semi-healthy D/s relationship I have ever seen on screen.
Sadly, it really is only semi-healthy. If nothing else, to a BDSM audience this movie is a cautionary tale about what happens if you do not communicate about needs and desires. It’s a story about retroactive consent and accidentally crossing lines. In the end, yes, after 9 1/2 weeks, Elizabeth leaves John just as he realizes he loves her. Because he might have succeeded in gauging her reactions and reading her mind for most of the movie, but ends up crossing a line. When she is packing to leave, he finally starts communicating. But she still does not. From my (kinky?) point of view, it was her inability to communicate; her waiting for him to read her mind; that was the issue in this entire movie. However, non-BDSM-ers do not agree.
The critical spankings
According to Rotten Tomatoes, it takes Elizabeth these 9 1/2 weeks to realize that John has been using her. Also, according to audience reviews on the same website, it’s a “sad story about sex addiction.” I, for one, don’t see either sex addiction in this movie, or John using her. (Again. The dishes.) Instead, this is a film about playing dangerous games with power and emotions. John keeps pushing her limits, and in a D/s relationship that can be perfectly fine. Again, IF you have talked about that before. Kim Basinger herself is still a big fan of the movie and proud of her performance. However, she has often complained that the original movie was cut to pieces to make it cinema-appropriate. And that the end result hardly makes sense. However, she also stated:
9½ Weeks (1986) represented freedom. A lot of people didn’t particularly care for the male character in that film because of the way he treated my character. But the interesting thing was that their relationship was all about the abandonment of all preset rules on earth. It was all about living on the edge, to the fullest. [It] was about seeing how far you could go in life. On every level, but especially emotionally. How far down could you go, how seedy could it get, how hard could you hit bottom.
Well said, Kim. And I’d love to see the director’s cut.
In conclusion
Watch this movie for the 80s looks of Kim and Mickey. Watch it for the interesting D/s romance between the leads. And for the famous food-scene (below). Just don’t watch it too often. And if you are going to use it as inspiration, do not take their lack of communication as an example. Talk, listen and negotiate. And watch the clip below for the best way to keep your relationship interesting. (Food’s always the answer.)
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