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| A lot of rhetorical water has passed under
the feminist bridge since The Stepford Wives was first released, yet the film
still scares viewers, particularly women...perhaps it's still too easy to imagine being
forced to join...
By STACI LAYNE WILSON It’s no secret that most men today couldn’t care less if a woman’s breasts are fake. Is it real, or is it mammorex? Doesn’t matter as long as they’re bigger than beach balls (just take a look at Baywatch, The Man Show, or the latest Britney Spears video). Jefferson Starship predicted it: the age of the "Plastic Fantastic Lover" is here… or has it been here for a long time now? Today’s 25-year-old man was just a disk in the drive when The Stepford Wives hit movie theaters across the nation. Perhaps the film had farther-reaching consequences than we think…how many pregnant women went to see that movie?
A lot, for sure--The Stepford Wives was one of the largest moneymaking films of the Seventies. And with the sheer talent working behind the camera, that’s not at all surprising. Nor is it surprising that The Stepford Wives has become a horror/sci-fi classic--sometimes comically dated yes, but still a very watchable film.
The director, Bryan Forbes, helmed such well-known films as Whistle Down The Wind, The L-Shaped Room, Seance On A Wet Afternoon, King Rat, and The Whisperers. Ira Levin, author of the novel upon which The Stepford Wives film was based, penned such deliciously creepy thrillers as A Kiss Before Dying, Rosemary’s Baby, Sliver, and The Boys from Brazil. The screenwriter, William Goldman, adapted Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid six years prior to The Stepford Wives, and the following year gave us All The President’s Men, and Marathon Man. The story begins when Joanna (Katharine Ross) moves with her husband Walter (Peter Masterson) and their two daughters, from Manhattan to the creepily idyllic suburban community of Stepford, Connecticut. The first sign of trouble pops up at a garden party thrown by their neighbors--one of the lovely, refined ladies is short circuiting. She wanders around saying over and over, "I’ll just die if I don’t get that recipe!" Of course, we already know she can’t possibly die. Ever.
Joanna soon discovers that most of the other housewives are vapid creatures who exist only to please their husbands and clean their houses. It’s the swinging seventies, but all the wives wear hats and gloves, and demure high-necked, ankle-length dresses. Their makeup and hair is absolutely Barbie-doll beautiful at all times, whether they’re baking brownies or scrubbing a toilet bowl. Women who worship their husbands, cook and clean, and dress well? It’s just not right! Together with her friend Bobby (Paula Prentiss), also new to Stepford, Joanna decides to get to know her fellow females better by forming a women’s club. The idea is just to sit and chat about their lives, their kids, their marriages, etc.--a ‘bitch-fest’, as bubbly Bobby calls it. Within minutes of the first meeting, talk turns to the best cleaning products, and how very wonderful their dear, do-no-wrong husbands are. When the formerly-feisty Bobby succumbs to the lure of cooking, cleaning and coddling, Joanna figures out that the perfectly beautiful, perfectly coifed, perfectly deferential wives have chips-for-brains. And she’s next.
It turns out that Stepford’s husbands have conspired with chauvinistic scientists to replace all the wives with computerized android duplicates. While the film’s ending did leave me wondering what domineering heterosexual husband in his right mind would consider Katharine Ross in a long, high-necked dress and white gloves an improvement over Katharine Ross in short cut-offs and a halter top, I took it with a grain of silicon and went with it. Hey, it’s a fun, guilty pleasure-- even for those of us who have lifetime subscriptions to Ms. magazine and own every book Gloria Steinem and Camille Paglia ever wrote. The look and feel of the film - everything from the wide ties and wedgie shoes, to the earnestness of the characters and their "rap sessions", to the boat-sized sedans and station wagons - may turn some younger viewers off. Excuse me. they may not be down with it. If nothing else, it'll be a source of great amusement when you tell Junior you used to dress just like that and you can prove it by pulling the tan polyester leisure suit from the dark annals of your closet.
The Stepford Wives has certainly left its mark. When a popular name, title or term enters our lexicon, you know it’s something big. Like "machiavellian" or "puckish" the word "stepford" — indicating robotic or too-perfect behavior — will probably find its way into our dictionaries, eventually. Even kids born after the film’s debut know what a "stepford" is. Being the big thing it was, and earning $4,000,000 domestically, The Stepford Wives opened itself up for sequel treatment. But like the forced, cold unreality of the Stepford wives themselves, the sequels fall flat. Revenge Of The Stepford Wives, starring Sharon Gless in 1980, was actually based on another Ira Levin novel--but even that couldn’t save it. Then in 1987 came The Stepford Children starring Barbara Eden, and finally The Stepford Husbands in 1999 starring Al Gore. (Okay. Just kidding… but the real star, suspiciously spurious Donna Mills, is almost just as droid-like.) Can The Stepford Pets be far behind? (Editor's Note: Staci is the author of Horrors Of The Holy, The Horse's Choice, and other critically acclaimed works. She has recently reviewed the film version of American Psycho on line here. Visit her website.) Not if Hollywood has anything to say about it, Staci. We can see it now...all the dogs will be exact copies of TV's Lassie, except that they won't eat, or bark at night, or leave puddles on the carpet.... Article copyright © Staci Layne Wilson |
