Taglines: When fear made her a victim, she turned fear into a weapon.
Extremities movie storyline. In Los Angeles, the gorgeous Marjorie stops her car after-hours in a parking area to buy an ice-cream. However the store has just closed and when she returns to her car, a masked stranger attacks and attempts to rape her using a knife. Marjorie succeeds to flee, but the man keeps her purse with her documents. She goes to the police to report the assault but the female officer tells her that there is no evidence and no case since it is her word against the rapist’s word.
A couple of days later, the rapist breaks in Marjorie’s house while her roommates Patricia and Terry are not at home. The cynical Joe submits Marjories to sadistic abuses and humiliations preparing to rape her. Out of the blue, Marjorie sprays insecticide in Joe’s eyes, reverting the situation dominating Joe and then she ties him up. She decides to bury Joe alive in a grave in her garden since she does not have evidence to keep him in prison and he had promised to return to kill her. But Terry and Patty arrive and try to convince Marjorie to call the police and think about the consequence of her intention. What will she do?
Extremities is a 1986 American thriller film starring Farrah Fawcett, Alfre Woodard, Diana Scarwid and James Russo. It was adapted from the 1982 off-Broadway play of the same name by William Mastrosimone. Both Fawcett and Russo had appeared in the stage play (Fawcett taking over a role originated by Susan Sarandon), and Fawcett received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress for her performance in the film.
Film Review for Extremities
THE smashing, crashing, thrashing battle between Farrah Fawcett and James Russo that takes up about half of ”Extremities” leaves the contestants in a state of exhaustion -and the movie along with them. As Marjorie, the victim-vanquisher of Joe, the aspiring rapist-murderer, Miss Fawcett, who shook off her ”Charlie’s Angels” image several years ago, gives a taut display of terror shading into hysterical hate. She is outraged not only by what Joe wants to do to her but also by the realization of what she is capable of wanting to do to him.
Mr. Russo, who may remind you of Marlon Brando in the years of ”A Streetcar Named Desire” and ”The Wild One,” plays Joe as a self-pitying sadist, most threatening when tender. It’s a compelling performance that narrowly saves the role from seeming like a put-on. ”Kiss me nice,” says Joe in the course of smacking Marjorie, hauling her across the kitchen floor by the hair, throttling her and stepping on her with his lizard boots. ”It doesn’t have to be this way,” he says, but given his needs and Marjorie’s resolve, how else could it be?
Miss Fawcett and Mr. Russo played Marjorie and Joe in the Off Broadway production of William Mastrosimone’s play, so their striking performances in the screen version, which opens today at the Plaza and other theaters, owe something to practice. In his adaptation, Mr. Mastrosimone has ”opened up” his play a little. Here, Joe first attacks Marjorie in her car at night, providing the director, Robert M. Young, with an opportunity to lay on the echoing footsteps, the spooky music, the camera moving menacingly in on the victim. A visit to the police convinces Marjorie that the law will offer no protection against her assailant, who has stolen her wallet, containing her address. There is also a glimpse of Miss Fawcett playing a vigorous game of squash, demonstrating that she is really in shape, which will come in plenty handy later.
Marjorie is alone in the house she shares with two other women when Joe reappears and their battle begins in ferocious earnest. With the help of the ”stunt coordinator,” Jeannie Epper, Miss Fawcett turns the tables – and everything else within reach -on Joe, and by the time her two housemates get home, there’s this battered male all trussed up in the fireplace. But now, ”Extremities” is itself trussed up in the bonds that Mr. Mastrosimone has fashioned for it. Once the fight is over, his play doesn’t budge.
Marjorie’s housemates look at her peculiarly when she requests their assistance in burying Joe in a grave she has dug ”between the tomatoes and the flower bed.” Terry (Diana Scarwid) is scared and reveals that she had been raped by the father of a friend. Her character is so dimly sketched, however, and her connection to the Joe-Marjorie battle so remote that the revelation has about as much impact as learning she once had chicken pox. Patricia (Alfre Woodard) is a social worker, who actually says, ”Let me remind you -he’s a human being just like you and me.” Miss Fawcett has most of the juicy lines. ”No talking to this animal,” she commands. ”He’s mine.” Dialogue does not seem to be Mr. Mastrosimone’s strong suit.
Joe clearly enjoys all the attention. When asked to confess, he replies from the fireplace, ”I’m not saying one more word till I talk to my attorney.” No, you’re not supposed to be laughing. The movie drifts on for a while, into an arbitrary fadeout. In addition to being anticlimactic, the last half-hour offers scant repayment for the exertions of its hardworking, black-and-blue principals.
Extremities (1986)
Directed by: Robert M. Young
Starring: Farrah Fawcett, James Russo, Alfre Woodard, Diana Scarwid, Sandy Martin, Eddie Velez, Tom Everett, Donna Lynn Leavy, Enid Kent, Danika Hendrickson, Clare Wren
Screenplay by: William Mastrosimone
Production Design by: Chester Kaczenski
Cinematography by: Curtis Clark
Film Editing by: Arthur Coburn
Costume Design by: Linda M. Bass
Makeup Department: Steve LaPorte
Music by: J.A.C. Redford
MPAA Rating: R for adult situations, language, nudity, violence.
Distributed by: Paramount Pictures
Release Date: August 22, 1986
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