A Moral Examination of Roger Kumble's "Cruel Intentions"

I can't remember ever seeing a film with more moral problems and issues than Roger Kumbles Cruel Intentions. Although the film is intended to be a dark comedy and a teenage version of Dangerous Liaisons, Cruel Intentions is a mature and often shocking look at a potential realistic situation played up as a fantasy tale that offers a sickening example of the moral decay present in our society. Morals seem to change from generation to generation, and as time goes on it seems that at one time what was disgusting and immoral in our society is now second nature and pure entertainment for today's generation. An example of this might be to take the idea of a show consisting of uncensored sexual intercourse, and having it actually become a feasible form of entertainment in the future. But even if we never reach that repulsive depth of moral depravity, what the teenagers in today's society see as purely fun and entertainment, the adults in the same environment might decipher as sick and morally wrong. It is a mix of both this idea and the movie's extremely risqué' and at times graphic message, that in my opinion would make adults of past generations hate this film.

In our every day lives sibling rivalry is as ancient as humanity itself, but in Cruel Intentions it is taken to a whole new level. The film is centered around the immoral lives of Sebastian Valmont (Ryan Phillipe) and his stepsister Kathryn (Sarah Michelle Gellar), who both live together away from their divorced parents, and are spoiled beyond reality by a rich inheritance. Sebastian and Kathryn love to play, but not in the "it's-just-for-fun" way. They love to dehumanize other people, and concur them as sexual conquests. However it's more than a game between the two, i...

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...around comes around, as Kathryn's life from that point on was ruined just as she had ruined (ended) Sebastian's.

Overall I felt this movie was extremely well done. The cinematography and art direction were beautiful and the acting was superb. The film took me through the lives of people who had no conscious, and- no morals and the damage that resulted from it. Its themes were mature in the sense that the situations in this movie that would normally contain adults were written onto teens that in my opinion were almost too wise beyond their years. The movies content was beyond immoral and the fact that the film was centered on youth and hardly ever showed an adult with more than a line proved its focus on moral decay. All in all I was highly intrigued by this movie and felt that the director did a wonderful job with his 90210 interpretation of Dangerous Liaisons.