"The Thomas Crowne Affair"
1999 (Various editions of this movie with different characters)
R
113 minutes

This is a perfect example of how the culture adjusts to the oppressive relations
of class-ridden and patriarchal society. We call it eroticizing power. A billionaire 
1) hires crooks to steal art, 2) turns them in to police while stealing
the art himself, 3) bribes a womyn investigator so she would turn a blind eye and
seduces her, 4) gets one of his friend's daughters in trouble with the law 
--and this film takes all of this and manages to show how it is all so attractive and worthy of "love."

Thomas Crowne is a young billionaire. His movie star looks are not really
the point of this movie. The point is that he is busy in the business world doing
big deals and making lots of money when he gets bored and decides for fun to steal
art work at a museum where he is the main benefactor.

Along comes the romantic interest, a high-paid likely millionaire insurance investigator
who as of yet does not have Crowne's way with money, for what
reason, the movie does not give. She does not know how
to hide money like he does and has not managed to spend it in his flamboyant ways, and thus
settles into the relatively poor, inexperienced-in-life kind of womyn type of role despite her
obvious skills in the insurance profession. Perhaps it is enough to say that she is a recent
millionaire from Ohio and he is a long-term billionaire.

When she uncovers his plot to steal art works, he successfully attempts seduction and offers
her a bribe double what her insurance company is paying. She dates him as part of her business
responsibility to track down the art. The police detective in connection to the case points out that
it goes beyond her duty, but with $5 million at stake if she recovers the art work, she is highly
paid as a prostitute.

This movie succeeds with its audience, which will overlook the obvious and say that the
two individuals made "choices." In fact, no matter what she does, her sexuality is tied to power.
Even if she retires to a nunnery, it would be in reaction to the society's intertwining of sex and power.
Thus we at MIM find it uninteresting that the two people attempt to escape the 
intertwining of sex and power as it exists. They cannot succeed and calm reflection on this
movie would prove it.

All is not good being a billionaire in this society mixing up sex and power. He imagines the
image of porcupine mating to draw a parallel to his own situation. He arranges to make the
investigator jealous to see if her emotions for him are real. At the same time, she has a lot of 
money at stake to do a good job "acting" either way--whether she chooses the billionaire
or her insurance profession.

In the end, the insurance investigator turns in the billionaire to the cops. She then learns that
her jealousy is misplaced and regrets her decision. Despite her turning him in to the cops, he
takes her back when she changes her mind. We communists see "The Thomas Crowne Affair"
as a horror film except that it is about reality and requires no special effects or monsters, but 
this is the best that capitalism can offer as a happy ending.

This movie is the perfect element of what we Marxists call the "superstructure" protecting relations
of exploitation and oppression. If wimmin did not fall in love with rich men, there would be a big problem
in society given that men make more money than wimmin while they are alive (and imperialist country 
wimmin make up a lot of ground in asset ownership in retirement ages.) For whatever reason,
society does not accept the idea that all wimmin are whores of various types, so it is necessary
to tip-toe around the question of falling in love with rich men. Since men and wimmin 
are not economically equal and since there are classes, the culture adjusts to that to smooth it out.
"The Thomas Crowne Affair" is the perfect adjustment movie, making it sexy to love power. It is 
part of reactionary culture while culture that helps us imagine another way of organizing our society
is progressive culture.

The concluding scene of the movie belongs in the top 10 "All-Amerikkkan" scenes, because
it starts out with our couple physically fighting, then kissing and then with a focus on her
lipstick-painted lips saying "if you ever pull a stunt like that again, I'll break both your arms." So
ends the movie on the perfect combination of sex and violence.