Boxing Helena

Nick Cavanaugh is a lonely Atlanta surgeon obsessed with Helena, a beautiful woman with whom he had one intimate experience, but she feels disdain for him. After she suffers a high-grade tibial fracture in a hit-and-run motor vehicle collision in front of his home, Nick kidnaps Helena and surreptitiously treats her in his home, amputating both her legs above the knee and torturing her in an attempt to control her and his obsession over her. Later, after she tries to choke him, Nick amputates her arms above the elbow.

Though Helena is the victim of Nick's kidnapping and mutilation, she dominates the dialogue with constant ridicule of his shortcomings and continues to feel disdain for him and even despise him. However, at the end of the film, it is revealed all this was a dream Helena had while in the hospital for her tibial facture based on her fear of her body being hurt.

• Sherilyn Fenn as Helena[8]
• Julian Sands as Nick Cavanaugh
• Bill Paxton as Ray O'Malley
• Kurtwood Smith as Alan Palmer
• Art Garfunkel as Lawrence Augustine
• Betsy Clark as Anne Garrett
• Nicolette Scorsese as Fantasy Lover/Nurse
• Meg Register as Marion Cavanaugh
• Bryan Smith as Russell
• Marla Levine as Patricia
• Kim Lentz as Nurse Diane
• Lloyd T. Williams as Sam the Clerk

Producer Philippe Caland came up with the idea, but wanted a woman to write it, and so approached Lynch after she gave a poetry reading.[9] At first, Lynch declined to get involved, reportedly telling him "Well, that sounds kind of terrible."[9] But Caland was eventually able to convince her to work on it. In writing, Lynch was inspired by some elements from her own childhood, telling Vice that being born with club feet, and her grandmother owning a Venus de Milo replica, influenced her insight into the characters:[9]

It always struck me the way people looked at the Venus. They didn't see her as broken, they saw her as beautiful. And it really made a huge impact on me. I thought I was broken and that maybe someday someone would find me beautiful. So this idea of a damaged boy who was in an obsessive situation who would try to recreate from his own view the one thing that didn't hit him or abandon him was this armless, beautiful woman. And therefore in a dream recreate this obsessive thing where we take from one another until we are the size and shape that we think the other person should be for us.[9]

Madonna was slated to play Helena, but shortly before filming was to begin in January 1991 she dropped out, halting the production.[10] The next month, in an attempt to salvage the film, Lynch met with Kim Basinger about playing Helena. Basinger agreed, but closer to the new filming date she began requesting what The New York Times called "major script revisions", which according to producer Mazzocone amounted to making Helena "less of a bitch". After the production failed to make the changes to Basinger's satisfaction she also quit the picture.[10]

Legal battles involving both stars then ensued.[11] Eventually Basinger was the subject of an adverse jury verdict for over $8.1 million,[12] which bankrupted her. The verdict was set aside on appeal in 1994,[13][14] but Basinger later settled for $3.8 million.[15][6]

Meanwhile, Fenn, who had previously worked with Lynch's father on Twin Peaks, was cast as Helena in December 1991.[10] By this time a third major star, Ed Harris, had also backed out of the film due to the ever-increasing delays, telling The New York Times, "I needed to get on with my life."[10]

Boxing Helena premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 1993 and was theatrically released by Orion Classics in the United States on September 3, 1993, Entertainment Film Distributors in the United Kingdom on June 18, 1993, and Republic Pictures in other international territories.[2]

The film received largely negative reviews from critics upon release and was widely considered to be of poor quality,[17] despite garnering praise at Sundance. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 17% score based on 36 reviews, with an average rating of 3.8/10. The website's consensus reads, "A disturbing concept marred by graceless execution, Boxing Helena is a psychosexual drama that proves more tedious than provocative."[18] Metacritic reports a 26 out of 100 rating based on 14 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". However, at least two major film critics thought the film had been unjustly maligned. Chicago Tribune critic Gene Siskel was one of the few positive notices, giving the film three out of four stars.[19] Also positive was Janet Maslin, who wrote in the New York Times that "As it turns out, Ms. Lynch has both talent and a point. Her film is by no means the gory, exploitative quasi-pornography that it sounds like from afar."[20]

The film was referenced in the television series Gilmore Girls (S3E7: "They Shoot Gilmores, Don't They?"), as well as The Nanny (S1E22: "I Don't Remember Mama"). The film also inspired the song "Helena" by Misfits from their album Famous Monsters and "Helena 2" from their album Cuts from the Crypt.[22][23]

The film's title was used as the name of an episode of the sixth season of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, when Will Smith's character takes boxing lessons from an attractive instructor named Helena.

The fifth season finale of Daria, "Boxing Daria", takes inspiration from the film's title.

• List of American films of 1993
• Amputee fetishism

• Boxing Helena at IMDb
• Boxing Helena at Box Office Mojo
• Boxing Helena at Rotten Tomatoes
• Boxing Helena at Metacritic
• Boxing Helena, A Film Review by James Berardinelli