Boxing Helena
| Boxing Helena | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Jennifer Chambers Lynch |
| Produced by |
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| Screenplay by | Jennifer Chambers Lynch |
| Story by | Philippe Caland |
| Starring |
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| Music by | Graeme Revell |
| Cinematography |
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| Edited by | David Finfer |
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Production
company |
Main Line Pictures
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| Distributed by | Orion Classics |
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Release date
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Running time
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105 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $1.8 million |
Boxing Helena is a 1993 American romantic mystery thriller film with horror elements directed by Jennifer Lynch, and starring Sherilyn Fenn, Julian Sands, and Bill Paxton. The plot follows a surgeon whose growing obsession with a woman leads him to amputate her limbs and hold her captive in his home after she suffers a car accident.
The film garnered notoriety prior to its release after protracted legal battles with Madonna and Kim Basinger, both of whom backed out of the leading role of Helena. It debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January 1993, where it received critical praise. After receiving an NC-17 rating by the MPAA, the film was given an R-rating on appeal and released in the United States in September 1993, but received critical backlash and was a financial failure.
Nick Cavanaugh is a lonely Atlanta surgeon obsessed with a woman named Helena. After she suffers a high grade tibial fracture in a hit-and-run motor vehicle accident in front of his home, he kidnaps and treats her in his house surreptitiously, amputating both of her legs above the knee. Later, he amputates her healthy arms above the elbow after she tries to choke him.
Though Helena is the victim of Nick's kidnapping and mutilation, she dominates the dialogue with her constant ridiculing of him for all of his shortcomings.
Eventually, Cavanaugh's actions are discovered by one of Helena's former co-workers. During a physical confrontation, Cavanaugh is killed, only to wake up and realize that the entire ordeal had been a dream he had at a hospital during Helena's surgery after the car accident.
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Wikipedia