The Burning Bed

source: The Burning Bed

This has to be the best TV Movie ever created. Directed by the same guy who directed Xanadu.... [??? How's that possible? He also directed WALMART: the High Cost of Low Prices, too] His direction of The Burning Bed is superb, to say the least. You really feel as though her fear and terror are your own through claustrophobic cinematography in the scenes where she's being attacked. The dignity the cast and director were able to conjure for this sad story is far better than television deserves. The violence she imparts upon her husband gives her no satisfaction for she is not a malicious or vengeful woman. I believe this movie has inspired countless women to leave abusive relationships since the first day it aired and more so as time has passed. Through it's ability to reach such a wide audience and it's star power, the attention it drew to the issue of battered women could be considered nothing less than a milestone.

This was an excellent movie about what battering can do to the person that it is happening to. I commend Francine for what she did. That goes to show you if your nasty you will get a nasty taste of medicine at some point or another in your Lifetime. Not guilty by reason of temporary insanity is a reasonable defense and verdict to me in the right situation. It's very hard to live with someone who is violent. I'm not saying that it is okay to kill someone, because it most certainly is not. But when you're in that situation things can happen that you don't want to happen. Kudos to the cast, crew and filmmakers. Two Thumbs Way Up! Update: I saw here as I was looking at other comments here the other day that someone wanted an update. I have a special people magazine with true crime stories in it and one about this case called, "Burning Down The House", is in it telling the basic facts. I have also read the book, and it said in the epilogue that Francine and her kids, after three years were doing very well and she was going to school to become a nurse. Her kids had no reports of problems either. Francine also helps out now informing people about the causes and effects of domestic violence.

It is refreshing to watch an actress finally get the dramatic role she deserves, instead of just playing eye candy in banal films that are forgettable. There is a true story here, and Paul LeMat portrays the abusive and manipulative husband. This film does not sugar-coat domestic violence, and the verbal, psychological and physical damage done to this woman is unconscionable. The audience is also made aware of the in-laws, and their denial (well-portrayed by Grace Zabriskie, as Fawcett's mother-in-law.) The children as victims of this unstable environment are affecting and tragic. Overall an excellent film one may want to view with a friend caught up in such a horrible situation. NO woman should ever tolerate this treatment from ANY man. Domestic violence is still an issue in our "civilized" society, unfortunately, and needs to be recognized. 8/10.

As a child who grew up in an abusive home I remember watching this movie when I was about 7 or 8 and being able to identify with everything from the lack of family support (or acknowledgment that there was even something wrong) to the total disregard from law enforcement. This is an excellent film that displays the hell women have experienced (and are still continuing to experience) at the hands of abusive tyrants. Francine Hughes is the personification of strength and may God bless her!!

The dramatic action of this made-for-TV movie is incredibly sad, but what is sadder is the host of questionable attitudes and false notions it tends to instill in viewers. I saw this film in high school, as part of a lesson on marital relationships in our Christian studies class (I went to a Catholic school). The atrocities which Mickey and Francine inflicted on each other disturbed me immensely, but my fellow students seemed to relish each and every one of them. I heard laughter and lots of gleeful cries like "Woohoo!" and Yeah!" when Francine set Mickey on fire. This is not to say that they actually enjoyed the violence; I guess they just saw Mickey as the stereotypical Southern redneck and were happy to see him reinforce their prejudices and then get his just deserts. THE BURNING BED not only cheapens respect for human life, but also glorifies vigilante murder and appears to insinuate that men born south of the Mason-Dixon line have an innate tendency toward brutality and other heinous acts. I don't think TV movies like this one should be made so often. No family is perfect, but I'm positive that most families do not want to see themselves torn apart on the screen. Why don't the TV people keep violence on the streets where it belongs?

I loved the movie. I now want to read the book because I hear that it is much more detailed than the movie, of course. I was just wondering how Francine and her kids were doing since that People's magazine article in 1984. I read a little about her remarrying and the trouble her kids went through and she also. No wonder. Even though that no good Mickey was gone, there's no way you can erase 14 years of mental, physical, and emotional abuse clean. I was not surprised her life went spiraling downward. The woman, and her kids, needed continuing help in order to lead a somewhat normal life and, no doubt, she did not get it. I just wonder how she's doing today. I hope she's okay. That poor woman deserves a badge of honor or a purple heart for the war she fought for 14 years. God bless her.

The war between the genders (for that's what it was in the 70s and 80s) is an odd one because both sides have to learn not only to sleep with the enemy but to live with him or her. This particular movie exemplifies fantasy number one of the American mythos: the hapless victim, which is particularly appealing to some women. (Fantasy number two is the conquering hero, which is appealing to some men.) Maybe the early 1980s was a time when a movie like this needed to be made. The government was reluctant to intrude into family matters, and the prevailing idea was that the family should be preserved since it is a holy bond. We hadn't yet come to the realization that some families are just not worth saving. Perhaps this was an object lesson in changing ethics and social values and it was a good idea to make it. Having said that, it is not, in retrospect, a very good movie. Farrah Fawcett garnered a good deal of praise at the time for her performance and I don't think most of us can now be sure why. She looks mostly put upon. Also, she's a tough and beautiful woman and seems to have sufficient resources to find other ways out of her dilemma. (And given her brains, her thirst for education, her general savvy -- when will she stop believing her husband's lies, however well intentioned they might be?) Still, I'd rather have her in this part that some appallingly helpless waif like, say, Mia Farrow. (Aren't looks sometimes deceiving?) Paul LeMatt is unconvincing as Doctor Jeykll and over the top as Mister Hyde, not helped by the director poking the camera lens in his face as he froths out of his mouth while playing cat and mouse with his bloodied wife, before bloodying her a bit more and rubbing her face in garbage. Anyone who thinks this is a typical American household has never met my ex wife! Of course LeMatt should be punished for his treatment of anyone like Farrah Fawcett. A bit of consensual spanking, maybe, but he goes way over the top. I don't believe for a moment that Farrah's mother backed up her son-in-law, unless something very strange was going on that we never find out about. And speaking of that, it would be interesting to find out exactly what was going on between Farrah and LeMatt. As in all murder trials we are stuck exclusively with the defendant's explanation of what happened because the murder victim is conveniently dead. The movie forces two moral lessons upon us. First, spousal abuse is a serious problem in some families and women need resources that, in the 1970s, were simply not available. That has, fortunately, been partially taken care of. Not by governmental intrusion so much as by changing social circumstances. Families have fewer children, for one thing, and this in itself contributes to the liberation of married women from some of their household responsibilities. And women are now routinely accepted as educable. There are more females in college now than men. They can even go to formerly all-male bastions of bonding like The Citadel and West Point. They can now even patronize McSorley's Old Ale House, one of my favorite pubs, in New York! At least for middle-class women, they now have chances to develop marketable skills, which makes it easier to get out of an abusive relationship. And the courts too are more sympathetic to their plight. The second moral lesson, which I find unacceptable, is that if your spouse continuously mistreats you, you can burn him alive. The movie tells us that this is justified. When the "not guilty" verdict rolls around at the end, the score swells with triumphant music. Women weep and embrace one another in their victory. Everything is now okay; the guy has been barbecued by his wife. Terrific. Now let's all go home and make fudge. The solution to the problem of spousal mistreatment lies not in violence. (That's not the solution, that's the problem.) The solution lies in negotiation, as we all know already, outside of our fantasies. That's how the real world works.

This has to be the best TV Movie ever created. Directed by the same guy who directed Xanadu....[??? How's that possible? He also directed WALMART: the High Cost of Low Prices, too] His direction of The Burning Bed is superb, to say the least. You really feel as though her fear and terror are your own through claustrophobic cinematography in the scenes where she's being attacked. The dignity the cast and director were able to conjure for this sad story is far better than television deserves. The violence she imparts upon her husband gives her no satisfaction for she is not a malicious or vengeful woman. I believe this movie has inspired countless women to leave abusive relationships since the first day it aired and more so as time has passed. Through it's ability to reach such a wide audience and it's star power, the attention it drew to the issue of battered women could be considered nothing less than a milestone.

The Burning Bed (1984) is a story about a woman who kills her husband after 13 years of domestic abuse. I first decided to watch this movie after hearing about Francine Hughe's (Farrah Fawcett) court case in a domestic violence documentary about "battered woman syndrome". I was hoping to watch something relatively impartial since it's supposed to be "based on a true story" and the subject matter of domestic abuse is a sensitive topic. I'm sorry to say that my expectations weren't met. The Burning Bed is nothing more than dramatised propaganda marketed as a "true story" in order to get more people to watch it. The message was made clear from the very start: Men = Violent, wife beating drunkards Women = Innocent victims To make matters worse, in the court scene they only showed her defence without any cross examination by the prosecution. After all we don't need to see that, right? There's no need for questions! We should just have blind faith in her completely "unbiased" solicitor who is paid to be her defence! There's no need for a prosecution scene really! She was innocent until proven innocent. What is by far the worst thing about this movie is that it tries very hard to justify the premeditated murder of Mickey Hughes (Paul Le Mat). She set fire to him in his sleep and burnt him alive in an attack that could never be described as self-defence. The moral of the story is that it's OK to kill your husband if he beats you. If your partner is being violent then just be even more violent back! Just imagine a world where men who had killed their wives were celebrated by having movies made in honour of them! If you can get over the one-dimensional characters, unrealistic scripting and predictable story line then there's actually some half decent acting going on here. Paul Le Mat plays (Mickey Hughes) a convincing wife beater and Farrah Fawcett (Francine Hughes) plays a convincing victim. If you decide to watch this movie just remember to take everything with a pinch of salt. Unfortunately nobody will ever really know if he beat her or not since a dead man can't defend himself. RIP.