Life | Love | Movies
Powerful Life Lessons From Indecent Proposal You Need to Know
Exploring Love, Morality, and Choices Through the Iconic 90s Film
Which would you choose? Love or money? That’s the age-old question that still rings true today. One of the most iconic movies of all time, Indecent Proposal, asked this very same question.
Indecent Proposal was an iconic movie and well ahead of its time where moral issues such as sex and money was not considered everyday light conversation.
The movie came out in 1993, starring Robert Redford as billionaire John Gage, Demi Moore as Diana Murphy, and Woody Harrelson as David Murphy.
The movie makes us contemplate whether there a limit to what money can buy? Can it buy love, or people for that matter? What would you do for money? Are the lines drawn in the sand blurred for the right amount of money?
The story revolves around a happily married couple, Diana and David Murphy. They were high school sweethearts who married at a young age. David is an architect working at a small firm. The couple decided to build their dream home, but then the financial recession struck. David was laid off from his job, leaving Diana as the primary breadwinner for the family. They faced the possibility of losing everything they had, including the house they had only just begun to construct. In an effort to regain their financial footing, David borrowed money from his father and suggested that Diana go to Las Vegas to try to turn their fortunes around.
The couple went to the Hilton in Las Vegas, and this is where their fate took an unexpected turn. They met billionaire John Gage, who spotted Diana in the hotel lobby and immediately decided he wanted to be with her. He offered the couple one million dollars for one night with Diana. They accepted his offer, believing that their love was stronger than a single night with a stranger and that the million dollars was life-changing, while one night was just that — only one night.
I recently rewatched the movie, and as an adult, I find myself viewing it from a more human perspective rather than a purely moral one. By diving deeper into the characters with fresh eyes, I see that there are powerful life lessons we can take away from their experiences.
David Murphy
When we first meet David, he is depicted as an average, next-door type of guy — the kind you would invite over for a barbecue with the family, watch football with, and relax at the neighborhood bar. David is neither remarkable nor impressive.
Initially, we root for David and his wife, Diana, as they seem genuinely in love and supportive of each other. They were high school sweethearts who have stayed together. However, as the movie progresses, we discover that David is barely putting in effort in everything he does.
When he lost his job at the architecture firm, he told Diana that he would wait tables or drive a cab to make ends meet, do anything to keep them afloat. What happened was the exact opposite. In the middle of the night, David asked his wife to go to Vegas to gamble what little money they had in an attempt to get rich quick and solve all of their problems.
Everything that David does is based on impulse. After the agreement was signed for Diana to spend the night with John for one million dollars, David had a change of heart and rushed to John’s suite. Near the end of the movie, when David and Diana are in the process of divorce, David decides to give the one million dollars to charity.
In an ideal world, men like David are great. When there are no recessions, retrenchment, and doing the bare minimum is enough, men like David can thrive. But the real world is not so ideal. David has proven time and time again that his obsession and self-focus get in the way of not only his progression in life but also those around him.
Diana Murphy
Diana Murphy reminds me of the girl next door, beautiful and sweet. In the beginning of the movie, David mentions that Diana helps him with her income from selling real estate. After the recession hits, she was the main bread winner.
Throughout the movie, we see Diana as the sensible force between two men vying for her. In the beginning, when she and David won twenty five thousand dollars at the casino, David kept playing and lost. She reminded him that they had promised to not go below five thousand dollars which was the money that they originally started with.
When John made the one million dollar offer, Diana was the one that suggested to David that one night comes and goes but that money could change their lives.
After she and David received the one million dollars, they found out that the house they were building was taken by the bank and sold to a company that belonged to John. Diana then confronted John about it in the middle of a crowded restaurant and demanded that he gives them their house back.
Throughout the movie, Diana’s maternal instincts are evident as she consistently seeks to protect and help David. While women are often naturally nurturing, there are times when it is important to prioritize our own well-being. As the film illustrates, men sometimes do not have women’s best interests at heart.
In our youth we like to believe that money isn’t everything, and love conquers all, much like Diana did in the movie. However, we live in the real world and love does not conquer all, reality bites, and we must face it head on. This includes making choices that are good for ourselves even though we may not want them.
The choice that Diana should have made in the movie was to stay with John. Yes, Diana was not madly in love with John as she did with David, but then again, we can see that all the love she had for David only brought her misery, losing her home and also having to sleep with a stranger to get out of financial troubles.
There’s so much talk about love these days, on what an ideal love should look like and what people should bring into the relationship, that nobody thinks about what love really means.
What is not often discussed is that love goes beyond lust and loyalty. Loving someone also means ensuring their safety and security. In this case, John was able to provide more safety and security to Diana than David ever could. That was John’s way of showing her his love for her. My mother often said that we can learn to love someone in time.
A man like John was not hard to love. Throughout the movie, he always puts Diana’s wants and needs first and always listens to her. Whether it was offering to buy her a dress she could not afford, or even furnishing his house with new furniture and dogs because she said that that was what his house needed.
As adults, we must acknowledge the fact that people come into our lives for a season and a reason.
Not everything is meant to last forever nor should it. Diana in her 30s was no longer the same woman who fell in love with David in high school. She never accepted the fact that she was now an adult with adult needs and problems and hung on to the image of her puppy love with David.
John Gage
John Gage is the kind of man that every man aspires to be and every woman hopes to be with. He is mature, intelligent, savvy, sophisticated, and, most importantly, kind.
Bruno Mars once sang, “I wanna be a billionaire.” However, after watching Indecent Proposal and observing John Gage, I can’t help but wonder if we are truly ready to encounter someone like him. A wise woman once told me that rich men are like apex predators; that’s how they achieved their wealth.
John was determined to win over Diana, pursuing her relentlessly. He understood her needs and desires, which contributed to his success in business. His persistence and patience ultimately paid off, as he managed to win Diana over, despite her repeated rejections throughout the movie.
In the film, John offers Diana and David a million dollars, which initially sounds impressive. However, it becomes clear as the story unfolds that John never used his own money. The million dollars he gave to Diana and David came from the winnings he received at a casino. From the very beginning, John was adept at getting what he wanted without risking anything of his own.
Afterwards, John made sure that he would see or hear from Diana again by buying the home that she was building with David, which was the primary reason they went to Vegas. This was a calculated move to ensure that Diana had no option but to reconnect with him, even though she and David now had the funds to continue building their dream house.
John then pursued Diana further by visiting her workplace under the guise of a potential client looking for a home. He also went to the location where she volunteered to teach citizenship classes. John’s behavior was predatory; he wore Diana down and relentlessly chased her, doing so in subtle ways that would be hard to recognize for someone experiencing it.
Rich people like John are rich because they have the drive, they seize the right opportunities that are presented their way and they don’t take no for an answer. In contrast to David, who relies on get-rich-quick schemes, John is miles ahead in the race.
Which is why as women, we need to not only think about ourselves in our future but also our children. In real life, Diana should have chosen John over David, as John would have been a better father to any child Diana might have in the future.
Movies are great in that they portray the ideal situation. The ending of Indecent Proposal where Diana and David got back together was poetic and a beautiful ending. But sadly real life doesn’t work that way. Real life isn’t like the movies, the theater curtains don’t come to a close and the credits don’t roll in the end.
As a teenager, watching Indecent Proposal for the first time, I was happy that David and Diana got back together and that the million dollars no longer stood in their way. It felt reassuring to see that true love conquers all, just like in the fairy tales we grew up with.
However, watching the film with fresh eyes as an adult, I’ve realized that men often do not have women’s best interests at heart. It is ultimately up to women to choose what is best for themselves.
In the case of Indecent Proposal, I believe that Diana should have chosen John. This choice isn’t based solely on the fact that he is a billionaire, but rather because he is a man who is secure in himself. He knows what he wants and how to achieve it. He is comfortable in his masculinity and supportive of the woman he is with.
As adults, we all want that riding-to-the-sunset type of love story — at least in our 20s and 30s. However, when we get to our 40s, we realize that what we really want is a partner.
A partner who can take the lead, who understands us, but most of all who is secured in themselves to be able to become a partner and not a burden in the first place.
Looking back at Indecent Proposal made me realize that in life, we can’t always follow our hearts, because often in life, we find that what we want and what we need are two very different things.
