As one of the most iconic scenes in movie history, Cher as Loretta Castorini smacking the shit out of Ronny Cammareri (Nicholas Cage) and telling him to “Snap out of it!” in Moonstruck has a certain retroactive cachet. Not just because the sight of Cher hitting a man is ultimately one of the most powerful feminist images of the twentieth century, but because Ronny so overtly got off on the pain. More acutely, the pain felt so right it left him completely unfazed.
While both might be masochists, it is Loretta in this particular moment who takes pleasure in the sadistic act of putting Ronny in his place. In being the “dominator” and trying to subjugate his will with her shock tactic. One that comes after Ronny confesses, “I’m in love with you.” This after they’ve spent the night in carnal bliss while Loretta’s husband-to-be and Ronny’s brother, Johnny, (Danny Aiello) is away in the old country. Loretta gives him a double slap in response before delivering her immortal line. But it doesn’t deter Ronny any more than being bound and gagged would.
Instead he seems titillated by Loretta anew, searching for some reply that might accurately convey his feelings. In that time and place, the phrase had not yet been coined. It would take eleven more years for Britney Spears to accurately communicate what Ronny was feeling when he thought to himself, “Hit me baby, one more time.” While everyone knows by now that Britney meant the term in the distinct vernacular of the late 90s/early 00s (that is to say, it translates to, “Call me again”–you know, like, “Hit me up”), it doesn’t change how well the message applies to Ronny. Who sort of interpreted it in the more Phil Spector way of, “He hit me, and it felt like a kiss” (or rather, “She hit me, and it felt like a kiss”).
Of course, he didn’t just mean it literally. He wanted to be hit again and again by the pain of a love so ardent and pure for Loretta that he knew it might damn him to ruin. Because whenever a person loves someone so intensely, there’s always a terrifying risk that the hurt involved will be far greater than the often ephemeral pleasure enjoyed. Which is precisely why Loretta’s mom, Rose (Olympia Dukakis), is so pleased that her daughter doesn’t love Johnny. It assures her that their marriage might actually stand a chance.
As for Ronny, the idea of losing Loretta (and to his stronzo of a brother, no less) would feel like a far more agonizing lifelong pummeling than the “hurts so good” slap that she not only provides physically, but that an ill-advised relationship with her would entail. Sure, they might be risking the condemnation of both their families, and people might look at them strangely when they walked down the street should Loretta ever decide to go back to her salt-and-pepper hair aesthetic (so few can “tolerate” an “older” woman with a “younger” man).
But it would be worth it. Because it would mean the presence of that delightful sting of Loretta’s slap on his face for the rest of his life–a masochist’s dream. It would mean they could both have the kind of fiery, passionate love that only Britney adequately put into words on her signature debut single possibly as a result of solely preteens and teens still having this kind of faith in a romance so all-consuming before being jaded by what comes after high school.
And if Loretta hadn’t given in to her corporeal desire that second night spent with Ronny at the opera, he would have surely crawled back to his apartment, cowered in a small corner of his bathroom and softly whispered, “Give me a sign. Hit me, baby, one more time.” Luckily, Loretta was all too happy to deliver without Ronny having to do much needling (save for the kind achieved with his cazzo italiano).
