1) I am for free speech (free as in “paid for by a soldier;” nothing is every really “free”).
2) I am for self-censorship (though if you’d heard what Sally was parroting last night, you might not believe that).
1a) I am for movie directors directing whatever the heck they want.
2a) I am for my being able to edit the movies I see.
On Friday night, Dick and I watched Children of Men, edited, courtesy of our ClearPlay DVD player. If I am mistaken about any plot points, I apologize; the editing our filter does is smooth, but it is obvious when something is omitted. Children of Men is a bleak dystopian flick about a future when no women get pregnant and there is great immigrant, etc, unrest. It was moving in that a few characters sacrifice much to protect the woman, Kee (get it, she’s the key), who is pregnant and needs sanctuary.
What I quibble with is what they chose to show and neglected to show about her pregnancy and post-pregnancy. In the scene where Kee reveals her pregnancy to the hero Theo, she strips completely. This is meant to be the opposite of pornographic — a celebration of fertility and maternity and beauty. And it might have been, if another image of fertility and maternity and beauty had accompanied it.
After Kee labors and delivers amid gunfire and hostility, she and Theo are on the run, including in a small boat at the very end, for the rest of the movie. Several times, the baby cries; sometimes her crying is a counterpoint to the gunfire and music. Sometimes, the baby is hungry! Upset! Needing her mommy! What does a mother do when her baby cries? She nurses her. She reveals her breast to her crying child and succors her, comforts her. Not once in that stretch did Kee nurse her baby.
Now, if someone informs me that it was my ClearPlay DVD player that selectively edited this, it’ll go in the trash today. But I don’t think this is the case. What I think is that we have a supremely screwed up sense of what is appropriate.
One of my favorite movies, A Room with a View, has some necessary nudity in it (despite what my scandalized sister might say). Upon meeting George Emerson for the first time, Freddie invites him to come for a swim in a pond. They strip, and jump in. Spot and Cecil surprise them and get an eyeful of some male private parts (hmmm, I should watch this again in light of the circumcision debate; I’m rather uneducated in some matters).
This is nudity at its finest — an expression of joy in nature and innocent fun and unstuffiness, and … If we could have some more of the right kind of nudity in film, perhaps we could dispense with the gratuitous kind.
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You need to see it again, if only to know that your description: “They strip, and jump in.” What they actually do is run around the pond, naked, a few times in what looks like a game of tag. This is very scary for a high school senior, I should add, which is when I saw it. And if it were women running around in “an expression of joy in nature and innocent fun and unstuffiness” would you want your husband watching it? I want my husband as far away from another woman’s naked image as he can be!!
Wow, I’m not making much sense when I’m in a hurry.
…to know that your description is highly inaccurate.
well, i’d much rather he saw that than the pseudo-artsy nudity in titanic or something like that. and most of all, i’d rather he censor himself; it’s certainly my concern, but probably not my job.
…even if it’s an ugly woman’s naked image?
so, if i hadn’t mentioned a room with a view (which i thought of only after seeing what you said about it in your profile), what would you think of what i said about the other movie?
Yes, of course, a nude breast is more natural (appropriate?) to show to feed a baby than the other nude scene you mentioned in that movie, but, come on, nudity is nudity and I think it’s hardly ever appropriate (I know you’ll quibble about the nursing thing/fine art) and NEVER necessary.
I’ve heard of too many heartaches and ruined marriages because of pornography! It’s not a wife’s job to keep her husband from pornography, but I’m sure she can help him stay away from it, if only to be open about it and make decisions together about what they will and will not watch from the media. Yes, it is our concern since it’s so addicting and destructive to families. I think Dad once said he’d rather have a child addicted to drugs than pornography (I’d hate to misquote???).
I guess I should clarify: I consider even moderate “love scenes” in movies to be stepping stones to pornography, and I’d like to stay off (with my hubby) those stones….
so, let me clarify, if someone were to offer you one of Michelangelo’s nudes (statue or mural or sketch) for your house, you would decline?
wow, do you realize, we’ve been arguing about a room with a view for over 10 years? i guess i should go put my kids down for a nap. lunch was quite a success, and, incidentally, has inspired another post.
I honestly think I would decline to have any nudity in my house. I studied nude art in college (a very little) and think I’d like to leave it there in the classroom.
How can I get anything done if you keep posting stuff I have to comment on? I need to get a life!!! Actually, I’m going to go swimming today for the first time this season–an exciting thing for those of us who don’t live in a sunny place year-round.
ok, i won’t post anymore, but, i did wonder, you do not have any tub shots of your kids in those photo albums?
i do. goes in the appropriate category, i guess, still not necessary. i’m not condemning anyone for having nude fine art, just don’t want it myself.