Friday, May 06, 2011

Sex, Violence, and Obama

No Gratuities, Please
Stopping Obama Plagues

Gratuitous sex and violence

I just watched a quite excellent crime thriller from Argentina, last year's Academy Award winner The Secret in Their Eyes. It revolves around the violent rape and murder of a young housewife. The scene showing her obscenely battered and nude body, as found by the policia,  is revisited several times.  So I'm thinking, was this gratuitous? Could this movie have been made without this explicit scene, without losing any of its artistic value?   Yes.  No question about it.  That prompted me to ask again, has there ever been a nude scene, or gruesome violence depicted in a movie that was pivotal to its artistic value?  I can't say no, never.  Just, no, I can't think of one. 

This exercise led me to a profound observation.  The ugly state of our union today is entirely caused by the graphic violent crime and sex found in recent films.  But, not necessarily for the reason you may think.

Because the modern film maker displays everything, there is nothing left to imagine.  That's it, the profundity.  Use it or lose it. We are become a nation of people who can't see anything that's not served up before our eyes.  Did your dad see Veronica Lake naked in her films?  Absolutely.  Right there in his head.  And she never looked better.

Granted, young boys couldn't quite get there, because they lacked the building blocks —  until some  Timmy Hill brought that magazine to school one day.  I'm suggesting that recent generations have lost the ability to see anything that's not placed right in front of them.  The result is they are prone to accept everything that is shown.  The result is President Bill Clinton, President  Barack Obama, and a congress so rancid and corrupt only a baby can recognize it. 

So, there you have it. This post will double as my post graduate thesis.  Tomorrow I'll be a Doctor of Thinking. 


11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sharon Stone in The Muse.

Casca

Michelle Obama's Left Nut said...

Schindler's List is a perfect example of where sex and violence adds to the film.

The same could be said of Body Heat.

Anonymous said...

Fifi has just corrected me. Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct.

OK, I remember the BJ scene in Body Heat, but where did she get naked?

Casca

Rodger the Real King of France said...

Oddly enough I considered Sharon Stone's iconic Basic Instinct crotch shot. I finally asked myself whether this movie would have garnered the same ticket sales had Marilyn Monroe starred in it in 1959 - with only the hint of skin. I think yes. And Boris Karloff used to scare the crap out of me.

I'm standing pat.

Anonymous said...

Yes, Rodger, you are right. And, it's better in one's imagination. The best strippers don't strip.
mary

Anonymous said...

So imagine you get a chance to get Bin Laden. You know where he is. You've been scoping out his hideout for months. You've been eavesdropping on his conversation. Hell you even hacked his PS3 for fun and took out the whole network because you know he's been using it to communicate with Al Qaeda. Why just kill him immediately? And what's all this with a burial at sea? Just put a few stupid words in the mouth of Obama and everybody believes it - stupid people because they're gullible and smart people because they think they're smarter.

C'mon. You don't get your mitts on Bin Laden just to kill him, and you don't have 40 SEALs who are too slow to tackle the dude. There's is no picture because he's not dead yet. They're twisting him on a spit and slow roasting him until he's so tender the secrets just drip of the bones. They've got him simmering in pentathol.

By the way, does anybody think the exfil was done all in one swoop? There are still dudes back in the area slurping up traffic.

When I first heard the story break, I could have sworn it was a week delayed. But there was live tweeting going on by locals who heard the helo crash but didn't know what it was. They thought it was a drone attack. Anyway I was sure that there were networks to roll up in advance of the announcement. But it looks Obama had to speak fairly quickly about the 'kill' before the real-time world caught up with him. Still, our men in camo and blackface know how to get out of Dodge under the cover of darkness leaving no trail, so nobody knows exactly how they humped OBL out of the middle of Pakistan to 'the sea'. That's a dark trail - so dark that in fact OBL could be anywhere.

He's certainly not free or missing, that's for sure. He's never going to see the light of day. But is he dead at this very moment? You will never know.

Anonymous said...

Secret in their eyes, though - great flick, I thought. There was no more graphic violence, really.

jd

Alear said...

Horse head in bed: Not gratuitous.

clem said...

The Big Lebowski. Fleeting, and perfectly appropriate for explaining Maude's character.

Anonymous said...

When I first heard the story break, I could have sworn it was a week delayed.

Yup, that is what I heard also. I just applied the 48 hour rule, wait at least one day, usually two before you get a final story.
If he was taken out alive wouldn't the survivors say he was taken out alive?

Anonymous said...

Kinda like reading a Steven King novel. Its way more fun in your head than as a movie. His stuff just doesnt translate to film.

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