Tuesday, April 4th, 2006,
by Fred (,
AFA, movies, politics
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The blogosphere is abuzz today about complaints from Hollywood that “puritanical” America has led to the demise of the erotic thriller
Paul Verhoeven, director of the first “Basic Instinct” (which scored $353 million worldwide) as well as the widely ridiculed “Showgirls” (now regarded as something of a camp classic), attributes the genre’s demise to the current American political climate.”Anything that is erotic has been banned in the United States,” said the Dutch native. “Look at the people at the top (of the government). We are living under a government that is constantly hammering out Christian values. And Christianity and sex have never been good friends.”
Scribe Nicholas Meyer, who was an uncredited writer on 1987’s seminal sex-fueled cautionary tale “Fatal Attraction,” agrees, noting that the genre’s downfall coincides with the ascent of the conservative political movement.
“We’re in a big puritanical mode,” he said. “Now, it’s like the McCarthy era, except it’s not ‘Are you a communist?’ but ‘Have you ever put sex in a movie?’”
These statements are easily ridiculed, of course. The biggest problem with basic Instinct 2 is not that it had sex in it, but that it was terrible. Good movies with lots of sex still make a lot of money. Bad movies tend not to make much money even though they have sex in them. Even Verhoeven seems to recognize this:
Still, Verhoeven said he would be game to direct a studio erotic thriller again if the right script comes along.
“If there would be a script written that had the quality of ‘Basic Instinct,’ or if Joe Eszterhas would be willing to dig himself into some new material and he would present it to me or a studio, then I would be highly interested,” said Verhoeven, who is in postproduction on “Black Book,” a World War II thriller with erotic elements that was fully financed by Europeans. “I like erotic thrillers. But in the last 10 years, I haven’t found any scripts that interested me.”
Maybe the fact there aren’t any good scripts is the real problem, not conservative attitudes toward sex.
The criticism is not entirely unfounded. Some conservative organizations have made a concerted push to eliminate all depictions of sexuality from network television, leading to the recent massive fine against CBS for an episode of Without a Trace containing teenage sex. Movie review sites like the American “Family” Association’s Plugged In contain reviews that list all sexual references to allow easily-offended audiences to keep their puritanical virtues intact. Their recent review of V for Vendetta notes that Evey “wears revealing tops” and that the viewer is exposed to “‘classic’ nude statues.” But these organizations have not yet banned depictions of sexuality, and audiences are still willing to come out in force for good erotic movies, such as Unfaithful, which made $122 million and garnered a Best Actress Oscar nomination for Diane Lane.
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Monday, March 27th, 2006,
by Fred (,
AFA, censorship, TV
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The latest target for the AFA ComplaintBot is Fox and NASCAR
Fox allows ’s’ word. Take a stand for our children!File a complaint against Fox network stations for broadcasting the “s” word during a NASCAR race when millions of families were watching with their children.
I’m so sick of these yahoos. Hearing one utterance of the word “shit” is not going to scar your child for life. If they’re old enough to have any business watching NASCAR, they’ve already heard it. More news for the American “Family” Association: according to the US Census, only 32% of American households include children under age 18. Why, then, must we live in Sesame Street Nation, where the only programming that can see air is that appropriate for a three year old?
If you are really offended by this sort of thing, rather than visiting the ComplaintBot to complain about a program you didn’t actually see and wouldn’t even know you were supposed to be offended by but for the convenient AFA Action Alert, try this magic device:
Fight Sesame Street Nation at TV Watch.
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Thursday, March 23rd, 2006,
by Fred (,
AFA, Ford, homosexuality, TV
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The so-called American Family Association is up in arms again about Ford. They’re already calling for a boycott of Ford because Ford refused to capitulate to their demands that the automaker stop “promoting the gay agenda.” And what makes them so mad at this American company? Quotes like this one, apparently:
“For us, it was very natural to address gay families. We’re targeting people with modern day values. It’s a value set and the Volvo-minded consumer is very diverse. ‘Family’ is much more than the traditional family.†- Thomas Anderson, executive vice-president of Volvo Cars North America, a division of Ford Motor Company, on definition of family.
Egad! Ford wants to sell cars to gay people. The horror. But that’s not all! Ford wants to give jobs to gay people, too:
- Ford was given a 100% score on last year’s Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index. Ford was the only automaker and the largest corporation to get this score.
- Ford has been on the DiversityInc “Top 50 Companies for Diversity” list in each of the four years the rankings have been published. Read More
- Ford actively recruited homosexuals for employment by advertising on gay job websites.
The national morality nannies at the AFA are upset that Ford sponsored an episode of Without A Trace that featured two women kissing:
On a recent episode of CBS’s Without A Trace, Ford proved to the homosexual community the company’s commitment to their agenda. The Ford-sponsored program included a scene of two lesbians passionately kissing each other.
To see what Ford sponsored, click here. (Warning! This scene is very offensive! If you’re easily offended by people Who Are Not Like You –ed)
The national nannies at the AFA need to get a life and shut up. Without A Trace is a show for adults that is a somewhat-glamorized representation of the real world. In the real world, teenagers sometimes have sex (the subject of a different episode drawing the AFA’s ire) and lesbians kiss. Gay people have jobs and families. If that is morally repugnant to you, turn the channel.
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