Let’s Talk About Sex (in movies)

This is a topic that has been tossed about willy-nilly by critics, audiences, and moral entrepreneurs in both private and public arenas. Are modern films too filthy?

While the artist (and the dirty pervert) in me says “No Way,” I’m tempted now to see the other side of the argument. I may not agree with it totally, but at least I can understand it.

What happened with me was that I saw a Studio Project created by an NYU student (names will be withheld both to protect the innocent and because I can’t remember them). The concept of this short was a therapy session surrounding Walt Disney characters. The basic premise of the story isn’t bad (it’s kind of amateur, since skits involving known characters in a new light have been around since the early days of Saturday Night Live.) and some parts of it were genuinely funny. However, the film was marred by its overuse of sex and dirty words. Now, I’m not saying I’m a crystal clean human being myself, and (insert deity of choice here) knows that I enjoy watching/listening to discussions about sex in the movies I watch, but there is such a thing as too much sex. (People like Steven Tyler, Gene Simmons, and Hugh Hefner may disagree with me, but they didn’t see this movie.)

I’ll admit that I’ve written a four-letter word or two (or three or four or five) when in the course of composing a script. I use it for one of two reasons: 1) To reveal character, which is the proper way to use anything in a script, or 2) to make the dialogue sound more realistic. Let’s face it. People curse, people fight, and people fuck. It’s an unavoidable facet of life. In this instance, however, the film was harmed by all the sex and profanity it used. I’m sure that there are people in this world who are as frank as some of the people in that short. But come on, all of the characters?!  That just smacks of bad writing to me. The whole time, I wanted to scream out, “There are other reasons people go to therapy!” Repeating the “sex, sex, sex” note over and over again was like eating a salad loaded down with ranch dressing. Sure, it’s great for some added flavor, but when you soak the fucking thing in it, you mask all the other flavors the salad has to offer. That’s all this film needed: a little dash of creativity.

Sadly, most movies suffer the same fault. The reasons are many. Either a writer wants his or her work to be noticed, or because he or she admires the style of a certain screenwriter/director and wants to “be like them”, or because that person simply scraping the bottom of the creativity barrel (in which case, they should stop by and say “Hi.” I love company.) Think about how many films started putting in pop culture references after Quentin Tarantino hit it big. On a similar note, think of how many horror films started putting in self-referential gags after Scream. These imitators are confusing the forrest for the tree, latching onto a gimmick in the hopes of recreating the success of another. Where I come from, this is referred to as “trying to catch lightning in a bottle”. And it filters down to the student level, too. I can’t tell you how many scripts I read or short films I watch that sound like “fuck this, fuck that, you motherfucking cocksucker.” Granted, I can put up with a “cocksucker” every now and then, but there comes a point where you start to wonder, “Isn’t he aware of the fact that he sucks cock?”

There are exceptions. The aforementioned Tarantino wrote and directed Reservoir Dogs, one of the most profane movies I’ve ever seen. However, it’s also one of my favorites. In a similar vein, Kevin Smith, while displaying little on-screen nudity, has some of the frankest discussions of sex you’ve ever heard. Also, films like Porky’s, and it’s Gen-X counterpart American Pie are about sex, so skirting (get it?) the issue would be cowardly. Other films get close, like About Last Night, which has one of the hottest sex scenes I’ve ever seen in a mainstream movie, but they get away with it because it’s a point that is not stressed. However, the best use of sex and profanity I’ve seen yet came not from a movie, but from a book. Mario Puzo’s Omerta is peppered with dirty words. They don’t shock when you hear them, but they don’t make you groan in boredom either. And, unlike many authors, he uses the sex lives of his characters as a way of characterization, or revealing more information about them. I’d like to see this used more often, but let’s not take the easy way out. Every gay man is not necessarily a mama’s boy or a victim of forced sodomy, just as every girl who likes to be tied up isn’t traumatized from an earlier incident. Some people are just gay or freaky (or both!)

My point is that if you watch movies like The Godfather, The Terminator, Pretty Woman, or even Boogie Nights, there is sex in there because sex is a part of life (or in the case of the latter two films, business). Sex was present in this Studio Project, and many other works like it, because the writers were after shock value or needed a crutch to get them through the rest of the script. This is what really sticks in my craw about sex, violence, or even profanity in films. Sure, it’s all there to be used, but because it’s there doesn’t mean you have to use it (or misuse it). I love gratuitous T&A as much as the next person, but there comes a point when I do the unthinkable and mumble to myself “Enough with the tits; what’s going on with the movie?”