Not enough sex with my violence

[lillibet]

On Sunday afternoon we went to see The Brothers Grimm with gilana. It was fine. "Better than Van Helsing" seems to be the general consensus and that it is, easily. I enjoyed the way that Gilliam pulled in motifs from many different fairy tales and some of the effects were very cool. Perhaps it's just my mood, but it didn't really engage me. But Heath Ledger was very cute and earnest.

But what I really want to talk about now is The Transporter, which we finished watching tonight. It's a reasonable mid-grade action movie--just enough plot to hold together the action sequences, a star (Jason Statham) who can do most of his own fighting and stunts, a nice supporting actor turn by François Berléand as the world-weary Marseilles cop.


In the middle of the movie Frank & Lai, having just escaped underwater from a flaming house, break into another place and go in search of dry clothes. Lai strips (rear view, waist-down, lacy boy-style panties) and kisses Frank, who pushes her away, then grabs her...and we cut to the two of them sitting in the police station wearing borrowed clothing. Where's the sex scene? Well, obviously, they can't actually show people having sex in a PG-13 movie in which many men are killed with an inventive array of weapons and techniques (the oil-slick scene is particularly amusing)! Because sex is such an enormous problem in our society and kids might get the idea that adults actually have sex, when they can find the time in between hacking each other with fire axes and committing vehicular manslaughter (the car chases are also pretty cool)! How come the only bodily fluid that is permissible on screen is blood?

Nah, don't answer that question. I already know a lot of the answers.

But do answer this, please...when's the last time you saw an actual sex scene in a movie? (No, porn doesn't count.)

EDIT: I'm specifically interested in contemporary American movies, from a sociological perspective, although tips on good foreign films are always welcome.

Comments

[trowa-barton.livejournal.com]

Does the mating dance in "March of the Penguins" count?
There's also "Sex is Comedy", but that's French. There is also "2046" from China that was playing at the Kendall Square theater. Usually, that's the place for indies with bodily fluids other than blood.

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

March of the Penguins is also French, as long as we're keeping score :)

[kalisti23.livejournal.com]

Wow. If "Better than Van Helsing" is the best they can say, then it really is poor.

[3diff.livejournal.com]

Alia, Nick and I just saw The Brothers Grimm, and frankly we thought it was an extremely disappointing mish-mash. I thought the second section, where the Brothers were being coerced with great cruelty into taking on the mission, just excessive. And the brothers were such idiots that I had a hard time getting interested in their well-being. But, that was just my opinion...

[earthling177.livejournal.com]

Well, I think it's a UK movie, but I heard stuff about http://films.tartanfilmsusa.com/9songs/ -- apparently people didn't like it, but supposedly it has explicit sex. Like, y'know, "if writers can write about sex, why can't movie makers put it on-screen and have it not be porn?" but at least the people I know who saw it were kind by saying "it's a blessing it's just a short 69 minutes and people were bored enough to leave the theater" or some close approximation of that sentence.

In any case, yes, I agree with you that there's too much violence and not enough sex in the media. I often wonder if the excess violence is a result of not enough sex, if not enough sex is a consequence of too much violence or, as it seems to be with most other cultures, it's just unrelated but it seems linked to people like me who grew up with "sex is better than violence" in the media.

[ceelove.livejournal.com]

Geez, I can't keep track. Most recently in the theater itself is probably "Sideways." A good reasonably-recent one that springs to mind is "The Cooler." "Alexander," not that I'd recommend it, has at least one, but I can't say how many (or whether Alexander and Hephaestian ever got it on) 'cause I gave out 2/3 through. I've been spending a lot of time watching the series "Carnivale" on DVD recently, which has a wonderfully emotionally complex sex scene, but I don't know if you really only want to count movies.

I don't disagree with your overall point, that it's acceptable to show any amount of gratuitous violence, but I don't think it's hard for me to think of plenty of fairly recent movies that do show people in the middle of sex. Maybe I'm just lucky. :)

[spwebdesign.livejournal.com]

I very much enjoyed The Transporter and am looking forward to the sequel. There wasn't much plot, but there didn't need to be. And this is for the same reason that hinting at the sex was sufficient. This movie wasn't about plot or acting or sex or anything else but fight scenes and car chases. The violence wasn't at all gratuitous — and really, there wasn't much of it, as you didn't see too many people dying and very little blood. This movie simply contained some of the most beautifully choreographed and original/creative fight scenes and car chases I have ever seen. Dropping a big sex scene in the middle of this movie would have been about as appropriate as having Mickey Rourke and Kim Basinger go totally kung fu on each other's asses in 9½ Weeks!

[minkrose]

Last time I saw an explicit sex scene was in Oldboy. Though it will be interesting to see how they deal with that in the american remake (man, I almost wish I hadn't just found that while looking for the link. Oldboy was an INCREDIBLE movie (very intense, though and definitely violent) and I just know I won't be able to stop myself from watching the new version but it will be such a bad idea...)

I actually just sat down and looked through the movies I own. I was sort of successful - the second matrix movie has a pretty clear sexual scene. Still, it was rated R and between an established couple (I dont know that we could say they're married but the best approximation thereof is certainly assumed).
Still, it wasn't as explicit at the scene in Oldboy or other foreign films I can think of.
You make a very interesting point.

[melted-snowball.livejournal.com]

The last sex scene I saw was in Mysterious Skin. But in a mainstream Hollywood film? Not sure.