This is a hard film to watch. It is about the pornography industry of the late 70's and early 80's. What makes it hard to watch is that the sexuality of the characters and there views of sex are so distorted and misdirected. The consequences are disastrous for life because sex has been robbed of its meaning, which means that the characters are confused as to the value of it apart from film. For one of the assistant directors, sex has meaning and he cannot live with the meaningless sex of others, which results in a killing spree-including himself. The film is also intense because it is hard to know how accurate a picture this is of some peoples views of sex. This film could also be used as a discussion point since it engages the issues of how culture influences these views and how it responds. In the end, though, it seems like a very sad view of reality.
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Sometimes I worry that I've lost the plot. My twitchin' muscles tease my flippant thoughts. I never really dreamed of heaven much until we put him in the ground, but it's all I'm doing now - listening for patterns in the sound of an endless static sea. ~ Conor Oberst
This site is now (mostly) an archive of my writing on film from November 2004 - May 2008. I will link to my articles elsewhere and post the occasional Twitter review.
Film Index
Looking for a particular film? Use the Index. I rank films from 1-7, looking for good and well told stories about what it means to be human.
Recent Posts
Author
Blog Archive
-
▼
2005
(332)
-
▼
June
(31)
- American Graffiti - 7
- The People vs. Larry Flynt - 5
- October Sky - 6
- Abre los ojos - 6
- Die Weiße Rose - 7
- Elephant - 4
- Matchstick Men - 6
- Stand and Deliver - 6
- Crash (2004) - 7
- Hard Eight - 6
- Boogie Nights - 4
- Batman Begins - 7
- The Decalogue: VIII-X - 6
- Tape - 7
- Thirteen Days - 5
- Miracle - 6
- It's impossible to learn to plow by reading books - 2
- Slacker - 5
- The Decalogue: IV-VII - 6
- The Fugitive - 6
- The Decalogue: I-III - 6
- The Merchant of Venice (2004) - 5
- Coldplay Fix You
- Crimes and Misdemeanors - 6
- What time is it?
- Dazed and Confused - 5
- Being Julia - 4
- Pi: Faith in Chaos - 6
- Kinsey - 5
- Miller's Crossing - 6
- Amores Perros - 6
-
▼
June
(31)
Web Pages referring to this page
Link to this page and get a link back!
Links I Like
- Gideon Strauss
- Jason Panella
- culture. ish.
- Byron Borger
- Ryan Moede
- Guy Kawasaki
- Derek Melleby
- Steve Garber
- Jeffrey Overstreet
- Brewing Culture
- Andrea Hensen
- campusministry.com
- Chris Carson
- Keith Martel (blogosphere casuality)
- Tala Strauss
- Hannah Strauss
- Arianna Garofalo
- Denise Frame Harlan
- Evan Pulgino
- Paul Petrovic
- Henry Jenkins
- Arts & Letters Daily
- Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture
- Leanne Benfield Martin
- Russ Warren
- Sarah K. S
- Jamie Smith
- Jeff Bouman
- David Dark
- Beaver Falls Coffee and Tea Co. blog
- Nathaniel Veltman
- Maria Veltman
- Dan Postma
- John Baldauff
- Brian Janaszek
- Gregory Baus
- Adam Parsons
- team Mike, John, and Sean
- Chris Klein and Sean Purcell
subscriptions
Function
We are lonesome animals. We spend all of our life trying to be less lonesome. One of our ancient methods is to tell a story begging the listener to say-and to feel- ‘Yes, that is the way it is, or at least that is the way I feel it.’ You’re not as alone as you thought. —John Steinbeck
2 comments:
Since when is film solely entertainment?
It's a movie about family. It's a tragedy yes, but one true to life. In fact, the lives of actual porn stars are often much, much sadder and desperate than the film might portray. If you watch it carefully, there are a lot of biblical motifs (i.e. Eddie's baptism and renaming in the hot tub scene, just to give one example), as there are in all of P.T. Anderson's films -in Boogie Nights they tell an inverse of the gospel narrative, so to speak. This movie left me feeling the hurt of 'the other' to whatever extent it might be possible through film. I think it's a great movie. It's an examination of exploitation -it humanizes those who have been dehumanized in most peoples' minds. It also paints a realistically ugly picture of how life is commercialized and people are commodified by the pop culture machine -the way a film camera, when pointed at you, causes you to assume a god-like identity (grandiose notions of your importance and powers), and before you know it, your actual identity is swallowed up by the fantastical one, thus removing you from reality and isolating you interpersonally. This movie is like a map. It's a deconstruction of the glamor of decadence. It leaves you in the light.
Post a Comment