I saw a film today, oh boy
4/12/04 21:44![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
darkemeraldsI don't get to the movies often. When I do go, and the movie is interesting and moving and thought-provoking and controversial and well-acted--AND is scored by the guy who's doing the music for Serenity--I feel like I've hit the jackpot.
I won big today with Kinsey. We talked about it all the way home on the bus, all through dinner, and into the evening. Now, many hours later, a couple of things stand out: the short, brilliant scene of Lynn Redgrave's unnamed character near the end, which absolutely walked away with the whole movie; and the sociopolitical implications of the film.
I left the cinema amazed that Kinsey wasn't more highly censored, and depressed at my own amazement. I should have laughed in wry incredulity at the McCarthy-era anti-sex witchhunt tactics depicted toward the end of the film, but instead I felt a sort of cold recognition. That's how much of a backward step American culture has taken in the last several years.
What the movie finally left me with is this: we're returning to the sexual ignorance and bigotry of the 1950s. As a culture, we seem unable to break out of the orbit of our puritannical origins. The farthest we got, it seems, was in the 60s and 70s--probably due to Kinsey's work. Now we're going back. It would be difficult to see this movie and miss that implication.
I won big today with Kinsey. We talked about it all the way home on the bus, all through dinner, and into the evening. Now, many hours later, a couple of things stand out: the short, brilliant scene of Lynn Redgrave's unnamed character near the end, which absolutely walked away with the whole movie; and the sociopolitical implications of the film.
I left the cinema amazed that Kinsey wasn't more highly censored, and depressed at my own amazement. I should have laughed in wry incredulity at the McCarthy-era anti-sex witchhunt tactics depicted toward the end of the film, but instead I felt a sort of cold recognition. That's how much of a backward step American culture has taken in the last several years.
What the movie finally left me with is this: we're returning to the sexual ignorance and bigotry of the 1950s. As a culture, we seem unable to break out of the orbit of our puritannical origins. The farthest we got, it seems, was in the 60s and 70s--probably due to Kinsey's work. Now we're going back. It would be difficult to see this movie and miss that implication.