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December 14, 2004
A sexual revolution takes over the theatres
Thanksgiving was especially unusual this year, for in addition to the theme of eating massive amounts of food, there was also an underlying theme of sex.
I know that sounds a little strange, so let me explain: No one I was with over the holidays was engaging in this act ... firsthand.
However, imagine sitting next to your best friend’s father while watching soft porn on the big screen.
That is kind of what watching the movie Kinsey was like.
Kinsey, starring Liam Neeson, is a movie about a man driven to uncover the mysteries of human sexual behavior.
Rebelling against the strict piety of his father, and drawn to the sciences, Alfred Kinsey becomes a Harvard-educated zoologist and begins a teaching biology at Indiana University.
Over the course of his time at Indiana University, students begin to seek him out for advice about sexual concerns, and he comes to realize that no one has done the clinical research that would yield reliable answers to their questions.
This prompts him to get a team of people together, including his wife (Laura Linney) and Wardell Pomeror (Chris O’Donnell), to research and interview people about their sexual tendencies.
Their research allowed Kinsey to release his first book in 1948, a media sensation called Sexual Behavior in the Human Male that started a sexual revolution and quite a bit of controversy.
Kinsey is a shocking movie that managed to tackle a contentious subject with great elegance. Although there were some moments of nudity and language, the scenes were done tastefully and were shown for a reason.
The acting within the movie was wonderful; each person was a powerful addition to the plot of the film.
Neeson, especially, took charge of his character and was convincing as Alfred Kinsey.
The film has an offhanded sense of humor and tosses the taboo subject of sex around lightly, so the R rating it received was rather appropriate. One of the main points the movie brings up is that even though we have made some progress dealing with sexuality, we still haven’t gotten very far: Censorship within all communities is still very prevalent.
This movie provided a wonderful documentation of human behavior that is usually ignored or silenced because of the controversy it causes.
Overall, Kinsey was a thought-provoking and exceptionally well done movie. However, before you declare Alfred Kinsey your new hero, you may want to consider a circulating rumor about Alfred Kinsey’s work with the sexuality of children.
Many critics, including radio’s Dr. Laura Schlessinger, longtime Kinsey critic Dr. Judith Reisman, and various religious groups, contend that Kinsey himself ordered pedophiles to molest children for his studies. The truth is still in question to this day.
Posted by msveum at December 14, 2004 10:48 AM