{"id":6289,"date":"2013-07-31T10:12:04","date_gmt":"2013-07-31T17:12:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=6289"},"modified":"2013-07-31T10:12:04","modified_gmt":"2013-07-31T17:12:04","slug":"how-hollywood-has-ruined-sex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/how-hollywood-has-ruined-sex\/","title":{"rendered":"How Hollywood Has Ruined Sex"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/\u00a0Acculturated.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the early 80s my mom and her sister dropped by our condo while my wife and I were watching\u00a0Payday\u00a0<\/em>on HBO. (If you\u2019re unfamiliar with this movie and Rip Torn\u2019s brilliant performance, just think\u00a0Crazy Heart<\/em>\u00a0for \"Hollywood_Sign\"grown-ups.) They happened to come in during a scene in which Rip Torn\u2019s girlfriend is sitting up in bed bare-breasted. The ladies, Italians raised Catholic in rural California during the 30s, looked at the screen, looked at each other, and simultaneously said in a shocked voice, \u201cWhaaa?\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course we were amused at their horror. We hadn\u2019t been surprised by nudity since the 60s, and our reaction then wasn\u2019t shock but exhilaration at what seemed to be the liberation of cinema from the prudish restrictions that made so many movies bland and contrived. We were too callow to imagine that more-explicit sex and violence would themselves become empty clich\u00e9s once the shock value was gone. And we were too ignorant to understand what the ancient Greek tragedians knew: the imagination is more powerful than the eyes, and the right words communicate more than the things seen can.<\/p>\n

Four decades later, Hollywood\u2019s failure to understand that old wisdom has turned nudity and sex in most movies into preposterous conventions that can\u2019t communicate anything interesting about sex, or reveal anything about the development or personality of the characters.<\/p>\n

Consider some of those banal conventions that lazy directors and writers throw into sex scenes. There\u2019s what I call the \u201ctrail of clothes.\u201d The camera starts with some article of clothing on the floor, and then follows more bits and pieces of attire until it reaches the fornicating couple. I suppose the point is that these two are so hot to rut that they can\u2019t get undressed like real people. The phoniness of this trope is patent. I doubt that there are many real people who can walk, make-out, and get undressed all at the same time without spraining something. The worst example of this device occurs in Warren Beatty\u2019s awful\u00a0Bugsy<\/em>, in which the trail of clothes goes up the stairs. Don\u2019t try this at home unless you\u2019re a Flying Wallenda.<\/p>\n

Then there are the ubiquitous 20-30 candles illuminating every sex-scene. When do those candles get lit? In what universe does someone getting ready to have sex stop the show, fetch a lighter, and go around lighting candles? And what kind of hazard do all those open flames present? One impassioned kick and whole bed will be ablaze. Or how about the need to show people copulating on the hardest, most uncomfortable surfaces in the house, like kitchen tables or counter-tops? And how unhygienic is it to have sex where you prepare and eat food?<\/p>\n

Of course, silliest of all is the depiction of the act itself, a congeries of unbelievable, if not impossible, moves, grapples, and techniques one would have to be a professional wrestler to pull off\u2013\u2013not to mention that just about every time both partners, always flawlessly beautiful and toned, are earth-movingly satisfied. Read any sex survey and you\u2019ll know that\u2019s a lie. \u201cAm I right, girls?\u201d as Madeleine Kahn says in\u00a0Blazing Saddles.<\/em><\/p>\n

Hollywood used to know better. They knew the imagination is sexier and more mysterious than the image. Take this great scene from\u00a0Casablanca<\/em>. After Rick has compelled Isla to admit she still loves him and they embrace, the camera cuts away for a few seconds to the beam of light from the lighthouse sweeping across the sky. Then the camera cuts back to Rick and Ilsa smoking cigarettes on the couch. Any adult in the audience knew that Rick and Ilsa had just made love. The movie-makers knew that the audience\u2019s imagination would be more effective at evoking romance and mystery than would actually showing Bogart and Bergman flailing about in the phony, MMA love-making that typifies sex in movies today. They weren\u2019t being prudish, but making good theater.<\/p>\n

So congratulations, Hollywood, you\u2019ve managed to make one of the most exciting and significant human acts into a preposterous bore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/\u00a0Acculturated.com   In the early 80s my mom and her sister dropped by our condo while my wife and I were watching\u00a0Payday\u00a0on HBO. (If you\u2019re unfamiliar with this movie and Rip Torn\u2019s brilliant performance, just think\u00a0Crazy Heart\u00a0for grown-ups.) They happened to come in during a scene in which Rip Torn\u2019s girlfriend […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6290,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[22,86],"tags":[1025,106,94,1024],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Hollywood_Sign.jpg?fit=566%2C297&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-1Dr","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2043,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-other-california\/","url_meta":{"origin":6289,"position":0},"title":"The Other California","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 10, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton City Journal In 1973, as I was going through customs in New York after spending the summer bumming around Italy and Greece, the customs agent looked at my passport and said with a Bronx sneer, \u201cBruce Thornton, huh? Is that one of them Hollywood names?\u201d Hearing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2512,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/why-i-read-the-new-york-times\/","url_meta":{"origin":6289,"position":1},"title":"Why I Read the New York Times","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 23, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FronpageMagazine.com I\u00a0get a lot of ragging from my fellow conservatives for reading\u00a0The New York Times\u00a0every day. But as I tell them, you have to know how the other side thinks. Progressive ideology reflects a narrative founded on unexamined ideas long exposed as unworkable, incoherent, or just\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6606,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/bruce-thornton-on-secure-freedom-radio-with-frank-gaffney\/","url_meta":{"origin":6289,"position":2},"title":"Bruce Thornton on Secure Freedom Radio with Frank Gaffney","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Seth Jones, Bruce Thornton, Peter Pham, Diana West October 9th, 2013\u00a0\u00b7\u00a0Comments SETH JONES, Associate Director of the International Security and Defense Policy Center at the RAND Corporation, joins guest host DAN BONGINO, to help explain the terror threat from and historical background of the terrorist organization al-Shabaab. BRUCE THORNTON, a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5453,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/american-culture-the-truth-about-40-years-in-the-movies\/","url_meta":{"origin":6289,"position":3},"title":"American Culture: The Truth About 40 Years in the Movies","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 15, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers As\u00a0New York Times\u00a0critic A.O. Scott wrote recently, forty years ago this summer the movie that changed the movies premiered. Anybody old enough to remember films before\u00a0Bonnie and Clyde\u00a0can testify to the jolting power of Arthur Penn\u2019s kinetic blend of blue-grass slapstick, Depression-era nostalgia, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4096,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/slouching-toward-geezerhood\/","url_meta":{"origin":6289,"position":4},"title":"Slouching Toward Geezerhood","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 14, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton RightNetwork.com This year the oldest Baby Boomer cohort turns 65, the first of 79 million people who promise to be the whiniest and most annoying crop of geezers in history. Not all of them, of course. Just as many in the Greatest Generation weren\u2019t so great,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1097,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/missing-w-when-the-president-was-an-adult\/","url_meta":{"origin":6289,"position":5},"title":"Missing W: When the President Was an Adult","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 8, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton RightNetwork.com Watching the recent interviews with George W. Bush on the occasion of the release of his memoirs has reminded me what it is like to have an adult for president. The issue is not so much that I agreed with all his policies. The growth\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6289"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6289"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6291,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6289\/revisions\/6291"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}