Today’s Secret Word: Porno
posted by Deven Desai
Yes the favorite oddity of American culture is back and just in time for Halloween. We don’t mind ultra-violent films but say porno or show some nudity and it’s time to ban a film. First, note that part of the ad campaign for Zack and Miri Make a Porno have dropped the “Make a Porno” part of the title. Yes it is such a bad word. Now it seems that Larry Miller, owner of the Utah Jazz and the wildly cleverly named Megaplex Theaters has banned the film from his theater chain.
Fair enough. That is his choice. The odd part is that the chain has happily run Saw V “which features beheadings and explicit self-mutilation” and is “Rated R for sequences of grisly bloody violence and torture, language and brief nudity.” It also runs Quarantine “Rated R for bloody violent and disturbing content, terror and language.”
Now suppose that the issue is, as claimed, that Porno has “‘graphic nudity and graphic sex’ and that it was ‘too close to an NC-17.’” How does one explain that Sex Drive, Rated R for strong crude and sexual content, nudity, language, some drug and alcohol use – all involving teens. is playing on a couple screens within the Megaplex chain?
It is perhaps one word, a five letter word, porno. AHHHH!!!!! RUN AWAY!! RUN AWAY!!!! The horror. The horror. Oh no that’s the porno. The porno.
Family Safe Media claims some rather wild numbers for the porn industry ($13.3 billion spent in the U.S. and $97 billion worldwide) and concludes “As you can probably see from reading the above statistics, it is important to have a complete Internet safety program in place consisting of an Internet filter and parental controls” which it happens to sell. Yet a Fox News story from 2007 claims that the U.S. porn industry had “Total revenue for 2006 … at an astounding $12.92 billion.” compared to $9 billion for “legitimate mainstream American cinema.”
With all that money being spent and all that media being consumed can just the word porno really cause such a stir? Apparently so.
Then again it may be that Kevin Smith just upsets folks. For some it is the subject matter of his films. For me, it is that some of his films are decent and some are rot. In fact, they’re all rubbish! That’s it! My theater chain hereby bans all Kevin Sm.. What? Oh the kids like his stuff? I don… Huh? He is doing a new movie called Jeb and Rebba Make a Gorno? Brief nudity and lots of dismemberment? All right. I kind of like that. Let’s run it on four screens.
October 31, 2008 at 2:29 am
Posted in: First Amendment
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Responses (7)
Matt - October 31, 2008 at 7:30 am
And, according to the NY Times review today, the film doesn’t really have graphic sex in it at all- lots of talking about it and naughty language but very little actual nudity or sex. It seems like a pretty silly and childish reaction.
Aaron - October 31, 2008 at 11:32 am
Devan, I would have expected a little more rigor in your treatment of American culture. If, as your post indicates, that you are critiquing the “oddity of American culture,” you have done it the wrong way. It seems to me that in your sloppy attempt to lambaste American culture, you have ironically adopted its premise and perpetuated the cultural false dilemma: “If ultra-violence is OK, then why not a little porn?” Matt fell prey to this false dilemma when he continued your morally relativistic discussion by beginning his post with “And…”
With few exceptions, violence and nudity appeal to prurient interests, and do little to enrich the public discourse. I have little use for either.
matt - October 31, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Aaron, I’ve not seen the movie and probably won’t. (It doesn’t sound that interesting to me.) My point was just that, if the New York Times review is correct, there’s not really very much nudity in this movie at all.
Anonymous Coward - October 31, 2008 at 12:15 pm
13.3 Billion?
People pay for Pr0n?
Maybe if you include all of the dvd/blu-ray burners, FIOS, external hd’s, network attached storage, and 24″+ lcd screens.
*unless they mean those movies you get whilst on vacation @ Motel 6
Deven - October 31, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Aaron,
Thanks for playing. I was not trying to make the critic you are making nor was I saying one is better than the other. That is your stance.
I was noting that in fact that duality SEEMS to be in play but in the case of this theater chain, the lip service to nudity and sex is a problem is belied by other films they show AND that I wonder whether their decision has anything to do with a principle or gut decisions based on one word or dislike of a film maker.
If, as you seem to want, all should ban “violence and nudity [because they] appeal to prurient interests, and do little to enrich the public discourse” then that is part of the point. The theater chain is not adhering to any real ideal.
Best
Deven
(speaking of sloppy; note how I spelled your name correctly)
Ken Arromdee - October 31, 2008 at 4:50 pm
The theater doesn’t want to avoid porn as an end in itself. Rather, the theater wants to avoid porn because of complaints. A movie with “Porn” in the title is more likely to produce complaints even if it contains less actual porn.
Aaron - November 1, 2008 at 10:43 am
Deven,
Thank you for spelling my name correctly.
Perhaps another time we can discuss speech, banning, censorship and the like.
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