There has been an uproar over the Sundance films Zoo and Hounddog. However, it's somewhat half-baked.In Zoo, men engage in sexual relations with horses and in Hounddog, there is a rape scene involving Dakota Fanning. These can understandably make people feel uncomfortable, but then again, people don't have to watch these movies.
So then where is the controversy? Do people think that man on horse (or horse on man) is too explicit and foul for anyone to see? Is it that people think moviegoers get some sick and twisted pleasure from it themselves? Do people think a rape scene involving an eleven year-old is crossing the line? Are we corrupting the youth of society and robbing them of their innocence? Well, what is it?
All I have to say is stop looking at these at surface value and start looking at them in a different way.
People look at the film Zoo and see man's "fatal" attraction towards stallions. I can just imagine people leaving the film as they hold back the vomit only to go over to another, far "superior" movie, like Epic Movie. It really is a shame because that is all that people will see, just horses, men, and their sexcapades in between.
Why can't people see the film for how it really is? What drives a person to have feelings towards another man or woman is no different than someone who were to have feelings for, say horses. We don't decide who we love, we just do. No one person is less of a slave to their hormones and biological chemicals. If a film shows two men together, it should not be said that the film director is necessarily advocating that every straight person go out and experiment. The same can be said if a director shows a man and a woman together.
I have watched a decent amount of films, and the one thing I know is that they centralize around stories. Maybe a horse sex scene is not about the raw physical desire, but about a man's torment in participating in such an action. Maybe it's about his only true escape. Maybe the film is really is just about horses, men, and throwing in some champagne, but more often then not, people will sell films like theses short.
When people look at the scene in Hounddog, they will see Dakota Fanning and scream, "My, God! She is just a child! What is that man doing to her?!?!" They'll count all the boundaries independent films has crossed on their fingers and then move on to their toes.
But what is it in the rape scene that goes to far? It's not like these sort of things don't happen. And it's just a dramatization, not an real rape. Wait no, I take that back. This makes total sense. People should boycott Hounddog and go see Saving Private Ryan, where people's intenstines are spewed into the forground of the camera shot.What people need to realize that there is more on the screen than what is seen.
3 comments:
I thought this blog was interesting, because i have some of my own opinions about the topic, but I did not agree with some of your views. Without being argumentative I would like to say that I strongly disagree with this statement:
What drives a person to have feelings towards another man or woman is no different than someone who were to have feelings for, say horses.
I see a man having "sexual" relations with a horse as animal abuse. How do you know the horse consented to the relations? Also -is it really natural for a horse and a human to breed? I have never heard of a dog and a porcupine breeding, and if they did how do you know it was consentual? I don't know, just some of my pro-animal rights thoughts. I think it is, for one thing, disgusting. I don't know how they filmed the movie but I hope no animals were harmed during the filming of it. I don't think bestiality is the same thing as same-sex attractions. I wonder if that relationship's gonna last? ha ha. Good Post!
From reading this entry I think what you are saying is that while you may not (or may, I don't know) condone behaviors such as rape and sex with animals, you think it is valid to portray the acts in films as art and expression.
I agree with that thought process. Hiding acts acts that humans take part in won't make them go away. It's important that people understand what other people deal with. I imagine that the film about bestiality deals more with what the man goes through feeling like he doesn't fit in wiht the rest of society than just raw sex scenes with a horse. But I don't know that much about the film, so I could be wrong.
This reminds me of our "what is art?" discussion from class. These films are art.
There were many interesting views in your blog. Although some of them seemed a little far out, I agree with the part about rape.
If people are disgusted by an 11-year-old getting raped or molested, they should pick up a newspaper, and join the real world. Also nowadays there is so much porn on the Internet that young people are exposed to. I would rather watch a movie with rape (if I had to), then see something like that on the Internet. At least in a movie, the scene is a replica.
Very thought provoking!
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