Sex and Violence

Yes!

It’s a common complaint of mine that naked bodies are seen as terrible things to show a child, but violence is ok.

I recently saw Waltz with Bashir. It’s about war, as well as the Christian Lebanese massacre of Palestinian refugees. So there are some nasty scenes and ideas in the movie. Death, destruction, mayhem, children being murdered, etc.

There’s also a dream sequence, in which a huge, naked woman picks up a soldier, holds him like a baby, then swims the backstroke while he lies on her belly, arms outstretched. Though she’s naked, and we see her body, this is not a sexual scene. It’s a scene of being comforted and cared for while terrible things happen.

Apparently, there’s a contract for the movie to appear on TV in the US. The director assures us that the contract stipulates that the woman’s body will not be shown as is. She’ll be covered or absent.

But the scene of the flies crawling on a murdered child? No worries about that!

[Hey, maybe they’ll cut out some violent and disturbing stuff, too. I don’t know. But if they’re willing to show the movie at all, then they’re gonna show bloodshed and horror.]

2 Responses to Sex and Violence

  1. danielle September 17, 2009 at 10:49 pm #

    Typical of us. And people wonder why our kids are so messed up.

  2. David October 5, 2009 at 3:20 am #

    Completely agreed. The scene you mentioned is beautiful, and not only does it serve as a tremendous contrast to the violence presented in the rest of the film, but it really hits home how the majority of the participants in the massacre secretly wanted nothing more than to escape from it; it’s one of the strongest scenes.

    How can something as natural as platonically displaying the human body be censored, whereas the complete destruction of the human body is perfectly acceptable?

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