Poll: Sex scenes in movies

[PlowmanMk]

Again, i like the 'it depends' idea. I remember watching a version of Macbeth, where all the characters were criminals and prostitutes, and the three witches were teenage prositutes who had an orgy with Macbeth instead of giving him his prophesy. It was really something.

Sex in movies can be powerful, but half the time it is just a meaningless 'sex sells' option.

 

[blind_dead_mcjones]

Yes, it's often just used to sell tickets. On the other hand, sexuality is a central theme of some movies. American Beauty and Black Swan for example. Taking the sex out of those movies would be like taking the action scenes out of 300. Would you want all the action scenes in action movies to be 'implied'?

I'd rather that films like American Beauty weren't made, personally. Sexuality has saturated media to a frightening extent, and the less of it for me, the better.

you're overlooking two critical things, a) its not about you, and b) no one is twisting your arm to force you to go watch them

 

[orangeapples]

pretty much this:


especially around other people. Just look, don't look...

 

[EternalFacepalm]

All I know is that it's pretty embarrassing to watch with your family, really.
But most of the time they're bloody pointless.

 

[Jaythulhu]

*shrug*

I was born in the late 70s and grew up in the 80s. Almost every action movie, many thrillers, a great deal of the comedies and pretty much every gore flick had at least 1 sex scene of some sorts in it and no one cared. I don't even remember it becoming an issue until some puritanical douchebags in america started getting their panties in a bunch over it in the late 90s.

Sometimes it helps advance character and plot development, sometimes not. More often not these days. Still, I'd love to know where to find those L-shaped sheets that completely cover a woman but leave a man exposed down to his pelvic region. Mostly so I can burn the factory to the ground and stop the hypocrisy. Women drool over a man's pecs just as much as men drool over a woman's boobs, so to cover one but not the other is downright moronic. Hmm, might have wandered a little off-topic there. Oh well.

 

[Wicky_42]

I'm kinda amazed at the number of people 'disgusted' by these sort of scenes. Really? Kinda wondering if the whole stereotype about Americans being prudish about sex whilst revelling in gratuitous violence isn't justly deserved

Sex is kind of an important part of most relationships and romances, I'd have thought - it'd be unrealistic to never show it, as well as detrimental for showing the full progression of human interactions. Sure, they can be gratuitous, but then sometimes gratuity is the point of films (Exploitation films, anyone?); anything can be made excessive, but that's no reason to never include certain things. The .50cal scene in Rambo 4 physically disgusted me - about 5 mins of Rambo sat on an armoured mounted gun literally blowing a military force into a blobby red mass - but I'm not going to turn around and campaign for a removal of violence from films, am I? Most of the time it's fine, adds to the experience etc etc. Just like sex scenes.

 

[Zhukov]

Yes, it's often just used to sell tickets. On the other hand, sexuality is a central theme of some movies. American Beauty and Black Swan for example. Taking the sex out of those movies would be like taking the action scenes out of 300. Would you want all the action scenes in action movies to be 'implied'?

I'd rather that films like American Beauty weren't made, personally. Sexuality has saturated media to a frightening extent, and the less of it for me, the better.

Uh huh.

To be blunt, it seems pretty clear to me that you have some nasty little issues when it comes to sex and sexuality in general.

See, some of us happen to enjoy it.

 

[Secret world leader (shhh)]

Sometimes they're good for character/plot related reasons. Sometimes they're just eye candy.

The one in 300 was sort of necessary as if i remember correctly, no real relationship had been conveyed between leonidas and his wife up until that point, but could have been done better.

Also i was watching it with my mum and sister which made it seem a whole lot longer.

 

[lord.jeff]

Why does it have to be meaningful? When you watch an over the top action sequence do you think "that was unnecessary"? It seems to come from this mentality that we have to justify sex and add meaning to it. We don't.

I'll agree with but in the case of most mainstream movies it's only present in one or two scenes while most action movies have action throughout, it becomes a very jarring change in tone when it's not done right.

 

[blind_dead_mcjones]

you're overlooking two critical things, a) its not about you, and b) no one is twisting your arm to force you to go watch them

Those films affect other films that I'd like to see, making sexual scenes in action movies or the like more acceptable. It's a knock-on effect that can only be halted by completely removing the sex scene and a large chunk of romance from cinema.

*rolls eyes* sex scenes are in there because thats what the general public like and want as well as being used for characterisation purposes (as in some instances actions speak louder than words), sometimes its to the detriment of the plot and characterisation sometimes it isn't, but thats something that you have to handle on a case by case basis.

making blanket statements about one entire aspect and then wanting it removed from a whole medium because you don't like them is flat out unreasonable and arbitrary in anyones language, doubly so when you can either ignore them or in the case of watching dvd's hit the fast forward button.

 

[dex-dex]

It depends.
I mean in movies like where the truth lies and mysterious skin(which both are excellent movies!) it is vital. I Where the truth lies, It explains why the murder happens and in mysterious skin it shows the effect of sexual abuse on children. but in others not so much. it is how the director and writers see it fit.

 

[Robert Ewing]

Sometimes it gets across quite good messages. And other times it's good character development.

In movies... made in Hollywood for $5, then the philosophy is 'sex sells.'

 

[InfiniteSingularity]

It depends on the movie. Fight Club had a good sex scene. Rock & Rolla had a good sex scene. The former was a very artistic visual scene which had little pornographic content, and helped to establish the questionable reality in the film. The latter was just for comic effect.

While a lot of sex scenes seem pointless, they are most often far from pornographic. They do, in most cases, enhance the story, develop the characters, or help to establish some sort of atmosphere or otherwise. I will get back to you when I remember a pointless sex scene

 

[phelan511]

Meh.... It totally depends on the context that the scene was in. If it was just there to appease the sex crazed idiots that went to see the film simply because of the sex scene and whos in it, then yeah its pointless. But if its in the film to convey that the characters relationship has reached that next step then yeah totally its got a good reason for being there.

 

[LostTimeLady]

It depends what you mean by sex scene. If you mean a bit of foreplay with careful shots to keep it modest then yeah, that's great and can be charecter developing, something that's just gratuitus and involving the act itself seems to lack the same wieght. It's the whole Mr Darsey thing, all the passion and what not is in what you don't see not what you do.

One film that does 'sex' scenes brilliantly is 'Love Actually'. The bit with two body doubles who are playing actors doing a sex scene turns the whole thing on it's head because the act in this case IS meaningless because they're actors but the charecter development is all there, this is where we see these people get to know each other (and talk about the traffic on the way to work!). The other bit is when the one charecter who's in love with her work collegue finally gets to go out with him and just as something is about to happen, she gets called away on the phone by her brother who she has to care for. In this moment we learn more about her charecter than at any other point and we don't even get the sex scene.

 

[forsinain42]

If you think sex scenes are pointless then watch the one in the film 'The Tall Guy.' It's freaking hilarious.

As long as it fits the characters and isn't just sex for sex's sake then its fine. People have sex and so should characters.

 

[Swny Nerdgasm]

akin to a break dancing scene in a medieval war drama or something.

Oh don't play coy, you'd totally watch that, or at least I would...

 

[XHolySmokesX]

I am actually suprised most people voted pointless, especially here on the escapist, come on guys where's the love?

Sex scenes are never pointless in any type of film. I'm about to talk some serious human evolutionary biology here, trust me it's interesting stuff =)

Sex, to us as a specise, is equally about strengthening the bond between two people, as it is about procreation. We are far more social than other animals, and sex is a big part of our social structure. This is the reason we have texts like the karma sutra and why we don't just deposit sperm, we partake in the act of sex as if it were an art form.

You can never have a meaningless example of sex, every example has a different deep meaning to it, even a one night stand with a stranger has deep meanings behind it.

The reason sex offends some people is because of how private and intimate an action it is, and that combined with the strict milituristic social norms we have come to accept in society.

Sex is a huge part of life and something that should be celebrated as a free act rather than a sinful disgrace of human privacy.

[/rant]

OT: Sex in films is never pointless, every sex scene shows an intricate relationship between two people, the type of sex scene defines the emotions linked with it.