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 any
liberals who claim to do everything they do in defense of the "family"
don't like violence on film and television. They claim fictional
violence inspires real violence, and that's why they lobbied on
behalf of a TV-program-blocking feature they liked to call the "V-chip."
The V stands for violence.
Many conservatives
who are similarly family-focused are most profoundly offended by
sex on film and television. They believe fictional depictions of
sexuality have tempted teenagers into promiscuity and have lead
to the spread of diseases both literal and moral. They tend to see
little difference between the display of an unclothed breast and
hard-core pornography. They'd probably prefer to call it the S-chip.
The liberal
attitude against the display of violence comes from a post-Vietnam
pacifistic core, according to which violence of any sort no matter
the context is upsetting and haunting and corrupting. The conservative
attitude against the display of sex comes from a fundamentally religious
core, according to which carnality of any sort is a sin. When you
add to that conservative attitude the feminist conviction that the
exposure of the female form is inherently exploitative of women,
you have a powerful mixture indeed.
These negative
attitudes toward the depiction of sex and violence have had a significant
impact on Hollywood, even though the S-chippers and the V-chippers
both have a vested interest in saying it isn't so — and those
who don't spend a lot of time paying attention to these matters
are often inclined to believe the worst about an industry they detest
without knowing all the facts. That's particularly true in relation
to violence. Broadcast television today is far less violent than
it was in the 1970s, though pay cable is more violent. And with
the exception of gross-out teen comedies like American Pie,
the depiction of sexuality on screen is far more muted than it was
25 years ago, when female nudity was almost de rigueur on screen.
That's why
the arrival of a full-out, no-holds-barred sex comedy at movie theaters
this weekend comes as such a surprise. 40 Days and 40 Nights
is the dirtiest American movie in memory. It's so totally and completely
incorrect in attitude and spirit that it seems to have time-warped
in from 1979. There are dozens of naked breasts on display, every
single conversation concerns intercourse and foreplay and every
plot development hinges on a single question: When will Josh Hartnett
be having sex next?
Josh Hartnett
is a very handsome young actor playing a twentysomething Internet
guy in San Francisco who takes a vow of celibacy for Lent. In Hartnett's
world, every woman is beautiful, dresses like a high-priced call
girl, and is willing to have sex with him at the drop of a file
folder. Director Michael Lehmann, who made a wonderfully stylized
black comedy about teenagers called Heathers, has done a
terrific job turning San Francisco into a giggly erotic playground
for straight people. There's more sheer fantasy here than in Lord
of the Rings, more science fiction than in The Matrix.
The entire
city becomes engrossed by Josh's battle to live unclimactically.
Bets totaling more than $20,000 are placed about whether he can
hold out. The bettors, hoping to make a killing, spike Josh's orange
juice with Viagra. Women kiss in front of him, hoping to tempt him
from his course. Then the worst kind of temptation arises in the
comely person of Shannyn Sossamon, whom Josh meets in a laundromat
and falls in love with. She knows nothing of the bet. She can't
figure out why he won't take her to bed, and when she does find
out, she's mad and disappointed.
S-chippers
will take one look at 40 Days and 40 Nights and see the end
of the world in it. They may be right, and Catholics in particular
might take offense at the portrayal of Hartnett's Catholic-priest
brother. Certainly, there are things in 40 Days and 40 Nights
that I detested (there's only so much clinical sex humor I can stand).
But there's still something winning about its anarchic sensibility.
Anarchy leads to political and moral chaos, I know, but it can be
very entertaining for an hour and a half, particularly in an age
when crusaders think computer chips inside television sets can be
used to save us from temptation.
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