In a recent post about Warner Bros. executives cutting a gay sex scene from the upcoming film “Alexander”, I mentioned that I thought it was the right decision ONLY based on the fact that I believe the general movie going audience doesn’t yet want to see that type of content in the movies they go to watch. I still stand by that, and I think the majority of the remarks made here and on other websites back that up. However, I was not trying to suggest the general movie going audience should or shouldn’t want to see gay sex scenes in movies… I was only remarking that they don’t.
I got an email from the good folks at the Internet Movie Data Base tipping me to the fact that the Spin Doctors over at WB are now backpedalling like crazy to get themselves out of the controversy by claiming they never “cut” and gay sex scenes from Alexander. You know what that means don’t you? It really means they stopped the scene before it was even filmed… which technically means they never “cut” or “deleted” it. Very slick. However, it raises the issue for me about how spinless and irrational Movie Executives… AND all of us are when it comes to the issues of Homosexuality and Abortion in films.
The problem on both fronts (as I see it) is that none of us want to enter into any sort of meaningful discussion on the issues. Instead of dialog, we tend to all sink to the level of hurling generalities and insults at each other. No one wants to look at these issues from the other sides point of view. Take the Gay issue for a moment… those who are “anti-gay” immediately start throwing terms like “gross” or “disgusting” or “perverted” around, never once taking into consideration the feelings of those on the other side of the fence, or the larger social spectrum when talking about it. The “pro-gay” side on the other hand immediately starts labeling people who don’t agree with them as homophobic or hate mongers. NO WONDER MOVIE EXECS DON’T WANT TO EXPLORE THESE ISSUES! We can’t even have an intelligent conversation about it… what big movie exec in the world would want to stick his / her neck out in that kind of hornet’s nest?
That all made me think about Abortion as well. Man are we dumb. I know a lot of people who are Pro-Life… and I know a lot of people who are Pro-Choice too. It strikes me that the true issue revolves around if you believe a fetus is a human being or not. I have yet to meet a Pro-Choice person who just wants to kill babies for their own convenience. To them it’s not taking a life, it’s just removing some tissue from their bodies BEFORE it becomes a person. If they’re right about that, then there’s nothing wrong with getting rid of it BEFORE if becomes a baby. And yet Pro-Lifers immediately start yelling and screaming insults at Pro-Choicers calling them “killers” and labeling them as people who would rather kill a child then put up with the inconvenience. On the other hand, I have yet to meet a Pro-Liferer that just wants to oppress women or take away their freedoms. To them, the fetus IS already a baby. If they’re right, then destroying the fetus IS killing, so wouldn’t they be monsters for not wanting to stop the killing of babies? And yet Pro-Choicers immediately start yelling and screaming insults at Pro-Lifers calling them chauvinists or just wanting to oppress women and keep them in their place. We are all so dumb. No wonder big movie execs don’t want to make an intelligent movie about the topic when none of us seems to be able to act rationally we talking about it. We’re all such children (me included).
So there you go. I think I’ve ticked off just about EVERYONE now. But I don’t care. We all need (me too) to start growing up and learn how to talk intelligently about this kind of stuff before we start demanding that movie makers take a stand and make movies that support our point of view. Let’s start talking to each other instead of insulting each other for not agreeing with us.
And if you don’t agree with me, then you’re a Nazi!!! :)
