50 Shades of Grey Without the Sex Scenes April 19, 2015
Author: Beach Combing | in : Actualite , trackback
The copy of 50 Shades arrived on a pendrive. The movie was in English but had Chinese subtitles. Instead of the regulation 125 minutes the film ran to 120 minutes. The reason? Every sex scene had been cut from the sex film of the year by censors: think Indiana Jones without the stunts, Lord of the Rings without the orcs, Citizen Kane without Orson Welles… In Britain the sex scenes have caused a fight in a cinema, in America they led to moral outrage. In the Beach household (nannies and little girls safely in bed) their absence was greeted with relief. There are a lot of negative reviews out there about 50 Shades and they are only half true: at least once the distraction of bare bodies and pubic hair has been removed. The casting for the film was inspired. The leads were not only well chosen but had excellent chemistry. The problem was the premise to this protracted tussle between the sheets.
At this point it might be wise, however, briefly, for our reviewer to set out his vision of human sexuality: something that many university professors would take 30 years and as many books to do. Fundamentally, human beings have three possible reactions to sex acts: (i) intense erotic interest, (ii) bewilderment or (iii) disgust. The tragedy of human sexuality is that while we all have these three gear positions, the boundaries between the erotic, bizarre and horrifying vary from person to person: our gear wheels are of different shapes and sizes. A ménage a trois with a pig, a cat and a hamster might send you running to your local police station, and yet leave a neighbour lying in a pool of his/her own saliva. 50 Shades is energized by this lack of common boundaries between individuals: two emotionally compatible people find that they are incompatible sexually. Think Pride and Prejudice though with sexual mores rather than social differences causing the rapids on the river of love. Christian Grey likes whips and blood and Anastasia does not…
If this was all the film (and the book that is according to many unreadable) would be Dr Zhivago in a very minor key. But the plot involves an act of fundamental dishonesty. In Pride and Prejudice apparent incompatibilities are overcome by two intelligent protagonists. With sexual incompatibilities there is just not that much room for negotiation: sure he could downgrade from whips to riding crops, she could perhaps experiment with low grade masochism… But the hard igneous formation that goes to make up our sexual selves doesn’t give very much. There is little squeeze: unlike the muddy sediment of our ‘higher’ personality. Yet the film (and soon to be made successors) are clearly built on the premise that Christian Grey can be cured of his sadist and controlling proclivities. This is insulting to the ‘law-abiding’ sadists out there and hopelessly naive: something compounded by the fact that his sadism is said to be the result of an abusive mother. (An aside, far more disturbing than the consensual sadism in the film are Christian’s stalker tendencies.) Some of us are perhaps distracted by the fact that ‘nasty’ Christian hits people, even if only with their legal agreement. But imagine a film which described a relationship between a man and a woman doomed because one has a strong homosexual turn, until, ‘the invert’ is cured by the love of the other. There would be pickets outside cinemas and furious editorials…
What is worse the author wants to have her dishonest sexual cake and eat it too. Not only is Christian’s sadism to be tamed out of him so he can become a normal humane billionaire. (Naturally, this would not involve him giving up his heliport.) The readers and watchers of the film simultaneously enjoy the frisson of an unacceptable or borderline sexuality, which is, on some levels, to judge by books and tickets sold, appealing: but they enjoy it without approving. (Here is surely the secret to the 50 Shades success story.) Fifty Shades is pornographic. It does not involve flailing limbs and falsetto orgasms: at least not in the Chinese version. But it is pornographic in that it is the worst kind of wish fulfillment and the lack of sex scenes makes its pornographic elements all the clearer. Winning the lottery or eating a mountain of Stilton Cheese is honest to God wish fulfillment: fun and probably to be encouraged. But this film is the worst kind. It makes another human being into a dancing, soul-less marionette. Sadism makes this blogger uncomfortable but at least it depends on chewing the edges of the soul of another person not denying that the soul is there.
And what has 50 Shades to do with bizarre history? Absolutely nothing! Sorry. drbeachcombing AT yahoo DOT com
