When Does a Movie Billboard Cross the Line?
I think we have all come to be fond of the Mini-W and her sometimes ascerbic, generally pretty wise take on the movies. This is the same child who said at age five that SUNSET BOULEVARD was her favorite movie. So it was with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, one day a few months ago while driving my early teen to school, that I followed her open-mouthed, shaken gaze to a billboard on Santa Monica Boulevard. What movie is that for, mom?
What do you say to your daughter about what is essentially a pornographic snuff/horror film - writ large, in color, on a 30 foot billboard? What does it mean to be a woman? What has entertainment come to?
Just this morning my wonderful writing partner sent me this
link to an article in the Huffington Post, written by Jill Soloway about the frightful, stomach-turning billboards for CAPTIVITY that peppered Los Angeles for a time and what one outraged mother did about it.
Whether your are a parent, or simply a citizen not exactly interested in being unwittingly assaulted by a billboard depicting woman-hating torture whilst walking to get your afternoon Pinkberry, check out the article and then move on to the blog to read more about the issue and to write a letter to the MPAA about the consequences for the makers of CAPTIVITY.
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2 comments:
I read about the plans for the premiere of Captivity. It saddens me that our society is so enthralled with this kind of crap that we tolerate and support it, even in its increasingly offensive forms. I am appalled that the MPAA can a movie like Captivity (or Hostel, or Saw, or ...) an R rating just because they cut away at the last moment as the blood sprays. There is a famous saying uttered by Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, "I can't define pornography, but I know it when I see it." Well, if Captivity and the publicity surrounding it is not pornography, I don't know what is.
JB
We have the billboard with the teary eye behind the wire mesh, and I'm 3000 miles from Sunset Boulevard. As loony as it sounds the folks doing performance at that premier party and similar club activity or porno are there by choice. Gor-no simulates unwilling participants.
It also lures writers into writing horror as a way to break in. I admit it - I allow my imagination to drift into thinking up creative ideas for that opportunity rich genre. Before I was trying to be a screenwriter, there is no way my mind would drift into such fictional cruelty.
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