Friday, May 30, 2014

Guns good, nipples bad

The Motion Picture Association of America has forbidden Dimension Films to release this poster of Eva Green, showing an image from the "Sin City" sequel coming to theaters Aug. 22:


The reason? "Curve of under breast and dark nipple/areola circle visible through sheer gown."

Dimension, which is run by the Weinstein Brothers, is delighted by the fuss and making as much hay with it as possible. The MPAA is saying nothing. Without making snarky comments about boobs, I have two thoughts.

First, movie posters have been showing racy images for years. Here's one of Jane Russell in the 1943 film "The Outlaw," produced by Howard Hughes (another guy who liked to capitalize on controversy):


Second, the MPAA wasn't put off by the gun in Green's hand. (Based on my memories of "Sin City," it has just been put to some heinous use or is about to be). So it's acceptable to show people preparing to take life in a movie poster but unacceptable to show them preparing to make love.

Oy.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

You think it's wrong that they allow a gun on a poster but not a nipple? That's exactly how it should be.

Maybe this will help you understand. Go find a female police officer. Ask her if you can take a photo of her gun. Then ask if you can take a photo of her nipples. See which one gets you in trouble.

Ron Wagner said...

That theory has some holes in it.

Archiguy said...

This is America. Guns good! More guns, even better! Breasts bad! Naked breasts, even worse.

We must think of the children. What kind of message would we be sending if we taught them that the sight of a beautiful woman's body is preferable to the sight of a device designed to kill people?

A device, I might add, which our precious Second Amendment (are there any others?) gives us every right to own, and our wonderful new "stand your ground" laws give us a right to use on anybody, anytime, with no fear of legal repercussions. Just say that hombre looked at you funny and you're home free! Gotta' love this country!

Thank God for Freedom!!! And Thank God our kids will grow up knowing guns are more important than boobs, and that we love them enough to know which to protect them from.

What, are you some kind of commie?

Garth Vader said...

Based on the position of Ms. Green's trigger finger and the captioned dialog, it's pretty obvious that the photo was taken POST heinous use.

Anyway Larry, didn't you pay attention to the James Bond "Quantum of Solace" teaser posters, where Daniel Craig is holding a Heckler & Koch UMP-9 submachine gun in a similar posture?

And your final sentence is rather incoherent - there is no hint of "preparing to make love" in the poster.

Anonymous said...

Garth Vader, I had forgotten EVERYTHING about "Quantum of Solace," among the most forgettable Bond movies ever. And she's wearing a negligee in what appears to be a bedroom with the blinds drawn...Well, I suppose she could be preparing to make blintzes.

Anonymous, you might actually get in trouble asking a police officer if you can photograph her gun, and you would certainly do so if you asked to photograph her nipples. But that's because it's an invasion of privacy issue, not obscenity. You would also get in trouble for asking to photograph her child's bedroom, and that's hardly an obscenity question.

The point I was making is that we don't think twice about casual indicators of violence in media images -- the question wouldn't even come up at the MPAA -- but a movie poster showing something a little more revealing than we see at the beach gives us the heebie-jeebies.