Doggie Style
They took the easy way out on this one. Liam Neeson -- who, for the
first time, I must judge to be in over his head -- gives us a Kinsey who is a prophet without honor in his own country, a scientist first and always, practically a saint. Beginning as an entomologist he finds himself wondering what EXACTLY goes on in the human boudoir. We have to take into account that this is the mid-40s and nobody knows from sex. What I mean is that many believed that if you did something bad to yourself you'd grow hair on your palms. Things like that. A little outre. And here comes Kinsey. What Darwin was to biology, and Freud to psychology, Kinsey was to the physical and social aspects of human sexuality. He used what are called "snowball samples," which are what you have when, say, you interview one gay guy and ask if he knows any other gay guys that might agree to an interview, and so on. This is not a very good way to get a sample, but Kinsey was operating in difficult times. Not a good sample? Nobody else HAD any samples! The chief source of data on sexuality was "clinical experience," the province of MDs who brought their own ideas to the discussion. Before Kinsey there was only Van deVelde's marriage guide, the most shocking message of which was that sex was for more than just reproduction, and when you went on your honeymoon don't expect to spend all your time coupling in a locked hotel room. Leave some space for skiing. The more literary among us in elementary school would sneak the guide off the library shelves and furtively skim through it looking for the dirty parts. But overall the movie is rather dull. It's a simple-minded picture of Dr. Kinsey, the ex wasp man. He was not only a knight in unshining armor, although he was that too. He was a pretty weird guy. The movie shows him going about gaily collecting "data", disinterested and coolly eager, but he had a lot more in the way of personal involvement than the movie suggests. There is a scene in which he is alone with a young man in a hotel room and they both agree that on a scale of one to ten -- ten being completely homosexual -- they're about a three. Then they do something about finding out if that's true. That's all we see of Kinsey the man exploring his own sexuality. However he knew something about his bisexuality before undertaking the study, and he explored it in his adulthood. He got his wife into the picture more than once too. And there were group gropes that grew a little, well, what might later have been called kinky. Kinsey enjoyed himself by tying ropes around his penis with plenty of knots (in the ropes) and then tugging on it to the point of pain as well as pleasure. There were times when he went a bit too far and suffered unpleasant infections. I hope I'm remembering this accurately. It's mostly from a profile in the New Yorker from some years ago. Now, the REAL Kinsey sounds like an interesting fellow, whereas this paragon of objectivity is rather a bore. He can't seem to talk about much except how badly we need more information on sexual habits. (He was entirely right about that.) But he talks like that at parties too, and it gets repetitious after a while. The movie ends sadly, after a cinematic biography whose trajectory is familiar to most of us. Genius has great idea and devotes his life and his talent to its exploration. He goes too far and alienates others. Runs out of money. Loving wife sticks with him. But we all know that though he may have died thinking he was a failure, his work will long outlive him. The direction is flat, the dialog lacks sparkle, and Liam Neeson has a haircut that only Kim il Chong could envy. What an interesting movie could have been made about this man and his career.. megova watch You Can't Stop The Murders movie
I think Kinsey is a nice movie, showing the state of sex in the period. Liam Neeson, absolutely unique! 7/10.
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Me parece muy interesante lo que esta película supuso en su momento.
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good.
A bold movie
Like also bold was the research done by the man who worked out these
reports on the sexual behavior of men and women which made a revolution in the till then established knowledge and the common social and individual convictions on such matters. To withdraw sex out of the pure scope of morals and religion and turning it as an object of scientific research was a task which offended lots of prejudices and cleared up preconceived notions and ideas, contributing in a certain way to the liberation mainly of the women as victims of such prejudices. Of course you can raise here the question -- and this is not missing in the movie -- of knowing if sexual activity is purely physical or it must also involve sentiments and obey to moral rules. But this is a movie review and not a moral essay. That question is legitimate but its discussion is absent of this review because it goes beyond what a movie review is supposed to be. This movie, in its biographical aspect, tells us in astonishingly good way the work of Alfred Kinsey and his struggle to reach the aimed goal of a purely scientific nature, of revealing what actually happens in the human sexual activity and behavior disregarding of moral patterns and also of the common wrong knowledge about it. Its true knowledge would then enable sexologists to establish rules that would allow voluntary and free sex to become a source of pleasure and happiness. Liam Neeson performs very well the role of the main character and the movie shows a live and energetic succession of every aspect of his activity in the pursuit of his aim, including aspects and scenes of his own personal and married life. About the end one of his assistants refers to him that he never dealt with the question of love in his works. He gave a prompt and clear reply to this: love cannot be measured and science only deals with measurable objects and actions. But love is not totally absent from this movie. In fact the love that unites the Kinsey spouses is very deep and firm. Even jealousy appears once in the scene where one of his assistants has a fight with another one that was having an affair with the former's wife. This proves that it is not that easy to consider sexual behavior only under its physical aspects and that psychological ones are also to attend. A beautiful movie on a very difficult theme but in which the mastery and skill of Bill Condon brings it to a good end.. |
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