When I heard that the movie Hounddog was going to have a scene which 12 year old actress Dakota Fanning acts like she is being raped by her father, I got sick to my stomach.
I know that incest and child abuse are topics on TV and in the movies all the time, but to portray the video of it is crossing a line I don’t think has been crossed before and I for one will not support the movie by watching it, renting it, or giving it the liberty of being played on my TV when it comes out on Pay TV.
The issue of incest/child abuse can be portrayed just fine without filming a rendition of it. I can only think of one reason this scene would be shot and needless to say Roman Polanski comes to mind.
Michael Coren says it best:
Then they’ll sit back and look smug and caring and enlightened when moral and religious types argue that it’s emotionally and sexually unhealthy to use child rape as a form of titillation for witless audiences.
Some have argued that it’s fine because Fanning’s mother was present during the ordeal and approved of her daughter’s work.
Oh, well, that’s OK then. After all, there has never been a neurotic mother of an actor child in Hollywood, living her life vicariously and enjoying the money and glamour of being mum to a star.
It really is extraordinary that the same sort of people who routinely attack traditional parenting and vehemently oppose even mild spanking are so supportive of a mother’s right to allow her 12-year-old child to behave in such a manner.
Frankly, any criticism will only encourage the chattering classes and inflate still further their sense of self-righteous paranoia.
A child here, a moral code there, a broken generation somewhere else. Doesn’t matter, as long as you’re the centre of attention at a fashionable party.
What makes the last statement by Coren so valid to me is that Deborah Kampmeier, the director of Hounddog has credits in two movies to date and both are themed around some sexual act.
Her first film, Virgin, is about girl who finds herself pregnant without remembering having had sex so she concludes that she is carrying the child of god.
I guess Kampmeier has discovered that sex sells in our society. Either that or she had a really screwed up childhood that we are will hear about when she writes her memoirs in a decade or two.
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And this is what passes for entertainment???
This mother should have her head examined. Wait 10-12 years down the road and we’ll see what Dakota has to say about the experience, and the mother.
However, if she wasn’t going to do this part, some other little girl would be manipulated into doing it.
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Sadly we live in a society these days where right and wrong aren’t just blurred, they don’t even exist.
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CaNN :: We started it.
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I guess the ‘entertainment’ industry has to keep making things more and more shocking due to desensitization among viewers.
I won’t be going to this movie, and believe me, I’m no prude.
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Have you not heard of the movie Bastard out of Carolina? It was banned in the Maritimes when it came out in the mid-to-late 90’s – I’m not sure if the decision has been reversed – but is available in Ontario.
I remember renting and watching it. It’s an experience I never want to repeat, but one I never want to forget. It’s a difficult movie to watch, but one that gives an honest view of childhood physical, sexual, and emotional abuse.
This movie has scenes that imply the rape of a child, but don’t actually show it – instead, they leave it up to your imagination. It was directed by Angelica Houston. You can find more info about it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bastard_Out_of_Carolina
I do want to stress that I’m not recommending anyone watch this movie. Those I know who have done so have all been very disturbed by the content of the movie.
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Caveat (#4) I am not a prude either. I don’t mind most content in R rated movies, I love the Sopranos and enjoyed the baseball bat scene in Goodfellas. I watch the Simpson’s and Family Guy and laugh, I grew up with Hugh Heffner’s empire and I snuck into my first strip joint before I was 17. I love hockey fights and when it comes to watching the obscene, I can even stare at Don Cherry’s jackets for hours on end without a single thought of vomiting.
This scene with Dakota Fanning would probably make me puke in the theatre.