The awkward and inappropriate rape discussion…
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Film and Television Discussion
SorkinFan — 17 years ago(March 13, 2009 08:12 PM)
I was thoroughly enjoying this film right up until the scene when Diane Keaton and Woody Allen are in his apartment and have that strange conversation about rape.
That one moment destroyed any sympathy I had for both their characters and left a bad taste in my mouth for the rest of film.
Perhaps I'm making too much of it, but I found it to be in bad taste and not fitting with the rest of the film's spirit.
I'm curious to know what other people thought, too! -
aleksite — 17 years ago(March 19, 2009 03:31 PM)
Sure, it wasn't perfect, not to mention nice, but at the same time, it brought about that bit of imperfection the flick needed. People do joke about weird (and inappropriate) stuff in real life, so why not in movies.
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bafflewit — 16 years ago(May 13, 2009 01:35 AM)
Rape fantasies and the discussions thereof are not alien concepts. There is even a short story called Rape Fantasies where one of the main characters fantasizes about it. For uncomfortable discussions in Woody Allen films, the Annie Hall scene with John Glover discussing how he'd like to die is exceptionally creepy, and brings about a great one liner from Allen "heavy, he wants to be eaten by squirrels".Woody Allen movies tend to joke about the gravest things in life as a coping mechanism.
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Adler-99 — 16 years ago(September 27, 2009 09:17 AM)
We were just watching PIAS again last night, and my husband and I both thought that this rape joke scene would not fly with modern audiences. In the early '70s, though, it was considered OK and typical.
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ThereWillBeBeer — 16 years ago(March 08, 2010 06:10 AM)
Exactly. Have to admit I cringed during that scene while watching the film last night. But unlike the early 70s, people now are constantly concious of anything that is the slightest bit politically incorrect, offensive or could be considered controversial. In fact nowdays people seem to proactively try to find something politically incorrect.
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profh-1 — 16 years ago(March 13, 2010 09:44 PM)
The part of that sequence I found funny was when Diane Keaton said she'd pretend to go along with it, until she could grab something heavy and smash the guy's head in. At that moment, if you look close, EVEN BOGART looked nervous!
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ThereWillBeBeer — 16 years ago(March 16, 2010 05:39 PM)
A different sensibilty in the early 70s I guess. Remember Blazing Saddles:
Recruiter: 'so, what are your qualifications?'
Criminal: 'rape, murder, kidnapping, assault, and rape.'
Recruiter: 'you said rape twice.'
Criminal: 'I like rape.' -
cambridgejohnny — 9 years ago(January 09, 2017 06:56 AM)
And then there are the films that use the N word many, many times like Pulp Fiction. I don't remember anyone putting up a stink about that. But really, I don't understand the whole concept of political correctness anyway. People go to these films, and also watch them at home all the time, and they scream bloody murder if something happens that's politically incorrect. Yet, in many of the same films people are being shot, tortured, stabbed, strangled, etc, etc, etc, and nobody says much about all the violence. Nice world we live in. You can murder your ex-wife and her friend, who you never even met, and get away with it scot free; but if you're a witness at the same trial, and it's rumored that you said the N word at a party ten years before the trial, you'll be fired from your job in disgrace and your life will be ruined! Unbelievable.
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PurpleProseOfCairo — 15 years ago(April 28, 2010 12:52 PM)
Stadler and Heezgawn are right - it was a different time and a different climate.
I remember being shocked at a clip from a (British) sketch show of the Sixties, a black and white show re-shown recently where a girl is running from door to door in fast motion shouting "Rape!" at each door. It just wasn't viewed in the same light in those days, rightly or wrongly. -
Mikurtis — 15 years ago(June 18, 2010 08:38 PM)
The only time rape is funny a gay friend and I were watching something about Timothy McVeigh years ago. My friend said, "I'd love to go to prison just so I could rape his ass evil as he is, he's still hot and deserves to be raped."
A moment of politically incorrect zen -
lisajohn-4 — 10 years ago(September 24, 2015 08:36 PM)
You are remembering a feature film called "The Knack, and How to Get It" (1965). It is British, but not a sketch show. I agree that it is shocking to hear today, but either it was not seen in the same light back then, or perhaps they were making a social comment? Perhaps I am reaching, but I think that the film makers intended it for a reasonwhat do your think? Did they include this as a parody or social comment or what? Perhaps it was not thought out? Just thrown in for shock value? Talk among yourselves.
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megArnold — 15 years ago(June 21, 2010 08:55 AM)
Don't forget the highly inappropriate joke about
suicide
in the museum. This destroyed the movie much more for me. A lot of people commit suicide every day and blah blah blah blah
I'm with another poster on this thread. Nowadays people proactively search for reasons to be offended. It's a national sport. Professional offendees. Seriously, if a forty-years-old politically incorrect joke in a movie causes so much grief for you, how can you live with the knowledge that ten thousands of people suffer from an oil spill in the Gulf, that in the middle east hundreds of thousands of people are killed, raped, displaced etc.
People nowadays have no real problems or causes of real grief any more, so they seek out grief and offence wherever they can find it. And wallow in it. Makes them feel alive, I suppose. -
Balthazar Bee — 15 years ago(June 25, 2010 11:03 AM)
Well put. I remember a professor, whom I liked and otherwise respected, using this portion of the script as an object lesson about artistic insensitivity, shifting social mores, or some such. I don't think more than a handful of us had been previously exposed to the movie, and I felt genuinely sorry for the unfornate majority.
I hate to be the guy to mention this film to one of these folks in subsequent years.
"Isn't that the one that tries to joke about rape?" Oy. Might as well spray paint "Culture Ignoramus" on your forehead, if you can make it fit.
"I was nowhere
near
Oakland!" -
card53 — 15 years ago(July 21, 2010 02:38 PM)
Political correctness has rendered laughter an inappropriate coping mechanism for life's ugliness. No, there was never anything funny about real-life rape, child molestation, spousal abuse, etc. But I think it was a healthier time when we could laugh at the inherent absurdity of such matters and could make fools of the nutcases who would commit such crimes. Even a film such as ARTHUR is culturally obsolete. Try making a film about a funny alcoholic today.
Yet it still seems acceptable to make drug jokes in contemporary films. For those who object to the rape joke in PIAS, keep in mind that such a joke would have been no more offensive at the time than "stoner dude" humor is today.
Sorry, but you can't demand that the past conform to today's standards and morals. -
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ShroudOfFrost — 15 years ago(October 02, 2010 08:29 AM)
Obviously you just watch mainstream movies, or are just talking about mainstream cinema couldn't handle something life Love at First Bite. However, filmmakers like Noah Baumbach and Charlie Kaufman still take audiences to places that big time Hollywood refuses to go. Or another great example is David Lynch. A lot of people didn't know how to take the comedy in Blue Velvet and Wild at Heart (and Wild at Heart had a light hearted rape scene).
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