I’m working on the rewrite of a new as-of-yet untitled story right now, while I wait for Sarah to call. We’re going to watch some newer John Waters movie, A Dirty Shame. I was able to get the “NC-17″ version from Netflix, since all of the video stores around here are pussies and only stock the “R” version. When I called Blockbuster a few weeks back, I felt a little bit like a pervert asking if they had the “NC-17″ copy. The girl at Blockbuster politely informed me that they don’t carry any “NC-17″ movies at all, or at least movies that have both a “NC-17″ and a “R” version because Blockbuster is a “family” company. If she hadn’t added the bit about being a “family” store, I wouldn’t have even given a shit, but that really pissed me off. Never mind the fact that they happily carry all sorts of unrated films, which are pretty much the same thing as “NC-17.” It speaks for everything that is wrong with the screwed up values of this country — but I’m not going to get into that now.
What I really wanted to do was ask the girl, if they’re a family store, then why do they carry The Devil’s Rejects, which is decidedly not a family movie. Though I suppose one could make the case for it being “family-oriented,” since at one point in the film, the main characters — the Firefly family — torture and kill another family of characters — but that would be digressing, and I don’t do that.
So as much as I wanted, I didn’t cause a scene. The girl is probably just programmed to respond that way to customers, and I was also at work, so there wasn’t a whole lot of time to be a dick. But damned if I wasn’t mad, and I’ve sort of pissed myself off again just by briefly writing about it.
Well, I’m gonna go back to work now. But before I sign off, I thought I’d point you to an interesting video:
Red State Update is a funny little site, and the satire to be found is very subtle. This update is about the movies King Kong and Brokeback Mountain…but the satire is all about Brokeback. Watch it, and guffaw in amusement.
JAB
Yeah thanks, point me in the direction of a oh-so-dial-up-friendly video site. Screw you DSL bastards, I’m gonna go view some text sites.
The great media double standard with sex and violence. I actually wrote an outline for my next post that deals with the same issue.
It is funny that Soviet-controlled Blockbuster tries to be “family friendly” by not carrying NC-17 films, but like you said, carry Unrated films which are NC-17 films that are not submitted to the MPAA. The director made an NC-17 film, edited it down to an R rating to have it released theatrically, then releases it on DVD in its original cut and calls it Unrated.
Anyway, did you enjoy The Devil’s Rejects?
You know, when I worked for BlockBuster, some lady came in and demanded to get the number to our District Manager. She demanded that we take the movie Boat Trip from the shelves, as she let her 15 year old son watch it, and walked in right as some tits were bouncin’ on the screen.
How dare we provide access to such perverseness! If the movie was produced by Rob Zombie, and showed him sodomizing a corpse right after he curb stomped it and ripped out it’s kidneys, then im sure that lady wouldn’t have said a thing. She would’ve walked into the room where her son was watching the movie and gasped, not because of what Rob Zombie was doing, but because it was “So gross! Eww!”
Yeah, the media — and to a larger extent, our entire society — has really got some fucked up ideas when it comes to sex and violence. You put it quite well, Allan — it’s one big clusterfuck of a double standard.
Regarding Devil’s Rejects: it was entertaining, but I’m not sure if I liked it. I thought some of the psychological elements (the vengeance-driven sheriff slowly going insane) were intriguing, and I really dug the scenes where the Firefly family fucking with each other, like when they’re in the truck. On a whole though, the torture elements in the context of this film didn’t work for me as well as they did in the prequel. The cinematography was quite impressive, however. I think Rob Zombie is a very talented director. I’m real curious to see what he could do with a non-horror film. Maybe a romantic comedy?
Oh, and let it be known by all — I have a cable modem.
JAB