RE: RARA-AVIS: Full frontal Kevin Bacon

Mark Sullivan (ANONYMEINC@webtv.net)
Tue, 29 Sep 1998 19:08:42 -0400 (EDT) In Wild Things, you see all of Kevin Bacon. I must admit I was a bit
surprised as it is so rare in American mainstream films (of course,
Harvey Keitel appears naked every chance he gets, but neither the Piano
nor Bad Lieutenant were major studio US films). The camera comes in on
Bacons's bare ass as he takes a shower. He turns around, greets the
person who has entered, then reaches for the towel. There is no attempt
to pull an Elvis and shoot only above the hips. As I said, I was
surprised by the view because of its rarity, that is its rarity when a
man is in the shot. What struck me was that this is a shot we see in
almost every movie with a female shower scene (would the same shot of
Neve Campbell or Denise Richards have been remarked upon other than to
comment on how their bodies looked?). The male is such a scene usually
reaches for the towel first and then turns into it, concealing his
genitals. What made it even more striking was that there was no full
frontal female nudity, just topless. It was an interesting switch.

The shot of Bacon's, uh, bacon was completely gratuitous, there is
absolutely no reason the scene's conversation had to take place in the
bathroom, but this very sleaziness was so completely in keeping with the
sleazy nature of the film in general that is was totally appropriate.
As I have said before, Wild Things is one of the greatest cheesy, sleazy
movies in recent memory. It is such nasty fun it is a pure pleasure,
not even a guilty one.

Mark

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