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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