frantz@netcom.com (Bill Frantz) writes:
It seems to me that the logic of these answers would make the movie, "Carried Away" illegal. According to a Boston Globe review (reprinted in the local rag), "... his character cheats on his longtime girlfriend with a new student who's only 17, ..." Depending on how this is depicted in the movie (Rated R), it seems to me that this could go over Hatch's line. (BTW, the review rates the movie 3 stars out of a possible 4.)
This is an interesting point. There are a plethora of foreign films, and some domestic ones, which contain frontal nudity by persons under 18, as well as suggestions and sometimes even fairly explicit depictions of acts such as masturbation or sex between adolescents or (horrors) between an adolescent and an adult. None of these films has a rating worse than an (R) from the censors at the MPAA, and a lot of them have glowing reviews singing their praises by the likes of Siskel and Ebert, Judith Crist, and John Hartl. Paradoxically, the US Government has never prosecuted a mainstream film under child pornography laws, evidently feeling that this was a can of worms they didn't dare open, or at the very least, not wanting to risk losing the case and establishing a precedent So while people are getting prosecuted for a grainy computer picture they downloaded from the Internet, which some pediatric "expert" testifies "appears to depict a minor", such glowing cinematic moments such as the hardon comparison scene in Bernardo Bertolucci's "1900", or Jill Clayburgh masturbating her teenage son to orgasm in "Luna", are freely available to anyone who wants them, and even get shown on Premium Cable to boot. Not to mention the child nudity in films ranging from the ancient "Macbeth" to the adolescent boy loves boy epic "You Are Not Alone." Showtime must have run David Hamilton's "Tendres Cousines" at least a zillion times when it was first released, as well as prominently featuring it in their weekly softcore erotica slot, even though it featured the rather explicit seduction of a 14 year old boy by an older girl, complete with nudity, flushed cheeks, and panting orgasms. If the Hatch bill in one form or another passes, will the government still continue to ignore the art film market in its quest to stamp out depictions of child sex? How will the artistic community react when the feds start throwing people in jail, and burning the master prints of critically aclaimed films, under the excuse that the mere existence of such material "sexualizes" children and "encourages child abuse?" Should make for some interesting court tests. -- Mike Duvos $ PGP 2.6 Public Key available $ mpd@netcom.com $ via Finger. $