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Erik Erickson of the all-you-can-eat salad bar of stupid that is RedState, is really really upset about the art house movie, Antichrist:
If I told you a movie is coming out that depicts, on screen, genital mutilation preceding sexual acts with the mutilated genitals, violent pornographic images, etc. even given modern tolerant film standards, wouldn’t you think such a film would get an NC-17 rating?
I mean, given just the first bit of the description above with the mutilation, which involved mutilating a man then a women with sexual acts in between all shown on screen, you’d think an NC-17 rating would be warranted, wouldn’t you?
The film “Anti-Christ” opens this Friday. Forget the world view of the film. Forget the message of the film, even though most critics are at a loss for what the message might be. Just focus on the images, however disgusting they may be.
Why hasn’t the MPAA, the organization that rates movies, given this movie an NC-17 rating? In fact, they have punted and failed to give it any rating, despite it opening in theaters this weekend.
I’m not a naive rube living in Hicksville, despite what some on the left might think. Still, the ratings serve a purpose. The MPAA should not avoid its job on this movie.
There is a petition here you can sign to the MPAA encouraging it to do its job.
Um, yeah.
On Friday, the BBFC announced their classification for Lars von Trier’s Antichrist and it became an instant news story that the film was to be released fully uncut in the UK.
Indeed, Russ Fischer wrote Film’s report on the matter. For greater context, however, I want to provide a discussion of how the BBFC work, how this is different (and to my mind, better) than the MPAA, and some very specific details of the Antichrist ruling. It is safe to proceed beyond the break, though those of you wary of Antichrist spoilers will want to opt out at the BIG SHOUTY warning below. The MPAA rating system is, for what it’s worth, voluntary.
And I though that every rube down in Hicksville worth his copy of Cahiers du Movin’ Pictures Show already knew that.
Color me naive….
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That’s how “Yank my Doodle, it’s a Dandy” came out as XXX. Not rated by MPAA and X, unlike the other rating letters, was not registered.
so they didn’t submit the film for the voluntary rating system and Erik is made because the MPAA didn’t rate it anyway?
of course, without a rating, if I remember correctly, most theaters won’t touch it.
http://www.filmbug.com/dictionary/mpaa-ratings.php
The stupid, I can’t take it!
Erik’s petition sounds like the product of mutilated genitalia.
Just focus on the images, however disgusting they may be.
We owe it to ourselves, Strike Force! Focus on those genitals. Focus focus focus.
My, my. It seems like Erik is really quite determined to watch this movie — and particularly the nasty bits with the genital mutilation — but would like to know if he’s being a bad boy or a *really* bad boy for feeling that way. But, c’mon, nobody is being forced to watch this movie just because it isn’t rated XXX by some random bureaucrat. Freedom, bitches. You don’t have to go — or you can go, in spite of what the rating says. Why is Erik suddenly so determined to have “the system” lord over his choice of viewing material? If he finds he gets a decent GOP-wood from this stuff, then he should give in to it and do both the matinee AND the late show…
Erik seems to have an unhealthy obsession with mutilated genitals. Might it have something to do with that tragic restroom accident when he was 12?
I’m hoping that the Christian right will organize protests outside the theaters. From what I’ve read about this movie, there will be more protesters than movie-goers. Except of course the protests will attract more people to see the movie. The Christian right was tempted by “The Golden Compass” and “The DaVinci Code,” but they resisted and didn’t help advertise them. Maybe “Antichrist” will send them back into full “Last Temptation of Christ” mode.
But here’s the thing. If mutilation is so bad, why weren’t their knickers in a twist over the many iterations of “Saw?” Of course, it’s all about the genitals, always.
Genital mutilation is OK, as long as its done in Texas and it involves a chainsaw.
Antichrist? That’s nothing. I’d take my mother to see that.
Now, The Human Centipede (google it yourself, sickos,) is the first film I ever heard about that made me seriously consider the motivations of others who want to live in a world with lots of censorship. The little I’ve read about it makes it sound like Two Girls One Cup times infinity, divided by the inverse of Saw I-VI, squared.
Watch out, Erick the son of Erick. You’re stepping into Andrew Breibart’s territory, and from what I hear, he gets really shouty when he gets mad.
What a bunch of bullshit. This is third-rate material, even for Erick the son of Erick.
Ah jeez, not this asshole again. Can we keep talking about Salma Hayek? Please?
Of course had this been a movie showing Jesus getting his testicles mutilated by the Romans and the MPAA had given that a NC-17, he’d be screaming about “freedom of speech” and how the liberals will do anything to keep the kids from seeing a movie about Jesus.
I’m usually queasy when it comes to horror movies, but Von Trier’s has imagery I can’t resist. Anthony Lane in the New Yorker writes:
Most puzzling about Erick et al objecting to fiction on a screen is he endorses the annihilation and degradation of human beings, women particularly, by supporting the likes of Republicans (30 of whom just voted to support private military contractors whose employees gang rape other employees) and the war in Iraq. And he’s pissed about a movie.
whoa, dude….
Does Erick think that someone is accidentally going to take a pack of Cub Scouts to see this movie? These days you have to be willfully ignorant not to know at least something about a movie you’re going to pay a nice chunk of change to see.
Not that Erick and his buds are willfully ignorant little tin-plated selectively moralizing pieces of dogshit or anything.
I’m surprised that the little lout can spell “MPAA”.
Yeah, force an NC-17 rating on it — because, otherwise, every teenage mall rat in America is going to want to see an art film about guilt-ridden, philosophizing parents (named He and She) that features genital mutilation, Handel music, and a not-particularly-menacing talking wolf. To quote Phil Nugent’s review:
“…it starts out stone dead and then turns into a mine field of bad laughs. By now, most of the people who might want to see it have already been alerted to the nature of its “shocking” content, and that’s probably a bad thing, because when the shocks aren’t surprising, there’s no distraction from how silly it all is, whether you’re watching the genital mutilations or the symbolic woodland beasties who might be Von Trier’s homage to South Park’s Christmas Critters or an “ominous” dream sequence in which Dafoe, his face a mask of bewilderment–the face of an actor who trusts his director but has no idea why he wants him to do this–stares at the camera while a shower of acorns falls around him in lyrical slow motion.”
Angsty men standing silently in fields while acorns shower down — nothin’ the kidz like more than that….
Here’s a novel idea for Erick and his fellow Flying Monkeys of Conservative Movie Disapproval: If the movie sounds unappealing, don’t go see it. I must admit that I’m not planning to rush out and defend the right of artistic expression by forking over my eight bucks. I don’t think I would like a movie about people spiraling in to madness after losing their child. Even if it didn’t have genital mutilation. And I made that decision all by myself, even without a rating from MPAA. Does that make me a libertarian?
Hix Nix Anticrix Pix
If only there could have been some oiled-up, semi-nude Spartan man-warriors, chopping off heads and disemboweling other oiled-up semi-nude men wearing thongs, then it would have been one of teh awesome movies evah, like, of all time. Throw in a white, blue-eyed Jebus getting the living shit beat out of him, and man, that’s right up there with Red Dawn!
It’s like that moment in The Simpsons when Nelson and the other bad kids say that they’re going to sneak into an R-rated movie, and then pull away cheering “Bar-ton Fink, Bar-ton Fink.”
So, it’s the Passion of the Christ with naughty bits?
Whoa now, Erick wants to interfere with the free market? And have that interference done by an “association” not listed on the Stock Exchange? Where’s the Randian hoo-ha in that?
It’s almost as if he wants some kind of GOVERNMENT AGENCY to tell him what movies to see or not see. SOCIALISM!!1!1!!
odnamrA wins the internets.
odnamr steals from/paraphrases a part of a scene from an old Jimmy Cagney movie. :})
I’m hoping that the Christian right will organize protests outside the theaters.
Down with this sort of thing!
I happen to know for a fact that Erik Erickson is a “naive rube living in Hicksville”.
To be more precise, he lives in the trailer park on the outskirts of Hicksville, but he’s just a short walk from the border, and spends most of his time within the Hicksville city limits stomping up and down in front of the Hicksville Town Hall wearing a sandwich board that says “My IQ is falling!!”
Most of the residents of Hicksville consider Mr. Erickson to be something of a nut case and a nuisance. He’s been escorted to the town line by the Hicksville Sheriff’s Dept. on numerous occasions. He left their police cruiser smelling of urine, by the way.