[see link below to Deseret News article, July 24, 1998]
I recently introduced my teenagers to the movie Titanic (’97, James Cameron) and I remembered something so relevant to today, and the post-Mormon space.
(TW: description of movie portrayal of domestic abuse.)
A theater in American Fork, UT, Towne Cinema, offered a “cleaned up” version of the film… in which they clipped from the movie two scenes: one in which Jack sketches Rose nude, lounging on a sofa, and also the scene that implies sex between Jack and Rose in the back seat of a car in the cargo area of the ship.
I thought it fascinating at the time I first read this article (’98), because what was left in the film should have been far more offensive to all of us… but I doubt anyone spoke up.
Rose’s fiancé is totally abusive. His character is the most vile portrayal of manhood I’ve seen on screen. At least, I can’t readily think of anyone worse at this moment. He’s controlling, manipulative, jealous, and completely insecure. He’s physically abusive to Rose–at one point in the movie, he voiolently slaps her across the face, and says (I paused the movie to write this down): “oh, it is a little slut isn’t it…”, an attempt to totally dehumanize her. (Later in the movie, his character uses a terrified child who is not his own to manipulate others into letting him onto a life raft.)
But, that’s all left in the movie, with no one apparently seeing the irony.
We ALL know… the offensive part of that movie (sarcasm intended) was, of course Rose’s nude body, and implied sex. (Sex that is developmentally appropriate, consented to, and without victim–and… pause to reflect a little if your knee-jerk reaction is to say that her betrothed is a victim here.)
I remember when I read this article years ago, when we lived in Orem, UT. I remember that the whole thing put me ill-at-ease, without being able to articulate why.
It was fun to see this forgotton topic come up, and to be able to use it to teach my children about the puritanical culture I was raised in, and what the people of American Fork found offensive… and didn’t. And I’m proud to say that my children understood exactly what the problem was with the idea that a movie could be “cleaned up” by removing naked breasts, while leaving behind 3 hours of domestic abuse.
This to me reveals so much about the Mormon culture’s inability to honor women as equals.