The thread is about just what it sounds like. I’m looking for instances in movies in which an actress or actor appears naked for no reason other than inspire 17-year-old kids to watch the movie; and, contrariwise, instances in which the performer should, by all reason, be naked, but is not.
(And we can go ahead and mention the magic L-shaped sheet in post-coital scenes just because it’s inevitable.)
I’ll start the bidding with one instance of each, from the very same movie. Carla Gugino’s nakedness in Sin city makes very little sense;* why, exactly, does she not throw on a robe when Marv comes to her apartment? And, later in the movie, Jessica Alba has two scenes in which she should by all logic be naked. In the first she is at work, as a stripper, in a strip club–on stage–and yet is clothed. In the second she is the captive of the Yellow Bastard, who intends to torture and rape her and has already begun the former; yet for some reason, all the naughty bits are covered.
My favorite instance of gratuity as a kid was the scene in Airplane! before Ted takes the controls and the plane is all out of control…and up pops a topless blond shakin’ some great looking knockers right at the camera. Gratuity was the point, but I loved it when I was 7 or 8.
You’re right about that, and the line’s the same in the comic book. That said, I don’t buy it. One of my best friends is a lesbian, and I arrived at her house recently while she was in the shower. I’m 99.99999999999999999% sure she has no sexual interest in me, and yet she put on a towel before coming out of the bathroom, though I know for a fact that she is not averse to walking around naked when alone. Because she’s from, you know, America.
ETA: Having said all that, if they had to choose between showing Carla Gugino naked and Jessica Alba naked, I’m glad they chose the one who has actually eaten a piece of cheesecake in her life.
ETA further: Just watched the video. Who the hell sleeps in a thong?
I recall several '80’s movies with gratuous nudity. A couple that come to mind:
Revenge of the Nerds - When they rig up cameras to spy on the sorority girls, and they end up running in for a panty raid, all the girls are running around topless. I think there was also a shower scene with lots of naked girls, too. (also pot smoking and university-sponsored drinking games but that’s for another thread)
Sixteen Candles - Scene where they introduce Jake Ryan’s perfect girlfriend, she’s in the shower completely nude and the camera starts at her feet and goes up from there.
I guess I had watched the edited versions so many times of these movies that when I watched them recently uncut, the nudity was a bit shocking!! I’m not a prude at all but seems to me it’s misplaced in these types of movies, not to mention misogynistic (didn’t see any naked dudes in either one!!)
The shower scene in Starship Troopers was about as gratuitous as any scene could be.
In National Lampoon’s Vacation, Christie Brinkley is supposed to be skinny dipping, but the camera never shows anything. It wasn’t to get a better MPAA rating – Beverly D’Angelo goes nude in the film – but probably because Brinkley refused.
Any time there is a stripper on stage, she should be topless, or get topless.
**Skald the Rhymer ** said:
Why should they have to choose? I mean, the movie was already rated R, it’s not like there’s a quota on boobies. “Oh, I’m sorry, you’ve exceeded your booby quota. One of those chicks needs a bra on. You pick.”
And while I appreciated plenty of gratuitous Carla Gugino scenes, I wanted the Jessica Alba, too.
HelloKitty said:
Uh, that was the point of spying on the sorority girls, to see them topless/naked. How was that gratuitous?
It seems as though we’ve been introduced to Harvey Keitel’s naked body for no good reason a number of times. I’d also say there was no particular cause for Jason Seagal’s full frontal debut in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Not that I mind eaither of the above; just seems put in for shock value is all.
I agree, though a shower scene like that could have been used to show how either soldiers were desensitized to sexuality among peers. Dollhouse uses a co-ed shower this way but without nudity. Given how shallow Starship Troopers is, I can’t give them the benefit of the doubt; it was gratuitous.
I think it’s there to add to his character’s humiliation. He’s being humiliated by his girlfriend breaking up with him, plus he’s humiliated because he’s naked. Or vulnerable.
To add my own to the mix, in Pi the main character is shown in kind of an in his head thing against a white background. In the director’s commentary, Aronofsky admits the character should have been naked, but he thinks it would have been too distracting.
Funny you should bring that up, because there’s a scene in the most recent Starship Troopers where the pilots have to disrobe and do a “full body scan” to get into their robots, which works out pretty much exactly how you’d imagine it would.
Yeah, when I first heard about that movie, I thought “Hmmm, I can think of two good reasons to see that.” But when I heard they never came out to play, I was glad I hadn’t rushed right out.
