# Gratuitous nudity and NON-nudity in movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 5, 2009, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447 "2009-05-05T18:53:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447/41 "2009-05-06T00:05:48Z")
> [@Cluricaun](#): > > 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. Was she topless? I thought she was in a tight t-shirt 😕 ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447/42 "2009-05-06T00:22:21Z")
**My Bloody Valentine 3D** had a blonde woman having sex with a random trucker in a cheap motel; full frontal on her, rear of him. Afterwards he stays naked while her get’s dressed. Then she discovers that he filmed filmed them. He calls her a whore and leaves. So she puts her heels one, grabs her pistol, and storms after him _completely naked_. :dubious: Then we get several scenes of her running around naked trying to avoid a serial killer. Meanwhile Jensen Ackles doesn’t even take his damn shirt off once in the entire film :mad:. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447/43 "2009-05-06T00:29:56Z")
One thing that always annoys/takes me out of the movie, is mismatched nudity. she’s nude, or nearly so, and he’s fully clothed or nearly so, it’s just plain bizarre. I’m thinking of the scene in **Coccoon** where we see this awesome alien-in-a-babe-suit ass with a peek between her legs and Guttenberg goes from dressed to up to his neck in the pool. Ok now, I’m _really really not_ into Guttenberg, but it’s just too obvious. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447/44 "2009-05-06T00:35:14Z")
> [@Icerigger](#): > > In my opinion there is none more gratuitous than Barbara Bach’s nude bath scene in **Force 10 from Navarone**. The WW2 adventure film did not need to have a naked woman. On the contrary, it needed several. On the other hand, **The Bridge On The River Kwai** didn’t need anything more than a few semi-hot (but clothed) native bearerettes. This scene did not quite survive the edit for TV, but **The French Connection** had a nice instance of gratuitous nudity (Popeye’s pickup girlfriend) in one of the opening scenes. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447/45 "2009-05-06T00:45:51Z")
> [@Pushkin](#): > > Was she topless? I thought she was in a tight t-shirt 😕 Earlier in the movie, there’s jiggling breasts in a t-shirt that reads “Moral Majority.” Later in the movie there’s the quick shot of the woman in question, topless. ---
**Author:** ![Sateryn76](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@Sateryn76](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sateryn76)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447/46 "2009-05-06T00:47:10Z")
> [@Pushkin](#): > > Was she topless? I thought she was in a tight t-shirt 😕 I agree - the camera panned from a mound of jello to a big set of knockers jiggling in a tee-shirt. White and dark blue hem, I thought… ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447/47 "2009-05-06T00:47:17Z")
> [@Pushkin](#): > > Was she topless? I thought she was in a tight t-shirt 😕 Depends on which version you saw. In the original theatrical release, there was definite boobage. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447/48 "2009-05-06T01:52:14Z")
You’re both right. There’s the jello-to-t-shirt scene _and_ the naked jigglies scene. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447/49 "2009-05-06T01:57:38Z")
Nina Hartley in Boogie Nights. She’s a genuine porn actress who obviously would have no objection to nudity, and every scene she is in is a sex scene, but you only ever see her from the neck up. I’m pretty sure it was intended as a deliberate gag. Sort of like in Orgasmo, whenever a woman gets naked, the hairy ass guy steps in the way so you can’t see her. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447/50 "2009-05-06T02:13:14Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > Earlier in the movie, there’s jiggling breasts in a t-shirt that reads “Moral Majority.” Later in the movie there’s the quick shot of the woman in question, topless. I think that was _Airplane! II_. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447/51 "2009-05-06T02:31:42Z")
In the movie, _Open Water_, a disturbing, true story of a scuba diving couple accidentally abandoned at sea and eaten by sharks, the female lead (the very fetching [Blanchard Ryan](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0752436/)) is shown in an early scene stark naked on a hotel bed for absolutely no reason. An astonishingly good decision by the director. Another favorite of mine is Julianne Moore’s gratuitous, extended beaver shot in _Short Cuts_. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447/52 "2009-05-06T03:16:17Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > On a similar note, contrary to what the opening scene of _Carrie_ would have you believe, teenage girls do not frolic nude in the girls’ locker room. Teenage girls are actually quite adept at changing clothes for gym without ever being nude or even revealing much skin at all. This. Any movie set in the present-day that has a scene of high-schoolers hitting the showers after gym class is almost definitely being gratuitous. As I believe has been discussed on these boards, the great majority of (American) high schoolers do not shower at school! ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447/53 "2009-05-06T03:21:00Z")
> [@Rodgers01](#): > > As I believe has been discussed on these boards, the great majority of (American) high schoolers do not shower at school! Anymore. They still spottily tried to compel us back in the early 80’s ( aggressively so on swimming days ). ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447/54 "2009-05-06T03:25:14Z")
The one that always makes me laugh is The Incredible Hulk. Shoes? - Disintegrates Shirt? Torn to shreds Jeans - godammit jeans, which have to be amongst the most unyielding clothes around, torn apart and disappear below the knee, but still fit around the thighs? Which should have shown amongst the biggest increases in size from the transofrmation… No specific movies, but the other one is the “magic underwear”. The lovers come home drunk / passionate / hot for each other. Blast through the apartment tearing off each others clothes, before falling into bed for hot and wild moneky sex. Cut to the next morning when they get up to shower - both are wearing their underwear :dubious: Dunno about anyone else, but I don’t get up after sex to get dressed. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447/55 "2009-05-06T03:34:44Z")
> [@enomaj](#): > > **Wild Things** > > Gratuitous nudity( **Denise Richards** ) and lack thereof( **Neve Campbell** ) in the same scene. Interesting you ( the generic you ) could argue that in multiple directions. But really neither is gratuitous. You’d expect someone to get nude in a sex scene in a steamy pseudo-noir, so the nudity isn’t gratuitous. Likewise Neve Campbell’s non-nudity isn’t terribly gratuitous either - she just hasn’t shed her clothes yet by the time the scene closes. By contrast Heigl’s lack of nudity in _Knocked Up_ actually takes you ( or at least me ) a little out of the scene. Relatively few women have full-on sex with a bra on. Not only does she does it twice, once in an extended, deliberately raunchy ( and funny ) scene, but she draws attention to her breasts in that scene by talking about them. It’s very obvious she just didn’t want to do nudity. Which is **fine** , as far as I’m concerned. We all have our comfort zones and she isn’t obligated to show her delightful skin to folks like me. But unlike Campbell in _Wild Things_, who had similar reasons, they didn’t shoot around the problem. Instead they just left the bra on, where it looks jarringly out of place. It’s a really minor thing, admittedly. But to me it rises to the level of “gratuitous” because it actually has an impact on me watching the film, beyond just the missed allure of naked boobies - i.e. instead of thinking of the characters or the situation, I’m instead at that moment thinking that Heigl obviously has a no-nudity clause in her contract. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447/56 "2009-05-06T04:44:17Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > There’s also Kevin Bacon cock, which I think would be gratuitous under pretty much any circumstances. Well, only if you’re keeping kosher. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447/57 "2009-05-06T05:45:56Z")
The most gratuitous nudity I can think of is in the film [“Topsy-Turvy”](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0151568/). The film is about [Gilbert & Sullivan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_%26_Sullivan), Victorian men who lived very “G rated” lives. But the “G” rating means “kiddie movie” to far too many people. So the producers stuck in a _definitively_ gratuitous nude scene in a brothel and one “fuck” specifically so the film could get an “R” rating, and would be acceptable to adults. This film should be shown in every high school, and can’t because of the boobies and one swear word. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447/58 "2009-05-06T06:55:27Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > the female lead (the very fetching [Blanchard Ryan](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0752436/)) is shown in an early scene stark naked on a hotel bed for absolutely no reason. An astonishingly good decision by the director. > \*. never say stark naked. Naked is a sweet word, but nobody likes _stark_ ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447/59 "2009-05-06T06:56:34Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > It’s not like the movie was worried about its rating… We femophiles got to see Rebbecca Romjin naked in an earlier scene. She might’ve been naked, but you don’t see any nippleage or bajingo, so it hardly counts as nudity, at least for purposes of MPAA ratings. Wolverine’s tallywhacker hanging in the wind, yeah, that would’ve gotten them an R. At least an R. Of course the real answer is Wolvie must’ve been wearing a pair of pants partially made of unstable molecules. Where’s my no-prize? ---
**Author:** ![enomaj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/59ef9b/32.png) [@enomaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enomaj)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447/60 "2009-05-06T11:54:04Z")
\*\*Alexis Dziena \*\* in \*\*Broken Flowers \*\*. Definitely gratuitous. Home alone with a strange man and you go full frontal?! Note Bill Murray’s character’s ‘I probably shouldn’t be here’ reaction. What’s interesting is that she did a movie called \*\*Sex and Breakfast \*\* with \*\*Eliza Dushku \*\* which was about group sex and didn’t contain any nudity. Go figure. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-nudity-and-non-nudity-in-movies/495447.md?page=4)