I have no problem with depictions of hot teens having bouncy jouncy sex with other hot teens; but i was bothered here by the pairing of pretty young high school girls with drooling middle-aged men, particularly Telly Savalas. There’s something about the words “Telly Savalas-sex-underaged women” that is a total boner-killer.
When I started typing that post I had a vague recollection that Walter Matthau was also in the movie and, by god, the image of THAT is even worse than Telly Savalas. (Must have been thinking of Terry Southern’s Candy.)
And Rock Hudson’s character doen’t get a pass for being handsome – he’s as much of a predator as the others.
I’m trying to remember, but I don’t think Telly Salavas boinks any of the girls. (Boinks. We don’t use that word often enough these days.) He might, even though he’s the policeman investigating the murders and, you know, shouldn’t, but logic and plot were never Roddenberry’s strong suits. It’s mostly Hudson, and he is also shown as certifiably crazy (as were all movie psychologists in those days). The notion of a high school girl being seduced by the Rock is not any less plausible than that of the shy high school boy getting seduced by Angie Dickerson, which also happens.
I don’t want to excuse the movie, which is obviously pure exploitation. I remember a column by humorist Calvin Trillin in which he says he used to scratch his head when his friends extravagantly praised 60s foreign movies that he thought were silly. Then the directors came to America and made films in English that everybody recognized as silly. His conclusion was that his friends were actually praising the subtitles.
A comment on IMDb notes that this movie paves the way for the million slasher flicks in which young female sexuality is always punished by death. That’s an entire genre of inherent sexism that doesn’t usually have the underlying black humor that powered 70s movies. Pretty Maids All in a Row can be said to be the high school version of MASH*, though 1% as good. The seduced boy’s character is named Ponce de Leon Harper, and the movie makes the pertinent point that we can chase after eternal youth but death always wins. That was the core of black humor. The eternally optimistic Roddenberry was the worst author for such a movie. But if Roger Vadim hated America - and he did - this movie is his revenge. Watch it for that and it suddenly pops into in focus.
Swept Away is the most sexist movie I am aware of. The plot is a spoiled rich wife is marooned on an island with a poor sailor she has been mistreating. In order to get food he forces her to be his servant. He slaps her around and rapes her a couple of times. She falls in love with him and begins to love her new life.
Madonna and Guy Richie did a remake which is less sexist but still awfully sexist.
I don’t see the movie as sexist, per se. It’s about an extreme form of sexism, yes, but the story isn’t sexist in tone.
Pretty much loathe the movie version v. the book, though. And the idiot sequel where they were just pill-controlled zombies was worse.
Mild spoiler: in the book, you’re never quite certain if the events are real or the protagonist’s paranoid delusions. The movie completely chooses one side.
It was funny to move up here to Stepford-land, where every other town seems to have a similar name. For a while, “Stepford” was a standard punchline to most family travel conversations.
Someone of Irving’s approximate stature as a writer once described his books as agonizing investigations of wretched people in awful situations that were far too short.
And I second the notion that Stepford wives is a horror movie, while S.G.D., while not precisely endorsing the idea of turning women into robotized slaves, doesn’t dwell much on it except as part of the villain’s power fantasy: the ultimate harem of perfect sex dolls- which the hero doesn’t seem particularly distressed by. To that extent I consider the movie itself sexist rather than just portraying sexism.
Exapno Mapcase @23: The Savalas excerpt I saw was of him interviewing an impossibly gorgeous teenage Asian girl wearing a miniskirt the size of a Kleenex. She was all earnest and “I am showing this middle-aged cop the true meaning of life” and he was all DAT ASS. I certainly hope he didn’t get to boink anyone, but the scene seriously skeeved me out.
I promise I’ll watch the whole thing eventually, but only if I can cover my eyes when any beautiful underage girls appear onscreen, because I am nothing if not politically correct. I will ogle 1971 Angie Dickenson, however.