# What was the most gratuitous piece of nudity you've ever seen in a movie? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 12, 2019, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743 "2019-12-12T09:59:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![TimfromNapa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d26b3c/32.png) [@TimfromNapa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimfromNapa)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2019, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743/101 "2019-12-13T19:23:25Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > It wouldn’t be a stretch to say some movie studio use to sneak in nudity in their movies all the time just so they can advertise it on the back of the box with “Rated R for Nudity” to entice men to rent them, so I’m wondering whats in your opinion the most gratuitous piece of nudity ever seen in a film? > > For clarification, nudity that actually makes sense in context (like in the 1960’s Romeo and Juliet), nor used for a deliberate comedic effect (like in Airplane or Thankskilling) count. The nudity has to be intended to titillate but actually comes across as “What?” or “Did that just happen?” for it to count. > > The movie that inspired this was the 1986 Clint Eastwood film “Heartbreak Ridge”, where in a movie that basically is mostly shirtless Marines running around in training, features a scene of them in actual combat in Grenada where one of them opens a door and finds himself walking into the shower room of a building, complete with a naked lady who walks out of the shower, then quickly covers herself up with a towel. You get a grand total of maybe 2 seconds of clear nudity and then the scene ends. It’s the only actual nudity in the film, and is more baffling on why its in there than anything else. It could be considered comedic but the scene goes by way too fast and you get too clear of a shot of the womans full body nude for that to be the case. While they may not have featured full nudity, The “Sigourney Weaver in her underwear” scenes in the first two Alien movies were completely gratuitous. Quite welcome and pleasing, but gratuitous nonetheless. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2019, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743/102 "2019-12-13T19:42:12Z")
> [@jerez](#): > > There’s a scene like that in the Paul Newman film “Nobody’s Fool.” Haven’t seen it in a long time, but I recall a scene in which Melanie Griffith is losing at strip poker and Pruitt Taylor Vince, who plays Newman’s mentally challenged buddy, can’t stop looking at her tits. Don’t get me wrong: I’ve always liked tits, and I saw the film when it was released (back when I liked tits even more, haha), but even then it struck me as a pointless scene. Melanie exposes her chest in one scene, but that’s another actress at the poker table. She and Bruce Willis are losing at strip poker or something like that. That scene isn’t totally gratuitous in the context of the plot at that point. I forget all the details around Melanie’s scene, she’s teasing Paul Newman at that point. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2019, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743/103 "2019-12-13T20:08:25Z")
> [@jerez](#): > > There’s a scene like that in the Paul Newman film “Nobody’s Fool.” Haven’t seen it in a long time, but I recall a scene in which Melanie Griffith is losing at strip poker and Pruitt Taylor Vince, who plays Newman’s mentally challenged buddy, can’t stop looking at her tits. Don’t get me wrong: I’ve always liked tits, and I saw the film when it was released (back when I liked tits even more, haha), but even then it struck me as a pointless scene. Melanie Griffith was in Nobody’s Fool and did have a brief nude scene. But in the scene you’re describing the actress who’s nude is Shannah Laumeister. ---
**Author:** ![jerez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c68b51/32.png) [@jerez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jerez)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2019, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743/104 "2019-12-13T20:20:20Z")
Ah, didn’t remember that, maybe I should watch it again. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2019, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743/105 "2019-12-13T20:35:34Z")
> [@Banksiaman](#): > > [The Burning Plain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Burning_Plain), a film starring Charlize Theron, Kim Basinger and Jennifer Lawrence has a longish scene very early on, I think about 5 mins in, of Charlize T nude, staring out a window and wandering around her bedroom. The only relevance to the plot is that it established that she is, in fact, female. Otherwise it serves no purpose, and its not like we were short of screen-grabs of her breasts. Theron had an equally gratuitous scene in the remake of _The Italian Job_. She wasn’t nude but they had her in a scene where she was practicing her lock picking skills. And for some reason she was doing so in black lingerie. ---
**Author:** ![rsat3acr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@rsat3acr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsat3acr)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2019, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743/106 "2019-12-13T20:57:21Z")
[quote=“jerez, post:100, topic:844743”] There’s a scene like that in the Paul Newman film “Nobody’s Fool.” Haven’t seen it in a long time, but I recall a scene in which Melanie Griffith is losing at strip poker and Pruitt Taylor Vince, who plays Newman’s mentally challenged buddy, can’t stop looking at her tits. Don’t get me wrong: I’ve always liked tits, and I saw the film when it was released (back when I liked tits even more, haha), but even then it struck me as a pointless scene.[/QU nm ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2019, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743/107 "2019-12-13T23:07:22Z")
> [@jerez](#): > > There’s a scene like that in the Paul Newman film “Nobody’s Fool.” Haven’t seen it in a long time, but I recall a scene in which Melanie Griffith is losing at strip poker and Pruitt Taylor Vince, who plays Newman’s mentally challenged buddy, can’t stop looking at her tits. Don’t get me wrong: I’ve always liked tits, and I saw the film when it was released (back when I liked tits even more, haha), but even then it struck me as a pointless scene. It’s the same in the original novel. For whatever that’s worth. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2019, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743/108 "2019-12-13T23:15:54Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > There are various references to syphilis, abortion, alcoholism, and whatever the hell Gilbert’s problem was. Which schoolchildren were you planning to show this to? Yes, but they were done discretely. My point is that nobody wants to make a film for an adult audience that gets a G rating, and this could easily have gotten one. I think children would enjoy Sullivan’s melodies (I know I did as a child.) A G or PG rating has often been the Kiss of Death to films. Carroll Ballard gave up making films after _Duma_ was cursed with one and failed at the box office. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2019, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743/109 "2019-12-13T23:41:47Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > I’m sure that I’ve read somewhere that shooting of the movie Walkabout was delayed for some reason (finances?) such that, by the time shooting did take place, Jenny Agutter had passed some critical age threshold, which allowed her part to be rewritten with nude scenes. > > My memory is sketchy on the detail here (sorry! - anyone help me out?), but if that is correct then it’s pretty much the definition of gratuitous, surely? > > j > [@JKellyMap](#): > > I thought it was helpful to emphasize the freedom-from-civilization the girl character felt out in the desert. While perhaps not in the original script, I wouldn’t call it gratuitous. I agree, I don’t think that could be called “gratutious”. I’ve never seen the movie, but I read the book in middle school, and that scene is a pretty important bit of character development. The girl Mary, and her brother Peter, are a pair of middle-class, respectable Anglo-Australians who wind up stuck in the outback (plane crash, maybe?). They’re rescued by an Aborigine boy, and part of the story is the conflict between the girl’s sense of propriety and the Aboriginal boy’s culture - she’s shocked by his nudity, for example. In the book, Peter brings a koala to his sister to hold, and its claws tear holes in her by-then threadbare dress. Rather than put down the koala, she shrugs and steps out of her dress. The scene emphasizes that she’s coming to accept that her values and cultural assumptions are out of place in the outback. It also shows her being to recognize the beauty and uniqueness of the Australian landscape. So at least in the book, her nudity is integral to the plot. I assume the filmmakers were trying to convey the same message. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743/110 "2019-12-14T01:35:39Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Also one thing that bugged me, why are her boobs bigger in the movie than they are in the Playboy photos that came out about the same time? Old photos, or make up prosthetics? One of the great continuity errors in movie history was in _The Bonfire of the Vanities_. The movie shot all its outdoor scenes in New York City, and then production moved to a studio in Hollywood to shoot the indoor scenes. The cast had a couple weeks off while crew and equipment were moved. During the break, Melanie Griffith got breast implants. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743/111 "2019-12-14T01:59:28Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Doc Hollywood has Julie Warner walk nude out of a local swimming hole for no reason necessary to the plot. That’s really the best type of nudity. Not strictly nudity, but there’s also the running about the woods having a piss sequence. ---
**Author:** ![bizerta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@bizerta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bizerta)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743/112 "2019-12-14T16:42:39Z")
In “Adaptation”, Nicholas Cage is on a date with Judy Greer. She unbuttons her blouse in a seductive manner and it’s obvious that she is getting undressed. Then, her boobs are shown for less than a quarter of a second when the scene shifts back to Cage, who was fantasizing the whole ordeal. The actual footage of her breasts were not necessary for the plot. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743/113 "2019-12-14T20:28:53Z")
The first one that comes to mind is a very brief scene in the excellent “Life As a House” in which Mary Steenburgen suddenly shows everything after an earlier scene in which they clearly went to great links to avoid showing anything of Jena Malone. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743/114 "2019-12-14T20:44:57Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > How about in _Life of Brian_ when Brian opens the window in the morning only to discover his followers waiting for him? > [@Colibri](#): > > I would count that as comedic effect. But there’s plenty of shots of his girlfriend nude for little reason. It’s been a while, but doesn’t the girlfirend’s nudity at least provide a pretty good gag when Jesus’s mom (Terry Jones) is dumbfoundedly staring, agog, at her while the former is having some kind of tantrum? [prude] The nudity, and the sex overall, in the otherwise sublime, transcendant _Space is the Place_ - not for this upstanding citizen. [/prude] One of the most pretentious things that I’ve ever had to sit through - Denis Arcand’s _Decline of the American Empire_ - had a scene where pretentious sauna user undoes her towel briefly. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743/115 "2019-12-14T22:07:24Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > The first one that comes to mind is a very brief scene in the excellent “Life As a House” in which Mary Steenburgen suddenly shows everything after an earlier scene in which they clearly went to great links to avoid showing anything of Jena Malone. In Melvin and Howard a woman removes her dress in a strip club as she quits her job. She’s wearing nothing underneath. My recollection may not be correct but I believe that was Mary Steenburgen also. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743/116 "2019-12-14T22:25:33Z")
'twas. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743/117 "2019-12-14T22:55:57Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Theron had an equally gratuitous scene in the remake of _The Italian Job_. She wasn’t nude but they had her in a scene where she was practicing her lock picking skills. And for some reason she was doing so in black lingerie. Theron was naked in just about every film she made in the first decade or so of her career. It was pretty much her thing. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2019, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743/118 "2019-12-15T00:23:43Z")
> [@JohnGalt](#): > > The first scene of the original version of [Carrie](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074285) is a slow-motion shower scene in a girl’s locker room. True, it sets up the reaction of Carrie when she has her first period while showering, but the rest of the girls running around nude isn’t really necessary to the plot. Gratuitous or not? Edie McClurg was in that scene. She was a bit older than the other girls and realized that the camerman was doing a slo-mo shot. So, she deliberately shook her hair as the camera panned by her. She got a great shot with that. ---
**Author:** ![Chicken\_Fingers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Chicken\_Fingers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicken_Fingers)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2019, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743/119 "2019-12-15T00:45:56Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > It’s Patrick Swayze. The only thing about Patrick Swayze’s body that could be called “unnecessary” or “uncalled for” would involve actual medical procedures. > > The whole “destape” era of Spanish cinema was based on “how can we pile up more tits, with the occasional ass or full frontal thrown in”. Its motto was “censorship is dead, long live tits”. I’ll never forget Javier Bardem’s naked bullfight in _Jamon Jamon_. I also remember serious French films of a certain era would always insert a random scene of the lead actress bathing. French women keep scrupulously clean breasts, you know. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2019, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743/120 "2019-12-15T01:38:29Z")
3 pages in, and nobody mentioned the coed shower scene from Starship Troopers? Or any of the other boobs in that movie? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743.md?page=7)