# 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:** 9
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2020, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743/161 "2020-05-29T01:19:56Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > Which made me wonder for the first time (not being familiar with the Batman canon), what does Commissioner Gordon do when he needs to talk to Batman in the daytime? He picks up the glass cake cover and phones a guy who sounds like Alan Napier. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2020, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743/162 "2020-05-29T01:57:36Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Borat naked wrestling with his sidekick. One of the funniest movie scenes ever. Probably not as funny if they had clothes on. > [@Asuka](#): > > 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. Most definitely not gratuitous, unless you perhaps found that titillating.😃 ---
**Author:** ![Socko82](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Socko82](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Socko82)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2020, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743/163 "2020-05-29T03:01:05Z")
The topless scenes in the first two Police Academy movies - insanely gratuitous. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2020, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743/164 "2020-05-29T04:15:18Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Dina Meyer Shower scene in Starship Troopers That scene kinda showed comradery despite gender roles. It was definitely meant to be sexy, but not necessarily sexual. I dunno, I don’t think gratuitous. Was the volleyball scene in Top Gun gratuitous? ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2020, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743/165 "2020-05-29T15:13:17Z")
I remember in Joe Haldeman’s _The Forever War_ a small bit about how the troopers would sleep paired up. At the end of an exhausting day the protagonist is wanting nothing more than sleep, but it is apparent his partner has more on her mind. He pondered, _why is it that when you’re sleepy you get a sexy partner and when you’re sexy you get a sleepy partner.?_ ---
**Author:** ![The\_Vorlon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@The\_Vorlon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Vorlon)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2020, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743/166 "2020-05-29T16:45:02Z")
Slightly technical side story: _Vacation_has Beverly in the shower. Now, that scene is interesting for more than two obvious reasons–the film was a ‘flat’ movie, with a 1.85:1 aspect ratio, but was shot full frame on the film. 1.33:1. They relied on the projector’s aperture plate to mask what showed up on the screen to be what they wanted. What this means is anyone who could look at the 35mm film (may the format rest in peace) could see that Ms. D’Angelo was wearing a small flesh colored panties in the shower. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Socko82](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Socko82](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Socko82)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2020, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743/167 "2020-05-30T15:00:04Z")
Margot Robbie’s full frontal scene in The Wolf of Wall Street. ---
**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:** [May 31, 2020, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743/168 "2020-05-31T02:55:51Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > To tie this to the recent passing of Larry Kramer, the nude wrestling scene between Alan Bates and Oliver Reed in Women in Love. Indeed, [gross.](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=22027739&postcount=124) (don’t worry - no pics, videos) > [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > Shower scenes are the most likely to be gratuitous. I can think of only one, offhand, that isn’t - the one in _Pschyo_, as I perspicaciously point out it’s a pretty important plot point, people. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2020, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743/169 "2020-05-31T03:51:15Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > Linnea Quigley’s character in Return of the Living Dead gets high in the graveyard with her punk friends, strips off her clothes and dances, then spends the rest of the movie nude until she gets turned into a naked zombie. What I came in here to mention… The scene just after her zombification when she’s walking down the street, naked as the day she was born, for what feels like a full minute, was the most memorable bit of gratuitous nudity in any movie I’ve ever seen. ---
**Author:** ![Socko82](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Socko82](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Socko82)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2020, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743/170 "2020-05-31T05:29:36Z")
Halle Berry initially defended her nudity in Swordfish, but later said it was gratuitous. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2020, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743/171 "2020-05-31T07:17:46Z")
The hallucinated Indian in **The Doors** ( **Wayne’s World 2** made fun of it). I kind of liked the gratuitous shots of Cynda Williams’ magnificent breasts in [Mo’ Better Blues](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100168/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_78), but a lot of people at the time pointed out that there was no artistic or storytelling reason to show her naked, and not Joie Lee (the director’s sister), as they both played love interests of Denzel Washington’s character. [The Player](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105151/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) tantalized us with the possibility of seeing Greta Scacchi’s spectacular bosom, but instead showed us Cynthia Stevenson’s somewhat mousier curves. That’s okay, she’ll land on her feet. She’s a survivor! ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2020, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743/172 "2020-05-31T20:05:19Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > That was the first thing I thought of when I saw the thread, and it’s addressed in the OP. In the context of the movie’s silliness, it’s not gratuitous (and I first saw it in a theater!). > > My vote goes for that scene in “The Big Chill” where Glenn Close is crying in the shower, fully naked and everything exposed. ISTR Meg Tilly weeping topless in a bathtub as well. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2020, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743/173 "2020-05-31T23:38:00Z")
**[Moderating]** Can we please cut the drooling? It’s unseemly. If you want to enjoy gratuitous (or non-gratuitous) nudity, that’s your business… but please keep it your business. ---
**Author:** ![Socko82](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Socko82](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Socko82)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2020, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743/174 "2020-06-01T14:30:59Z")
Kirsten Dunst in Melancholia (2011). ---
**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:** [June 2, 2020, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743/175 "2020-06-02T14:20:33Z")
> [@The\_Vorlon](#): > > Slightly technical side story: > > _Vacation_has Beverly in the shower. Now, that scene is interesting for more than two obvious reasons–the film was a ‘flat’ movie, with a 1.85:1 aspect ratio, but was shot full frame on the film. 1.33:1. They relied on the projector’s aperture plate to mask what showed up on the screen to be what they wanted. > > What this means is anyone who could look at the 35mm film (may the format rest in peace) could see that Ms. D’Angelo was wearing a small flesh colored panties in the shower. 😃 There’s a fun side story (unrelated to gratuitous nudity) that is the reverse situation with the theatrical release of Steven Spielberg’s _Duel_. The film was shot in widescreen but intended to be shown only on TV, when the film got released in theaters in Europe, suddenly Dennis Weaver wasn’t always alone in his car, because you could see Spielberg sitting in the back seat. IIRC, he tells the story on _Inside the Actor’s Studio_. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2020, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743/176 "2020-06-02T16:00:22Z")
> [@Socko82](#): > > Kirsten Dunst in Melancholia (2011). I would debate this one. On the one hand, the scene did not move the story forward in any way. But on the other hand, the story was not particularly plot driven anyway. And the shot was magnificently artistic, contrasting her light soft skin tone against the dark craggy rocks, which creates some sort of allegorical dramatic tension, so it works on that level. ---
**Author:** ![Didi44](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47c2d/32.png) [@Didi44](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Didi44)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743/177 "2020-06-03T05:05:48Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > 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. Agutter was 16 when the filming began, but 17 when she did the nude scenes, which are not in anyway gratuitous, but an integral part of the coming of age story. “The film includes scenes of nudity featuring Jenny Agutter, who the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) surmised was 17 years old at the time of filming. The scenes did not pose a problem when submitted to the BBFC in 1971 and later in 1998. The Protection of Children Act 1978 prohibited distribution and possession of indecent images of people under the age of 16 so the issue of potential indecency had not been considered on previous occasions. However, the Sexual Offences Act 2003 raised the age threshold to 18 which meant the BBFC was required to consider the scenes of nudity in the context of the new law when the film was re-submitted in 2011. The BBFC reviewed the scenes and considered them not to be indecent and passed the film uncut.[1]” Source: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walkabout\_(film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walkabout_(film)) _Major spoilers, though few will be unfamiliar with the scenes discussed, even out of context of the film_ The first Agutter nude scene is when The Boy and The Brother (now a symbolic Father and Son) go hunting while the schoolgirl “Mom” shows that she’s not longer a schoolgirl, but a fully mature woman. When “Father and Son” return, The Girl is given a piggyback ride by The Boy, bringing “The Family” together. Later, Agutter is then seen briefly topless as she’s putting on her blouse in an abandoned camp and when she’s surprised by the boy doing a mating dance, she quickly covers up. She’s in HER element and must return to being the prim schoolgirl. “The Family” is no more. The third and final nude scene is after The Girl, now a mature woman preparing dinner for her husband is told the good news that he’s received a promotion. Instead of being happy, her eyes wander into space and she thinks back to a time that never was, though I’ve always hoped it was true. The “Family” is back in the Outback, enjoying a nude swim. Mother, Dad and Son. Carefree and without inhibitions. ---
**Author:** ![Didi44](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47c2d/32.png) [@Didi44](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Didi44)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743/178 "2020-06-03T05:20:34Z")
Now, Augutter’s full nude scene in the PG rated! _Logan’s Run_, is completely gratuitous. But greatly appreciated! ---
**Author:** ![Chef\_Troy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@Chef\_Troy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chef_Troy)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743/179 "2020-06-03T16:31:10Z")
> [@Didi44](#): > > Now, Augutter’s full nude scene in the PG rated! _Logan’s Run_, is completely gratuitous. But greatly appreciated! This is the one I came in to mention. Even back in the day, when I was not exactly predisposed to question unexpected nudity, that felt really out of left field to me. (we’re talking about the scene where she and Logan “have” to strip and wrap themselves in furs “to stay warm,” right? How is that warmer than furs AND clothes?) ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743/180 "2020-06-03T16:40:11Z")
There was a gratuitous shot of Jessica Lange in the 1976 King Kong. Although I can’t find any online images of it, the review in Time Magazine (October 25 1976) had a side bar of pictures showing Kong sliding his big finger down her front, ripping off her blouse, showing her exposed breasts. I saw the movie in the theater, waiting for this (gratuitous) scene, but it was very very quick that you wouldn’t really notice it. It was more gratuitous in the magazine review, back when every weekly issue of Time (and People) showed a naked woman one way or another; that all stopped early in the 1980’s. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-gratuitous-piece-of-nudity-youve-ever-seen-in-a-movie/844743.md?page=10)