It also is a statement that even though she was a prostitute, their relationship was going to be platonic: “Take a good look, because that’s all you’re going to get.” It was very much in character.
Kevin Bacon’s shower scene in Wild Things has to be in the top 3. Matt Damon walks in on Kevin while Kevin is showering. Kevin turns around and nothing is left to the imagination.
Maybe not “most” but contenders:
The Incredible Melting Man (yes!) has a kid taking photos of his date and he rips her tube top off to get topless shots. And then she backs into the hand of one of the titular character’s victims. No reason at all for the nudity.
Saturn 3. You get a shot of one of Farah’s boobs, but the entirety of Kirk Douglas’ ass. Too little of one, too much of the other, and neither adds to the story.
I think the only reason that crappy film got made is because Halle Berry agreed to appear topless.
There’s also a scene with quite a few topless women dancing at Eddie Murphy’s “I’m now a rich guy” party, and a woman waiting for him in bed is topless as well. The latter might not really be gratuitous, as she actually expects Murphy to get into bed with her, but I’d say the dancing scenes would be no less effective if the women were wearing something above the waist.
If what I read is correct, that wasn’t meant to be a pickle shot, but Bacon agreed to have it included as was, on the grounds that the women were showing plenty of skin, so why should he be modest.
Oh, and it’s Matt Dillon, not Damon.
Also also, it wasn’t “walked in on”; KB walked out of the bathroom while toweling his hair, then tied the towel around his waist a bit belatedly.
In Rough Cut Burt Reynolds is on the telephone. Lesley-Ann Down starts stripping in front of him to get him to come to bed. It’s brief and gratuitous.
That’s the very first thing I thought of.
Speaking of Donald Sutherland’s ass…the shot of it as he reaches for a box of cereal in Animal House. All the female nudity was essential to the plot. His ass was not.
I would count that as comedic effect. But there’s plenty of shots of his girlfriend nude for little reason.
Brown Bunny. A very awkward (for the viewer), unnecessary, unsimulated blowjob at the end of a horrible movie.
And, because someone will mention it if I don’t the girl (Chloë Sevigny) is the guy’s (Vincent Gallo) IRL ex-girlfriend, which made the whole thing even more uncomfortable.
Another one would be Shortbus (a John Cameron Mitchell movie). I recall it being a really good movie, but it is essentially porn (with a plot).
16 Candles has a 3 second scene of Molly Ringwold and her friend peeping on Jake’s girlfriend in the shower. Even as a male teenager I never understood the need for that scene in that movie. It felt very out of place in a John Hughes movie
I thought it was necessary. How else to make it clear what he and Katy had been doing?
xixor, I believe that scene was necessary to show what Samantha was up against: her pancake chest vs. Carolyn’s giant boobs. What I thought was odd, though, was that it was a full-body shot that showcased some negative things: potbelly, thunder thighs and bulging hips. As opposed to Sam/MR’s long, slender legs, slim hips and flat stomach. Maybe that’s what attracted Jake!
Harvey Keitel in (I think) Bad Lieutenant.
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”.
The correct answer to the OP is Color of Night, home video version.
If you haven’t seen it, it’s basically a mid-90s direct-to-Skinemax sex thriller that somehow managed to get Bruce Willis, Rubén Blades, Leslie Ann Warren, Scott Bakula, Brad Dourif, and Lance Henriksen on board. No, it’s not the Royal Shakespeare Company, but damn.
It’s also Roger Ebert’s kryptonite.
What about ‘They Live’?
Great, cheesy film. The protagonist fights off the bad aliens and so forth. Then, right at the end we get a bit of a montage showing how people reacted to the aliens suddenly being unmasked. One of them features a topless girl riding a suddenly unmasked alien. Even back in the 80s we were thinking that was in the running for ‘most unnecessary boob shot’.
In Under Siege, Erika Eleniak is hiding in a cake to pop out and start dancing. Meanwhile, there’s a shootout and bad guys take over the ship. FOr some reason, she pops out of the cake and starts dancing with no music and nobody there except Steven Seagal.
In Lolita (1997) there’s a full frontal scene of Frank Langella.
Well, she was a stripper, and that was the time she was supposed to pop out of the cake.
Was that gratuitous, though? The bad lieutenant is spiraling down, outa control.