Tuesday, April 09, 2013

Full Frontal Male Nudity in Film

We don't get HBO so can't watch Game of Thrones on television. We've been watching the first 2 seasons of it on DVD, and I've never seen so much nudity in a film much less in a show that aired on TV. And then I saw that The Huffington Post has a list (and a video) of male nudity in film:
Who's That Knocking at My Door (1967)
A Clockwork Orange (1971) (I own the DVD but haven't watched it yet.)
Pink Flamingos (1972)
American Gigolo (1980)
Basket Case (1982)
The Fisher King (1991)
The Indian Runner (1991)
Bad Lieutenant (1992)
The Crying Game (1992)
The Piano (1993)
Ulysses' Gaze (1995)
The Pillow Book (1996)
Trainspotting (1996)
Boogie Nights (1997)
Velvet Goldmine (1998)
Wild Things (1998)
Any Given Sunday (1999)
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
Quills (2000)
Super Troopers (2001)
Y Tu Mamá También (2001) (I own the DVD but haven't watched it yet.)
The Brown Bunny (2003)
The Dreamers (2003)
In the Cut (2003)
Young Adam (2003)
EuroTrip (2004)
Kinsey (2004)
Sideways (2004)
Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2005)
Russian Dolls (2005)
Art School Confidential (2006)
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)
Jackass Number Two (2006)
2 Days in Paris (2007)
Eastern Promises (2007) (I own the DVD but haven't watched it yet.)
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007)
Bronson (2008)
Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)
Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008)
Brüno (2009)
Observe and Report (2009)
Taking Woodstock (2009)
Watchmen (2009)
I'm Still Here (2010)
American Animal (2011)
A Good Old Fashioned Orgy (2011)
Hall Pass (2011)
Shame (2011)
Your Highness (2011)
American Reunion (2012)
Rust and Bone (2012)
I've re-arranged the list to put them in chronological order. I now realize there's a lot more nudity in film than I thought. I just haven't been watching those films.

I've seen the ones in bold print. I haven't even heard of many of these.

9 comments:

  1. steve, i did subscribe to your blog the first time you asked. thx for keeping me in mind :)

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  2. I have seen several of these, but I haven´t thought of them as films having a spectacular amount of nudity in them. "Boogie Nights" is about porn, so that seems natural, but the nudity is suggested rather than actual. Surely the glimps they show of Wahlberg´s "gear" is fake? "The pillow book" is probably the most beautiful film I ever saw, and that includes Ewan MacGregor´s body, of which you see a glimps. MacGregor is in four of the films on the list, for some reason. "A Clockwork Orange" was deeply disturbing (as is the book), but certainly not because of some male nudity I can´t remember... "Zack an Miri make a porno" is a rather cute little film, but hardly shocking. I can´t remember any actual nudity, just suggested nudity.

    I have never seen "Game of Thrones". Is the nudity unjustified?

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  3. I've seen about a dozen of these movies. Which surprised me the nudity must not have been very memorable. I think they flash some nudity or throw out an Fbomb just to get an R rating.

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  4. viktoria, it's the fact of their being full frontal male nudity -however fleeting- in the films that's notable, i think. female nudity is more frequently shown in movies and to get even a glimpse of the male "package" is rare. i remember i was shocked when i saw "the piano" -not by seeing harvey keitel in all his glory- but by having that type of nudity present in a film. i'd seen female nudity for years, and i'd often wondered why men were treated so much more delicately.

    the nudity in game of thrones is _not_ "delicately" done lol. it's just all right out there in the open. there's a lot of sex in the books, too, so you can't say showing it is unjustified in the series. it's more the fact that they're willing to show the men as well as the women that impressed me.

    the violence in game of thrones is also a major part of the action, but i don't hear many people saying they object to it. i've heard people say they quit watching thrones because of the nudity.

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    Replies
    1. D&S you state that you "wondered why men were treated so much more delicately." Just the opposite is true. Yes, women have been on screen in the nude much more than men, however when it comes to the display of genitals, THE ONLY ACTUAL DEFINING DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE SEXES, it's all male. The number of penises on film, up close, with extended on screen time, in good lighting, and even semi-erect is in the many hundreds if not higher, while the female genitals have been shown a grand total of ZERO times (unless you want to count the "did I see what I thought I just saw" moment of Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct.) I have read about twenty of these "the display of nude women far outpaces nude men" complaints. I've lost track of how many times I've heard, "it's about time that we are seeing a penis now and then, because women have been showing their breasts for decades. We need to see many, many more dicks before the guys catch up.Ladies, one more time,---'a breast does not equal a penis.' (and neither does pubic hair or merkins.) I could go on, but I think I've ranted enough.

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    2. Tom, I'd forgotten all about this post lol. I've quit watching Game of Thrones, which was the precipitating factor in my considering the subject, and I haven't seen any more of the movies on that list in the almost 3 years since. I do see your point, and I realize I was considering full frontal nudity in men and women as equivalent -not breast=penis, but full frontal=full frontal. I can certainly understand why you would object to that equivalence, but I just haven't given it more thought since the post was written.

      I appreciate a good rant :)

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  5. bob, the rating thing may be part of it. i just hadn't realize how many films had shown this much even fleeting male nudity. and the fact that thrones is a tv series... it surprised me to see it.

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  6. A clockwork orange is fast approaching on my top 100 films. I'm a little nervous about watching it. Have never seen it and didn't plan on watching it. Now I have to for my challenge.

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  7. tbm, i've had the dvd staring down at me from the shelf for years now. it was just never what i wanted to see at the time. i'll watch it when you post your review! perfect! :)

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