Poll: Sex scenes in movies

[Gigano]

akin to a break dancing scene in a medieval war drama or something.

Oh don't play coy, you'd totally watch that, or at least I would...

"Spin thy booty to the beat, Sir Gawain" ...Yeah, guess I actually would want to watch that, for being preposterous enough to have a hilarious "so-bad-it's-good" quality to it.

Something sex scenes can undoubtedly have as well. But if they're just plain ol' out-of-place, then I won't really care to, unless of course there are other qualities in the film to make up for their disjointed inclusion (...or the actress in question is particularly hot).

 

[Steven Biehler]

your question is WAY too narrow, sometimes it means nothing to the movie while other times it can be used to a films advantage, and what happens afterward in the film can all effect it and change whether or not a movie is garbage, good, or great.
(keep in mind the sex in great movies can be meaningless too)

 

[Killertje]

Most movies are made to entertain. I like to watch naked hot chicks. Yay for sex scenes!

Are they necessary for the story? Probably not. But you can say the same for any scene. You can imply that the T1000 was kicked into the molten steel and killed without showing it, just as you can imply the main characters have sex. You can imply everything and show nothing, but then it's called a book and not a movie. If you watch a movie you want to see things happen, not hear about them from a narrator.

 

[Knusper]

Most of the time I find it's just because it helps sell the movie rather than add anything to the plot or characters, although sometimes it is used for actual effect ( such as in The Fly to actually create the whole motive for Brundlefly). I think I recall Yahtzee saying how ridiculous it gets in one of his earlier videos.

 

[blind_dead_mcjones]

*rolls eyes* sex scenes are in there because thats what the general public like and want as well as being used for characterisation purposes (as in some instances actions speak louder than words), sometimes its to the detriment of the plot and characterisation sometimes it isn't, but thats something that you have to handle on a case by case basis.

It's pretty much always detrimental to characterisation. Subtlety in romance has always struck me as more effective than explicitness.

characterisation is subjective thing, and thus varies from person to person, just because you feel its detrimental to characterisation does not make it the same for everybody, same goes for subtlety, some people prefer it some don't

remember, part of the main purpose of a film is to entertain

 

[GinraiPrime]

I think it depends on the movie but most of the time it does seem to be the age old "sex sells" thing. I certainly got nothing against them in movies but sometimes it can be abit pointless. I think a prime candidate for the pointless sex scene (I'll probably get some bashing for this) will be the James Bond movies. Now do't get me wrong, I love watching Bond (originals rather than the new ones after Pierce Brosnan) like anyone else but the "sex scenes" in them just seem rather empty due to the fact you know theres no commitment on his part and theres no real love in the motivation for it, he just does it because he's James Bond, its what he does. True we see that from other characters but in the lines of the topic in question, the scenes do seem abit pointless.

 

[Gigano]

...
Sex is a huge part of life and something that should be celebrated as a free act rather than a sinful disgrace of human privacy.

Amen to that.

OT: Sex in films is never pointless, every sex scene shows an intricate relationship between two people, the type of sex scene defines the emotions linked with it.

...And not to that.

First off, "meaning" is an entirely subjective term. What has meaning to you might carry none at all to others.

Secondly, the fact that something is generally attributed to carry great meaning doesn't entail that it always and inherently does so. Take music for instance; The fact that it's generally considered a way of artistic expression doesn't entail that every last elevator jingle or wailing drunkard is so.

Likewise, that sex is generally associated with strong emotions and bonding doesn't mean that Ilse und Günther do so the umpteenth time they're paid to have a go at each other before the camera; probably more bondage than bonding going on there.

So just as the fact that a scene contains sex doesn't make it meaningless-per-se, it doesn't make it meaningful-per-se either. That nature might have intended it also as a bonding device (except there's of course also the whole "spread-your-seed" instinct going on there) doesn't mean that function can't be dulled, professionalized, and commercialized, and it certainly doesn't mean that any such emotional entanglements will always carry through to the observers in any and all sex scenes.

So as (professionalized) sex isn't inherently "meaningful" (nothing subjective ever is), most big screen sex scenes don't even involve actual sex, and whatever meaning there might have been to it won't always translate well onto the big screen, proclaiming that all sex scenes are always meaningful is absurd.

...
What's more, it's satisfying to see a scene with impact when it comes to seeing a villain get comeuppance or the like, but it isn't satisfying to see the lead characters getting it on.

Not to you, anyway.

Others - by the looks of the box office counts many of them - might take a decidedly different view on what they find are satisfying and relevant elements and expositions to have in a story.

 

[OmniscientOstrich]

I don't mind sex scenes in movies, but I hate it when they trey to sell that kind of thing as an incentive. If I want to watch porn, the Internet has a plentiful supply, but I'm here to see a film damnit. Some films are perfectly capable of exploring sexual themes/relationships without seeing nudity whatsoever. See the film Sex, Lies, and Videotape as a prime example of this.

 

[Vault101]

Yes, it's often just used to sell tickets. On the other hand, sexuality is a central theme of some movies. American Beauty and Black Swan for example. Taking the sex out of those movies would be like taking the action scenes out of 300. Would you want all the action scenes in action movies to be 'implied'?

I'd rather that films like American Beauty weren't made, personally. Sexuality has saturated media to a frightening extent, and the less of it for me, the better.

"I dont like x so I wish they would stop doing x in films"

yeah...very nice

 

[Jaythulhu]

You can imply that the T1000 was kicked into the molten steel and killed without showing it, just as you can imply the main characters have sex.

It's quite a bit more difficult to imply action scenes than to imply sex scenes, and it tends to be the reserve of horror films. What's more, it's satisfying to see a scene with impact when it comes to seeing a villain get comeuppance or the like, but it isn't satisfying to see the lead characters getting it on.

Ok, I get it. You have some obvious american-christianity-based issues with sex. That's fine, though your objections seem based solely on your (possibly mistaken or misguided) beliefs about sex. This attitude shows a remarkable lack of maturity and understanding towards sex, sensuality, romance, and all the things associated with the act of coitus. All well and good, until you start trying to force others to take your view as the only logical and acceptable view, which it most certainly is not.

I for one, am happy that SOME movies still include characters doing what comes naturally to two consenting human beings that share a level of attraction to each other. This happens in real life. Quite a lot, you'll find. To see it depicted in a movie usually adds another layer of realism, and helps to grow the characters within the confines of the movie (with the possible exception of exploitation and horror/slasher films).

By the way, equating violence with "action" is just plain silly. Action can be anything, even two characters standing behind podiums yelling at each other. It's not just about someone pulling out a big mcguffin and turning other people into gooey red paste. Glorifying violence and death while condemning sex and sexuality is naive and immature at best, extraordinarily hypocritical at worst.

 

[SextusMaximus]

It depends on the context whether it's meaningful or pointless... obviously.

 

[LadyMint]

I dunno. Call me an old woman, but I don't need a sex scene to tell me that the couple had sex at all or to help convey their emotional connections/animal lust for one-another. When it's done tastefully and not spent focusing on the female participant's heaving bosom or bouncing body, sometimes a sex scene can seem more artistic than slapdash for the sake of arousing all the male viewers. But all in all I usually fast forward past it because I don't watch movies to see that.

 

[Princess Rose]

So I was sitting here watching 300, and got to the sex scene, and it just seemed to drag the fuck on and on.
What do you escapists think?

Well, that's your problem - you were watching 300, a movie with about as much to do with sex as with civilized discourse.

I think the real problem you're talking about is sex scenes tacked into action movies - and usually the hyper-masculine action movies like 300 - where the scene ONLY serves to flash some tits at the camera.

In those sorts of movies, of course the sex scene is pointless. It's tacked on in a formula fashion for no purpose other than showing some tits to the male audience.

Almost any other type of movie does it better than action blockbusters. Seriously, someone above complained about Sex and Other Drugs, but that movie was all about sex. Sex was the plot - it was a movie about Viagra after all. So none of the sex scenes bothered me (and some of them were also there to make Hathaway look sick rather than show us her naked body again).

Also, sex scenes aren't always sexy. I know everyone thought the scene in Black Swan was hot, but it mostly just creeped me out. She's having bird transformation issues in the middle of it, making her skin literally crawl, and we don't get to see either actress naked. When I saw people write that they were "fapping" to that, I was shocked. That was one of the least sexy sex scenes I've ever seen (even if the initial kissing was very nice). But, as anyone who's seen Black Swan knows, that scene was pivotal to the plot.

 

[The Cheezy One]

They can be meaningful, but a lot of them are just 'Here is someone nekkid'. They can also make watching a family film a bit awkward.

I dunno. Call me an old woman, but I don't need a sex scene to tell me that the couple had sex at all or to help convey their emotional connections/animal lust for one-another. When it's done tastefully and not spent focusing on the female participant's heaving bosom or bouncing body, sometimes a sex scene can seem more artistic than slapdash for the sake of arousing all the male viewers. But all in all I usually fast forward past it because I don't watch movies to see that.

Prety much the same, but I'm a man

EDIT:
I'm a Christian, so sex outside of marriage makes me a bit uneasy, but I can live with it at times, if I think it's appropriate for two people to show their love through the physical act of lovemaking. However, the pure amount of it in media these days does leave a somewhat sour taste in my mouth. I know a lot of people don't care for the traditional pre-marriage celebacy, but to me, it isn't just a tradition, it's a way of two people showing that their commitment goes beyond physical pleasure.

 

[sheogoraththemad]

it really depends on which film,

 

[Evil Top Hat]

Passionate moments between characters, that's good, but a film shouldn't need something as crude and obvious as a sex scene to make the connection clear. A good film should be able to show a huge connection between two characters in a very moving scene, with barely any physical contact.

To prove my point, enter John Green. He is an author that wrote a book called "looking for alaska", in which he deliberately made my exact point clear, by giving two scenes, back to back. One, a sex scene, with no intimacy between both characters. The other had little to no physical intimacy, but massive amounts of emotional depth.

He was making a point that we shouldn't confuse physical intimacy with emotional intimacy, and if a film feels the best way to form a bond between characters is give us a sex scene then they are DOING IT WRONG!

 

[FuktLogik]

Would you want all the action scenes in action movies to be 'implied'?

Hmmm. I don't think that's ever been done before. Someone should make a parody like that.