Say it again, Mr Worf! On Fri, Apr 16, 2010 at 11:22 PM, Mr. Worf <hellomahog...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > The article's title should have been "some people have totally unrealistic > opinions of how 11 year olds act when adults are not around...." > > People have also forgotten how things have changed. When I was 12 there > were 12 year old hookers and heroin junkies in the bad parts of town. > Worrying about a fictional 11 year old on screen and her influences on kids > is silly. > > On Fri, Apr 16, 2010 at 6:03 PM, Martin Baxter <martinbaxt...@gmail.com>wrote: > >> >> >> Puh-LEEEEEEEEEEZE! >> >> I come from The Projects, where FIVE-year-olds know more cuss words than >> I've heard come out of her. >> >> >> On Fri, Apr 16, 2010 at 10:10 AM, Kelwyn <ravena...@yahoo.com> wrote: >> >>> >>> >>> Profanity-slinging kid does damage in Kick-Ass' >>> >>> By MARK CARO >>> >>> A pistols-wielding girl massacres a suite's worth of thugs, exchanges >>> brutal blows with the kingpin and uses language that might make David Mamet >>> blush - if only because it's coming out of the mouth of an 11-year-old girl. >>> >>> The movie may be called "Kick-Ass," a title that already has some parents >>> shielding their young'uns from the marketing campaign, but the pre-release >>> publicity has focused less on the high school-age male title character than >>> the diminutive Hit Girl, played by now-13-year-old Chloe Grace Moretz. One >>> of the film's explicit trailers plays like Hit Girl's greatest hits, >>> complete with her dropping "f" and "c" bombs and shooting a doorman through >>> the cheek while dressed in a schoolgirl outfit. >>> >>> This is all played for kicks, of course. Director Matthew Vaughn's >>> R-rated "Kick-Ass," which opens Friday, is a comic book movie based on the >>> work of Mark Millar and John S. Romita Jr., so everything is delivered >>> inside giant, nothing-reallycounts quotation marks. >>> >>> Still, you can't forget that you are watching an 11-year-old girl causing >>> violent mayhem and taking punches in the face from an adult, all while >>> out-cussing Tony Soprano. Sure, you can't take your eyes off Hit Girl, but >>> is this a good thing? >>> >>> "I don't know that it means anything other than the destruction of >>> civilization as we know it," joked film critic-historian Leonard Maltin. >>> >>> "There's always that question of whether movies lead social change or >>> reflect it. I always think the answer is somewhere in the middle, but >>> there's no question that movies and TV shows have broken down or dissolved a >>> lot of barriers of what is considered acceptable for men and women and boys >>> and girls." >>> >>> Hit Girl certainly marks the extreme end of a progression that can be >>> traced back a few decades. Audiences were shocked when Linda Blair spewed >>> profanities and vomit as the12-year-old possessed girl of "The Exorcist" >>> (1973), though they could console themselves that it was the devil's doing. >>> >>> Also in1973, Tatum O'Neal played the sassy-mouthed (PG-rated), >>> cigarettesmoking, 9-year-old con artist of Peter Bogdanovich's "Paper Moon"; >>> she became the youngest Oscar winner, for best supporting actress, the next >>> year. >>> >>> Jodie Foster became another troubledgirl icon with her Oscar-nominated >>> performance as the 12-year-old prostitute of Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver" >>> (1976). >>> >>> No cheap thrills were meant to be derived from her mean-streets >>> situation; here was a girl who needed protection - and got it from Robert De >>> Niro's unhinged title character. Yet the director's seriousminded intentions >>> couldn't keep John Hinckley Jr. from being so smitten with Foster that he >>> tried to impress her by shooting President Ronald Reagan in 1981. >>> >>> Thematically, the closest movie precedent to Hit Girl may be Natalie >>> Portman's 12-year-old Mathilda, who learns hit man Jean Reno's tricks so she >>> can avenge her murdered family in Luc Besson's "The Professional" (aka >>> "Leon," 1994). But Besson is ultimately a sentimentalist who spares >>> Portman's character from doing the lethal work, whereas Vaughn isn't exactly >>> concerned about Hit Girl getting blood on her hands. >>> >>> Or, as the "Kick-Ass" press notes state: "Hit Girl is a sparky, spunky >>> force of nature, likely to be an instant professional icon redolent of Jodie >>> Foster in 'Taxi Driver' and Natalie Portman in 'The Professional.'" (No one >>> from Lionsgate or the film was made available to comment.) >>> >>> "The notion of innocence in this society is gone," said Neal Gabler, >>> author of "Life: The Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality." "It's not >>> just a function of violence. I think it's a function of a certain social >>> cynicism that has just built and built and built over the years where people >>> believe in nothing." >>> >>> Which isn't to say violence doesn't play a role. "There was kind of a >>> firewall between kids and violence, and that firewall is completely gone >>> now," Gabler said. "Kids sit around and kill people on video games." >>> >>> And if the finger-waggers come out against "Kick-Ass," then the movie >>> essentially has done its job. >>> >>> "If you're making this movie, you want people to disapprove because >>> popular culture has always been a form of rebellion," Gabler said. "One of >>> the reasons American popular culture is so 'trashy' is not because everybody >>> is stupid; it's because people love the idea of challenging official >>> culture." >>> >>> Yet don't assume that the reactions to Hit Girl will be anything close to >>> universal. Melissa Silverstein, who writes the feminist blog Women and >>> Hollywood (womenandhollywood.com), saw an advance screening of >>> "Kick-Ass" and said she was surprised by how torn she felt. >>> >>> "It was disturbing, but I was also empowered in the same moment, and that >>> doesn't happen very often," Silverstein said. "It just kind of flew into the >>> face of all expectations of how girls act on screen, and that's what was so >>> exciting and breathtaking. I couldn't help but feel some semblance of >>> excitement as a person who's watched male comic book characters save the day >>> time and time again." >>> >>> At the same time, though, she was "ambivalent about someone who just >>> kills people for the sake of killing," and the casual use of a certain very >>> vulgar anti-female epithet bothered her. "I saw all the boys sitting around >>> me loving that, and they loved it a little too much." >>> >>> Given that one of the movie's teen boys is so wowed by Hit Girl that he >>> declares he'll wait for her to come of age, male reactions to this >>> prepubescent character could represent another can o' worms. >>> >>> Silverstein didn't think her portrayal ever became "icky" in a "Lolita" >>> kind of way. >>> >>> Still, the image here of a young heroine certainly differs from earlier >>> times. >>> >>> "For prepubescent guys you have to create a different kind of love object >>> in this cynical and far less innocent kind of world," Gabler said. "How do >>> you design a Shirley Temple for this era?" >>> >>> Step one: Give her a gun. >>> >>> Mark Caro: mc...@tribune.com <mcaro%40tribune.com> >>> >>> >> >> >> > > > -- > Celebrating 10 years of bringing diversity to perversity! > Mahogany at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mahogany_pleasures_of_darkness/ > >
