DAMNED IN THE USA and BLUE
A film review by Chad Skelton
Copyright 1993 Chad Skelton
DAMNED IN THE USA Paul Yule (UK,1991) 76 min. R Seen: Princess Cinema, Waterloo, Ontario
Capsule Rating: DAMNED IN THE USA is a movie about censorship. While it lets the right-wingers have their say, it is openly anti-censorship. Not only does DAMNED IN THE USA provide enough material to make the viewer think about censorship, it also has many hilarious moments, some from the stand-up schtick running throughout, and some from the way people like Reverend Wildmon tries to explain the Mapplethorpe phots ("He had his er ... um ... up the other man's ... er ... um..")
Rating: 8 out of 10
Censorship has never been so much fun.
DAMNED IN THE USA uses many methods to make it's anti-censorship points. One of the main methods is by actually showing the audience what is/was being censored. When one first hears this, they begin to think "Oh--I see--the whole idea of the movie is to show all that naughty stuff". Well, undoubtedly that's what drew a lot of the almost sold-out audience, but Damned in the USA is much more.
The movie interviews everyone from members of the religious right, to friends of Robert Mapplethorpe, to try to find out what people love and hate about the Mapplethorpe photos, "Piss Christ," THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST, 2 Live Crew and other censored, or almost-censored, works or artists.
What makes DAMNED so intriguing is that it is a movie about censorship--that was itself censored. The movie begins with a short retrospective of the court case this movie had to go through to be approved for audiences. The movie makes the case that censorship often creates publicity for artists. No doubt this happened for the movie itself--and the movie deserves it.
The movie features the stand-up act of an individual whos name I forget, talking about censorship. This provides humour throughout (as if we didn't get enough laughs out of Wildmon).
This is a movie for people that are against censorship. Someone who is anti-censorship would argue this movie looks at the argument fairly. In fact, despite to stand-up act woven throughout (which, in some circles, could be construed as commentary), the movie never actually makes a stand on the issue. Someone who is for censorship - will find this movie offensive. Partly because it directly or indirectly makes the religious right individuals look like idiots, and partly because it shows the offensive pictures.
I highly recommend DAMNED IN THE USA--for a good night of enlightenment--and laughter.
BLUE Don McKellar (Canada, 1992 [?]), R [?], 19 min.
BLUE is a short movie about two things. 1. A guy (played expertly by by David Cronenberg) who is addicted to porno magazines and 2. A retrospective interview with a porn queen of what seems to be the 1960s. BLUE is a funny movie. It's the kind of movie that people will like, but may laugh harder that normal--as if to say, "Ha! He's going to masturbate--how funny!" But even without that, it's a funny movie. It's also an explicit movie. It shows the insides of the porno magazines, also, the interview with the 60's porn queen is over what seems to be an actual porno movie--with all the explicity therein.
However, the movie gets away with it, as it is obviously meant to be satirical, and not exploitive.
[ Chad Skelton / prof. moriarty | email: cskelton@realm.tdkcs.waterloo.on.ca]
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