While I understand the purpose of the movie was so that the creators could showcase how we need smart people in the world and that we need to be sure not to trash the planet, I was extremely offended by certain parts of the movie. For example:The purpose of the program set up by the Pentagon, called the "Human Hibernation Project," is designed so that the military can save their best men for when they're needed most. According to the officers heading the project, too many times the talents and expensive training of the best pilots and soldiers go to waste during times of peace. So they enlist Joe Bauers (Luke Wilson), the most average guy they've got, to be a test subject for the initial hibernation experiment along with Rita (Maya Rudolph), a prostitute who agreed to take part in exchange for dropping some criminal charges. The experiment, which was to last only a year, goes under. Due to the massive scandals and base closure that followed, Joe and Rita were forgotten about. They wake up in 2505. By this time, stupid people have outbred intelligent people; the world is (barely) run by morons--and Joe and Rita are the smartest people in America
Pvt. Joe Bowers: Man, I could really go for a Starbucks, y'know?Turns out, anything from Starbucks to H&R Block has been turned into a place where men can get "serviced" by women. The menu outside a Starbucks that the main characters passed a little later on showed a "latte" for $200, a fully body latte for $2,000 and some other disgusting form of latte for $20,000. The fact that this future showed that the only thing women were good for was for sex just infuriated me. Sweetie, ever playing the devil's advocate (as we do whenever one of us gets angry with a movie), tried to point out that there were women in congress as well as a female cabinet member. However, they were not prominently featured. And while I understand that perhaps it had to do with the number of female friends the director/producer had to give parts to, the point was so much taken that I almost threw up after the movie was over.
Frito: I don't really think we have time for a handjob, Joe.
The overabundance of sex in the movie was unforgivable. No one actually had sex, but the prospect of sex was everywhere. And while I understand this is what someone is saying shouldn't happen, the point was certainly ingrained in my head. Sweetie tried to make the point that men keep women down and that's why the world was fucked up, but I pointed out that if men had fucked up that badly (trash everywhere, no food, no crops growing, etc.), women would certainly come in and clean up the mess. Sweetie (playing devil's advocate) tried to point out that that was the point: to not keep women down. I simply glared at Sweetie.
It was a funny movie, to watch what America had become in their stupidity, but it was also frightening. What if that is our future? The fact that the Secretary of Education was a retarded man who was the brother in law of the president doesn't make it much different from today (just kidding, I actually have no idea who the Secretary of Education is today, but since No Child Left Behind has failed miserably, I can only guess it's true).
I guess all we can do is stop that from happening! And have more women power so we aren't reduced to sex toys!
2 comments:
Fron an outsider's point of view that sounds like an entertaining argument! ;)
I haven't seen the movie, but I can see how it was intended to show that buying sex from women is a bad thing. However, I think it's telling that whilst imagining a dystopian future one of the things they include is women selling sex.
I mean, are there no other ways to show that the future's fucked up? Or is women as sex objects so ingrained in our brains that we cannot think of any other ways to demonstrate a dystopia? Apparently not.
Out of interest, were male prostitutes included? And did it pass the Bechdel test? (Are there more than 2 women in it, do they talk to each other, and do they talk about something other than a man) I thinkt hat test explaisn why I hate chick flicks..
I agree with your point of the dystopian future, however (and since you haven't seen the movie, you wouldn't know this), there was so much pervasive sex and mentions of sex and whatnot, that it was almost hard for me to see the redeeming qualities of the movie.
There were no male prostitutes nor was there another female character. And while it sort of reminded me a bit of Wall-E (lots and lots and lots of trash all over the place, literally, people didn't know where to throw away their trash), the only thing I could take from the movie is to keep reading and to teach my non-existent (at the moment) children that knowledge is good lest that actually be our future.
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