Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Turn it Off! Turn it Off!


To get the full effect of the headline, you have to imagine George C. Scott bellowing the line in Paul Schrader's "Hardcore." Damn the Internet and its limitations.

I'd like to think that I'm not terribly squeamish when it comes to watching racy movies with older people. Growing up, my brother and I would watch R-rated movies with my parents, so watching explicit content with non-contemporaries is not a big deal.

At least I thought it was. Then came last Saturday.

The girlfriend and I were at her parents' house, where they were watching (and enjoying) "Rob Roy." It's not a terribly graphic movie, though there is one scene involving Tim Roth (who's awesome here) and Jessica Lange that starts with Roth saying, "You don't ask a whore; you make her."

You can guess what happened next. And you can guess what scene we joined them for.

Her parents were watching the scene unfold, while my girlfriend covered her eyes. I'm sitting next to her father, while her mother is unpleasantly watching the scene unfold. It was almost comically uncomfortable.

The good news is that everyone knew this. "Nope, this isn't awkward at all," I said. "Just watching squirm-inducing cinema with my girlfriend and her parents. Yup, it's all good."

That got me to thinking. What's the most uncomfortable movie scene you've watched with your parents or respected elders? And what's the one scene you wouldn't want to watch?

Leave your nominees in the comments box. Please, I'd love to see what's floating around.

P.S.--Yes, this is an actual scene from the movie from "Hardcore," which is pretty solid. Also overlooked by Schrader: "Auto Focus" (2002) starring Greg Kinnear.

1 comment:

nick said...

I am probably not the best person to ask. I am a very vanilla guy, and any movie dealing with “romantic situations” gets me a tad nervous. Usually, I will yell out at the movie, yelling “that’s sick!” or “how base!” Generally, anything on the fringe of everyday normal vanilla behavior gets me very squeamish.

This past weekend, my wife and I were watching “What about el Morgans” and there was this scene where Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker were clearly about to engage in some type of erotic behavior. In someone else’s house no less!!!! It was very uncomfortable to watch with company. But, again, I may be hyper sensitive to that type of stuff.