Which of these do you find most offensive in film?

[ChrisLyon]

I need to do this because I need to prove a point to someone. Please weigh in.

Make sure your choices are not answering the question "Which do I hate to see in a film the most" and answer which personally offends you most.

For context, I have no answer. Generally. I mean, think of the film that represents the most disconcerting in each department and then pick one of those that offends you the most.

[Tom Lowe]

Uh, none.

How about "bad script" or "shitty acting" or "derivative crap"?

[Caesar]

WOW Blood and gore. High score. Is this your point?

[ChrisLyon]

No. I need more people. I can't tell you the point or the results may become tainted.

[Roberto B]

WOW Blood and gore. High score. Is this your point?yeah.. no pop at all..

[ChrisLyon]

How about "bad script" or "shitty acting" or "derivative crap"?
Good offensive material right there. I like it. Another poll another day I suppose.

[Jeff Kilgroe]

To me none of those are offensive, but any of them could be. It all depends on the context and manner in which they are presented. So just based on such choices with no frame of reference, I have no way to cast a meaningful vote.

[Gordon Prince]

yeah.. no pop at all..It looks as though we won't see Red blood & gore so soon... HaHaHaHa

[ChrisLyon]

For context, I have no answer. Generally. I mean, think of the film that represents the most disconcerting in each department and then pick one of those that offends you the most.

[Darwin]

I can't stand ...lima beans....I would have to say my answer would be lima beans! I find them very offensive...

Now I ask you as an artist which color you find most offensive?

[Craig W. Bickerstaff]

None of these technically "Offend" me at all I mean the right kind of realistic violence can beat me up a bit but I'm not offended by it.

This is kind of a pointless question.

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Things that typically offend me, or at least annoy me, when found in feature films:

* Pointless and/or forced love stories

* Comic relief or "cheesiness" inserted for no apparent reason other than to ruin a perfectly good scene - or even the whole movie.

* Happy Hollywood endings -- I'm actually a very irritable and negative person and excessive happiness can aggravate my condition.

* Bad guys that can't shoot. One of the biggest follies of action movies... My grandmother could handle a gun better than most of the stooges portrayed in action movies and shoot-em-up films. It's bad writing at it's finest, IMO. The script writer wrote his hero into a corner and then gets him out of it by having all the bad guys shoot everything within a 2 mile radius except for the guy they're aiming at.

* Sci-Fi version of the above peeve. You expect me to believe that 250 years in the future, advanced targeting systems and laser weapons are going to miss? A human target with a top speed of about 15mph? Seriously?

I could go on, but most would probably disagree with me... If everyone agreed, then mainstream box office revenue would be almost nil.

[Craig W. Bickerstaff]

* Bad guys that can't shoot. One of the biggest follies of action movies... My grandmother could handle a gun better than most of the stooges portrayed in action movies and shoot-em-up films. It's bad writing at it's finest, IMO. The script writer wrote his hero into a corner and then gets him out of it by having all the bad guys shoot everything within a 2 mile radius except for the guy they're aiming at.

* Sci-Fi version of the above peeve. You expect me to believe that 250 years in the future, advanced targeting systems and laser weapons are going to miss? A human target with a top speed of about 15mph? Seriously?


I want to see your sci fi action flicks, I have no idea how the hero would survive the first action scene.

[Jeff Kilgroe]

I have to agree with Darwin... Lima beans do kinda suck.

Forum members here are hardly a typical crowd and will probably not give a typical answer. It seems many or even most are voting not to vote, because they don't find any of these subjects offensive in and of themselves. Rather it's how and why they are presented that matters and to what audience they are presented. Perhaps this is the point Chris is trying to make?

[Jeff Kilgroe]

I want to see your sci fi action flicks, I have no idea how the hero would survive the first action scene.

Hopefully you will get to see one of my sci fi films someday. My first feature I have slated for shooting with RED is sci fi, but I'm probably about a year away from shooting it, assuming all goes well. <spoiler>the heroine is a little girl</spoiler>

[ChrisLyon]

Great spoiler tags lol.

[Moir]

None of the above offend me in the right context, but used gratuitously I guess some could.

Can't remember the film, but I do recall being offended by swearing once - but what I found offensive was not the actual swearing but the fact that the script appeared to have been written by a 10 year old who had just discovered a bunch of 4 letter words. Contrast this with the average Tarantino script where profusive bad language is used to brilliant effect.

I'll tell you something that really offends me: the "warnings" on DVD covers and advertisements for films. "Contains scenes of moderate fantasy violence". "Contains scenes of extended peril". WTF?

[Curran Giddens]

As someone who gets a little bit squeamish watching surgery videos on TV, I voted for blood & gore. But I can't remember the last time I saw a horror movie or anything with a close-up of blood and guts. I guess maybe I should have voted for realistic violence if it doesn't actually show a close-up result of the action. For instance, if there was a film with "shock-and-awe" bombings from cool-looking stealth planes, but then doesn't actually show the disfigured bodies from the result.

[Roberto B]

realistic violence.. your point chris?

[Bruce Allen]

I'd say pointlessly tacked-on sadistic violence, especially if it doesn't involve humans. Writers / directors throwing violence into the script because they can't think of a better way to communicate emotional intensity.

I have no idea if you'd call the above "realistic violence"? It's visually realistic, but not on any deeper level. So I just cast my vote for "Blood & Gore".

I just watched Lust, Caution. Thought it was utterly amazing. It has, of course, graphic sex. Deep, realistic emotional violence too. But IMHO original, unexpected and good - for a movie whose male lead is an evil interrogator, it was refreshingly free of cliched torture / interrogation scenes. I thought it a very restrained and excellent NC-17 film. Not sure that much of America agrees with me though.

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com

[Andrew Benz]

Cool Bruce. Nice subject matter for you 666th post. Hahaha...

I too have to go with the realistic violence.

Andrew

Bruce hope you had a great visit home in SA.

[Tom Lowe]

Who are the two squares who voted for "Sexual Content"???

[Jaime Vallés]

Blood and gore. I've never been into horror movies, and I find the recent slew of torture flicks extremely unappealing. I love good suspense thrillers, and most of the good ones have very little gore. The audience's imagination is a lot more powerful than a bucket of red corn syrup.

[jaadgy akanni]

The acting styles of Ben Affleck, Steven Segal, Armand Assante, JeanClaude Van Damm...very offensive and nauseating

[Jeremy Torrie]

What I find most offensive is how certain films actually get financed. Why would you put several hundred thousand or a few million into a project that any reasonable person knows by reading the script that it has no chance of making its money back? I guess the answer is ego.

Bad writing would be my biggest beef, then bad direction, followed by bad acting...

[Desert Rune]

I didn't vote because I found none of the above to be offensive. I'll only find it offensive if the subject matter was mocked for laughs but in a serious film, totally acceptable.

Passion of the Christ wouldn't be what it is if realistic violence was toned down, nor would a film like Baise-Moi rip you from your seat if they hid the graphic sex.

[number6]

So I just cast my vote for "Blood & Gore".


www.boacinema.com

Just ducked into this thread and saw where Bruce had posted, and decided to read his post because he usually gets to the meat of things. You can imagine my surprise to find that Al Gore is running as Vice President again, only this time with Hillary Clinton (I don't think it very nice Bruce, to give Hillary the nickname "Blood". After all, she's surely past menopause by now.) Anyway, I think it too early to commit to a candidate so I will not say definitely I will vote for "Blood" and Gore.

[Jonathan L. Bowen]

Uh, none.

How about "bad script" or "shitty acting" or "derivative crap"?

HAHA, that's what I'd vote for.

Well for me, I really don't like gross gore, if it's basically semi-fake gore I actually PREFER that, I think sometimes it's better for it not to be as realistic, I know that sounds crazy, but overdoing the gore really makes me sick. I am not a fan of the whole gore and guts horror movies, or torture movies. Blood is fine, even tons and tons of blood, but close-up gore and really nasty stuff makes me sick.

Although I have to admit excessive sexual content, whether words or pictures, makes me the most uncomfortable. I don't care to watch that kind of thing with other people present -- if I was going to watch highly sexual content I'd just rent a porno and watch it alone, so it should stay out of my films please. Thank you. As a director there are just some things I would never tolerate and that's one of them. It may be totally true that 95% of films in this world have added love stories because that sells, and that's what your average American wants to see. But my movies won't have that crap. There's nothing useful or interesting to explore with that, just cliched old territory that bores me. If I came to this town to remake the wheel, you know what, I'd stay home and just work at Home Depot and rent movies on the weekends. No thanks. I came here to make the movies I want to see that aren't being made, and if that means my audiences are smaller I'm fine with that, because so too will be my budgets. It's a fair trade-off.

So for me this question is a close running between excessive gore and excessive sexual content. I don't care if there's some nudity, like incidental nudity, a girl is hopping into the shower, sweet, ok whatever. I know film is a visual medium, that sells tickets, it's ok. But I don't need really personal stuff being shown, that's just not cool with me.

Lots of killing is always good, any movie where at least 50 people die on screen is probably somewhat entertaining. Swearing is great, especially in South Park and Pulp Fiction. ;)

[jaadgy akanni]

I'm offended by how sometimes certain men and women of certain ethnic groups are made to look sexless, servile, or lacking the ability to express valuable thoughts or actions.
Also, still in the 21st century american movies go out of their way to convey the message that whites only pair up with whites and blacks only with blacks, asians with asians, and so on.
i'm sure that meetings are held where someone utters the words "oh no, we can't have Julia Roberts kiss Denzel 'cause that would offend middle class America-and they're the ones who pay for tickets"
And in that sick, racist pursuit, they give us a movie that depicts a relationship between 2 warm blooded, sexual beings with feelings, sense of sight and smell, who somehow manage to defy all the laws that govern human sexual attraction and obviate what happens between a man and a who find compatibility and reciprocity, especially in this case,where the man protects the woman from harm and danger. All that left a bad taste in my mouth, 'cause we all know that in real life they would've ended up in love and F@##*king each other to the bone. But oh no....G@#$d forbid!
Totally ridiculous!! Man, I hate the Pelican Brief for insulting my intelligence and my common (human) sense.

[Jonathan L. Bowen]

The way the big studios think about anything like that really is insulting to the intelligence of a lot of us, but they think about the "average middle class American" and I can guarantee you they don't hold that demographic in much esteem. They think that most people are morons, and they're probably right, so they often aim movies at morons.

[explosive]

The survey hasn't included "Tom Cruise" as an option.

[Andrew Benz]

The survey hasn't included "Tom Cruise" as an option.

Now that is funny! ... and so true.

[Nathan Buxton]

I said blood and gore. I chose that because "Realistic Violence" implies that it would tastefully depict a violent scene where as "blood and gore" qould exploit it.

[Gunleik Groven]

Nope, no vote...

Depends totally on context whether any, all or none of these subjects are offensive. None are in themselves.

Sorry...

On the other hand
If you said:

Standard "correct" short-film dramaturgy

I'd trhow my vote any day

G

[Kevin Halverson]

I had to look at the poll twice, I was about to vote for my favorite and it wouldn't let me select them all!

Seriously, I agree with several others, I don't rule out any of them on their own, it all depends upon the story they occur within. So, no vote from me either.