Sex film causing a stir

2004-11-25 08:32

Los Angeles - American conservative groups are outraged over a new film starring Liam Neeson about controversial sex researcher Alfred Kinsey whom they accuse of being a closet pornographer.

The release of Kinsey 50 years after the publication of Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male and Sexual Behaviour in the Human Female has cast a new spotlight on America's sexual revolution, while the film has earned critical praise despite the controversy.

Conservative Christians and family groups have picketed cinemas in New York, Los Angeles and other cities since the film, directed by Bill Condon, came out at the start of November.

They say the film ignores evidence that Kinsey interviewed paedophiles and concluded that children can be sexual at a very early age.

Brandi Swindell, national director of Generation Life, a youth group that opposes abortion, is typical of the outspoken opposition.

"Kinsey's legacy is not one of sexual enlightenment, as this movie would lead you to believe, rather Alfred Kinsey is responsible in part for my generation being forced to deal face-to-face with the devastating consequences of deadly sexually transmitted diseases, pornography and abortion," she said.

She said there had been a "cover-up that continues, even in this movie, that a two-month-old, a five-month-old, even toddlers were sexually molested in the name of science under Kinsey's supervision. Excerpts from Kinsey's work made me sick to my stomach".

The role is not an easy one

Generation Life took the lead in organising "peaceful" protests in New York and Los Angeles.

Concerned Women for America has also campaigned against Kinsey.

"The film paints Kinsey as a flawed but sincere cultural hero," said Robert Knight, director of CWA's Culture and Family Institute.

"It ignores the massive fraud, Kinsey's sado-masochistic practices, and barely touches on his use of data on children in sex experiments."

Despite the scathing attacks, British actor Neeson said he had no hesitation accepting the role.

"He saw a gap in our human knowledge that he wanted to fill," Neeson told the New York Times.

"He was a task master, uncomfortable with people, but I don't find him nasty," he added.

James H Jones told in a biography of Kinsey how some of the sado-masochist "experiments" that Kinsey dabbled in put a major strain on his marriage to Clara McMillen, who is played in the movie by Laura Linney.

And Neeson has admitted that the role is not an easy one.

"He did go beyond the pale. He experimented with that realm between pain and pleasure. He used it as a springboard to empathise with these people he was encountering. He so wanted to understand them," said the actor.

Kinsey threatens to become as controversial in the United States as Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 or Mel Gibson's Passion of Christ - both of which were box office phenomena.

- AFP