I found the sex in LPS pretty damn dreary. Every scene was a failure in some way, beginning with Sonny's listless makeout session in the truck. Then there are Jacy's various sexual manipulations throughout the movie; Billy's pitiful experience with the town whore; the mention of substituting a cow for a woman; the depressingly mechanical missionary scenes with Duane, Abilene and Sonny; Duane's failure to perform followed by his failure to please; the repressed coach whose sexuality works itself out in ass slaps and dirty pep talk; the preacher's pedophile son; the swinging teens in Wichita Falls for whom sex is a game of truth or dare.
The only good sex, apparently, is betwen Lois and Sam the Lion, who frolicked with glee at the fishing tank (compare their naked swimming in the great outdoors to that of the rich kids in the swanky indoor pool). And, although it's not shown, I think we are led to believe that Sonny and Ruth moved beyond the disappointment of their first encounter to something more fulfilling for both of them (I think in that one scene where she is brushing his hair and the bed is neatly made that we are supposed to assume that they had just made love wildly on the floor).
What did you make of the dreary sex? Was it a commentary on the small town? On all the ills of 1950s America: conservatism, false morality (Jacy tells her mom that premarital sex is a sin and her mom laughs in her face), sexism?
7 comments:
I'm "itching" to respond, but I've been forbidden.
The portrayal of sex in the movie was an extremely strong statement of the dreariness that pervaded everyone's lives. If the sex had been good, it would have undermined the overall feel of every other element of the film.
And it was amusing at times.
Yeah, I saw the bad sex as a symptom of the all characters' quiet desperation. It wasn't really sex that they wanted, (especially for the women), it was excitement or attention or tenderness or joy. You get the impression that it's something they do in hopes it will make them feel alive for a moment.
George, you can respond; you just can't say "itchy."
I found it very interesting because a lot of people who lived in that era of no-sex-education-at-all, and not just in a bleak small town, probably identified in some way with those sex scenes: fumbling, awkward, emotionally unsatisfying encounters.
The only sex education they had was that you were supposed to wait until marriage, until you were in love, and then everything would work itself out and make sense.
The scene with Sonny and his girlfriend in the truck was perfect in this respect: the way she was using her virginity and the promise of "plenty of sex" as a lure to marriage.
And yet the only people who have good sex in the movie are adulterers! I think that's the playboy Bogdanovich skewering 1950s America.
However, Bogdanovich is also a romantic, which may explain why the only good sex in the movie is between people (Sam/Lois; Ruth/Sonny) who really are in love.
Erin, I agree that the sex wasn't the ultimate aim for the women, but was a doorway to some deeper excitement they felt was missing from life.
Since all the actors looked pretty old for "kids" to me (contrast the leads with the new football team Sonny observes late in the movie ... now those were kids), the awkward sex reinforced the age they were supposed to be.
The sexual experiments were a lot of things to me: Touching, precocious, awkward, dreary, sometimes funny. I loved how the camera panned back and forth between Jaycee and Duane as she pushes his hand underneath her dress. And the boys' all-around lack of foreplay technique was pretty amusing. No wonder nobody was having any fun. Or Jaycee in the hotel room for her first time with Duana, the way she screws up her face and waits for him to "do something," like she's getting a shot.
I thought everybody's sexual motives seemed pretty straigtforward until Jaycee consents to undress at the pool party. Did she want to be there? What did she want out of baring herself to these losers (if Randy Quaid's character was their peer). I cringed throughout that scene more than any of the other fumbling sexual adventures.
C'mon George. We want your impressions, too.
Yes, the third-base scene in the car was fantastic. The look on Jeff Bridges' face — I cannot believe my good fortune! — was really priceless ... followed by a priceless look of disappointment when she ditched him.
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