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"Then why don't you kiss me like everybody else does?"

posted 8 years ago by markfilipak
2 replies | jump to latest

Kissing in the film insinuates more vigorous forms of sexual encounter. Forbidden Planet was made in the 26th year of the Production Code. It was a time when audiences had to interpret Coded messages in order to understand the scenes containing them. Knowing to what such Coded messages actually refer provokes adult smiles now, and provoked adult smiles even then.

For example, when Commander Adams tells her that she "will always look just beautiful", Alta asks, "Then why don't you kiss me like everybody else does?" Her question prompts viewers to wonder just how much kissing she did during the previous day. It's a hint to her promiscuity. Her reply is reminiscent of that of a girl who claims she's had sex "just once", and when asked "With who?" replies, "The football team".

Alta may be naive, but after kissing Lieutenant Farman and Commander Adams (and perhaps others), she's no longer a virgin. It's a Coded message. The actual meaning is confirmed when Adams is forced to interrupt their kissing in order to shoot the tiger. The Coded message: Since Alta's no longer a vigin, she's lost God's protection. It's the sort of moral, quasi-religious Coded message promulgated by the Legion of Decency and the Production Code. But there's even more going on in that scene.

The film makers could have had Commander Adams & Alta simply disappear below the frame as they sink to the ground. That was the way that such amorous situations were usually handled in adult dramas. But Forbidden Planet was intended to be a family film, not an adult film. Having the actors sink below the frame would have provoked difficult questions like "Where did they go, Daddy?" and "What are they doing, Mommy?" Substituing kissing for a more explicit treatment of sexuality avoided such questions, but it also left two generations of adolescents with the impression that kissing is wrong, that kissing can provoke a tiger attack.

There are plenty of threads in this forum dealing with sexism and Dr. Morbius's mixed (strange) messages regarding his daughter. My intention is to discuss the effect that inappropriate morality had on me (and on your parents and grandparents). Let the rumpus begin.
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[–] grizzledgeezer 8 years ago

I don't see kissing as referring to sex. But it is, shall we say, a prelude.

We don't actually know she's had sex until Adams says "She's joined herself to me, body and soul!".

[–] Harold_of_Whoa 8 years ago

I think you are on the right track, but then you get derailed by your interpretation.

Alta may be naive, but after kissing Lieutenant Farman and Commander Adams (and perhaps others), she's no longer a virgin. It's a Coded message. The actual meaning is confirmed when Adams is forced to interrupt their kissing in order to shoot the tiger. The Coded message: Since Alta's no longer a vigin, she's lost God's protection. It's the sort of moral, quasi-religious Coded message promulgated by the Legion of Decency and the Production Code. But there's even more going on in that scene.

The interpretation you are trying to shoe-horn in here is directly contrary to the movie. If, indeed, Alta's dalliance with Farmin in the movie was intended to represent sex, and therefore loss of virginity, and the tiger attack was intended to symbolize some disfavor of God upon her, then there would have been absolutely no reason to coincide the tiger attack with her kissing Adams. She would have been a sinner before then, by your interpretation.

You're too tied up in focusing on your Code and not paying attention to the movie as it unfolds.

Alta specifically talks about kissing Jerry and feeling nothing - no sexual awakening, no emergent womanhood. Adams is different, and that's the point - only then does the tiger attack, because (as we find out later) Adams is the one she falls for. If it was about simple sexual activity and loss of virginity (presented in Code as kissing), Adams would be nothing special because she has 'been there, done that', and whatever God protection you are implying would be gone already.

I don't, by the way, accept that the tiger is a message (intended or unintended) to the audience (young or old) that kissing/sex = sin/loss of God's favor/dismissal from the Garden.

If you really look at FP, it is actually kind of a low-key subversive attack on some of the 50s sexual mores.

My intention is to discuss the effect that inappropriate morality had on me (and on your parents and grandparents). Let the rumpus begin.

Good luck with that. Over the years, my few attempts to get this movie discussed deeper than surface level, here, have not yielded much enthusiasm. I don't anticipate much rumpus.