MovieChat Forums > White Bird in a Blizzard (2014) Discussion > "Gratuitous nudity"

"Gratuitous nudity"

posted 10 years ago by lazarillo
10 replies | jump to latest

I wish people would learn the meaning of the word "gratuitous nudity". It means nudity that is not essential to the plot and is there for no other reason than pure titillation. There really isn't so much "gratuitous nudity" in mainstream movies as there is gratuitous sex scenes, gratuitous shower scenes, or gratuitous strip club scenes.

If you have, say, a shower scene (gratuitous or not) and you focus ONLY on actress' boobs and/or butt, THAT would be gratuitous nudity. But most Hollywood movies do the exact OPPOSITE of that if anything, yet they'll leave in the gratuitous shower scene but WITHOUT the gratuitous nudity. That's just stupid.

I take it in this movie there are a lot of sex scenes that are perfectly essential to the plot and Shailene Woodley doesn't wear all her underwear (or don a full-length burka) while doing them. This isn't "gratuitous nudity"; it's a realistic, adult sex scene. If Hollywood shot gun-battle scenes the way they normally shoot Hollywood sex scenes, all the participants would be carrying fluorescent squirt guns and yelling "bang bang", so thank god for "gratuitous nudity" in films like this.

[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]

[–] MariaDeluca 10 years ago

It really fits for Kat. I want to praise Greg for capturing kat and her sexuality. If it was another director it may have been toned down.

[–] Xeelo 10 years ago

lazarillo is a lowbrow pervert and idiot who is desperate to see as much nudity and sex in movies as possible. He tries to hide it behind open minded/ liberal act but is unsuccessfull. And just wanders around imdb.com boards to whine everytime someone call nude or sex scene a gratuitous (which 70-80% of these scenes are).

[–] DCI77 10 years ago

Lol this.

By the time I got halfway I was like "Really?"

2014: American Sniper, Inherent Vice, Foxcatcher, Into the Woods

[–] mTopoMax_deleted 10 years ago

Perhaps Lazarillo is "of sound mind". You mean he takes a healthy interest in human sexuality!!
Damn, what next the Rapture? LoL

[–] kmartin173 10 years ago

Who gives a damn if its gratuitous? Bring it all on.

[–] useurimagination06-98-473324 10 years ago

i actually disagree with maria i think the nudity would have been turned up with any other director. but regardless i feel the nudity just helped express that she was a teenager and that everything revolved around her and her feelings/emotions, up until the very end, with her friends saying they told her but brushed it off. im a female i support the fresh nudity and enjoyed the movie above average. wanna read the book tho now.

[–] YippeeKiYay_MF 10 years ago

the thing about bed scenes is that they always show the woman covering her body after the sex. I don't think this depicts reality.
so they show the nudity before and during the sex, but not afterwards?
isn't it incongruent?

I'll be good I swear... I'll never see a movie ever again.

[–] useurimagination06-98-473324 10 years ago

Yea you do have a point. But hey we got to see some nudity I just think the way the director did it was moving to each scene in a pretty timely matter. Maybe that was the reason. Plus I got the vibe thru the whole movie that the director didn't want you to focus too much on the nudity which I liked to. I thought it was all pretty tasteful

[–] daredevil1-1 10 years ago

Eh, it wasn't that bad, at least the boyfriend's dink didn't come flying out at any point.