Pretty Woman - ITV Now

[Dubversion]

yeh, the problem with Pretty Woman isn't that it's a dumb movie, it's that it's a dumb movie with a nasty subtext

 

[omlette]

I think it depends what you thought of it when you first saw it. If you loved it, and are now old enough to see the error of your ways, watching it now is a bit like laughing at yourself.

However, I was late teens, I reckon, when it came out, and perfectly old enough to understand how vile it was, and haven't watched it since.

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

couldn't disagree more. It's films like this - which trot out really fucking offensive versions of the world in really trite ways - that do all the damage, much more so than serious films with something to say that nobody pays any attention to.

How, exactly? There's no denying it's shit and that the 'message' is pretty dodgy, but I can't see how it's all that important. Do you think people really change their behaviour in response to a film, or at least any more so than they do to the umpteen hundreds of adverts they see every day?

 

[Dubversion]

How, exactly? There's no denying it's shit and that the 'message' is pretty dodgy, but I can't see how it's all that important. Do you think people really change their behaviour in response to a film, or at least any more so than they do to the umpteen hundreds of adverts they see every day?

I don't think people change their behaviour in response to a single film, no. But i do think that a film can reinforce attitudes and have a cumulative effect. As can adverts. Or do you think all this stuff bounces off us, we're not influenced by the barrage of media we're confronted with?

 

[Leica]

yeh, the problem with Pretty Woman isn't that it's a dumb movie, it's that it's a dumb movie with a nasty subtext

What is even nastier is that there are men out there who expect women to be like that.

 

[Dubversion]

What is even nastier is that there are men out there who expect women to be like that.

or that there are women who believe that men expect them to be like that.

either way - nasty

 

[omlette]

or that there are women who believe that men expect them to be like that.

either way - nasty

or that there are men who make films like that thinking that masses of women will love it, and that they are right.

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

I don't think people change their behaviour in response to a single film, no. But i do think that a film can reinforce attitudes and have a cumulative effect. As can adverts. Or do you think all this stuff bounces off us, we're not influenced by the barrage of media we're confronted with?

No, but that was basically my point. I can't see that anything in particular about Pretty Woman elevates it above any of that other stuff. You were talking about it as being uniquely vile in some way. It just seems like another drop in the ocean of crap to me.

 

[foo]

i guess i watch films like this one, dirty dancing, ghost with an element of detatchment. the boys used to take the mickey out of the girls at uni for watching ghost over and over again but half the time we were laughing at how bad it was.

sorry but i hate all that girls watch this and boys watch that rubbish, surely life isn't really like that? dirty dancing and pretty woman are both films in which 'girls' (or women) come across as pretty fucking vapid if you ask me.

and the men of course, are steely anti-heros waiting to be tamed. <puke>

i blame the Brontes.

 

[Dubversion]

i dunno, there's just something especially reprehensible about the portrayal of prostitution and gender roles in Pretty Woman that lifts it above (sinks it below?) the general level of odious Hollywood bullshit

 

[Leica]

or that there are women who believe that men expect them to be like that.

I think you'll find that it starts with the men.

 

[Dubversion]

I think you'll find that it starts with the men.

sure, i don't dispute that, but the net effect as represented in pretty Woman is horrible whichever side of the coin you're looking at.

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

i dunno, there's just something especially reprehensible about the portrayal of prostitution and gender roles in Pretty Woman that lifts it above (sinks it below?) the general level of odious Hollywood bullshit

Well OK.

I'd argue the point more but I'm busy trying to restrain myself from posting an even-less-justified anti-Pearl Jam rant on the music forum and ruining someone's shiny new thread.

 

[Dubversion]

Well OK.

I'd argue the point more but I'm busy trying to restrain myself from posting an even-less-justified anti-Pearl Jam rant on the music forum and ruining someone's shiny new thread.

an anti-Pearl Jam rant needs no justification. It just is.

 

[Dubversion]

I've even started it for you

 

[Dr. Furface]

I think Gere made this film as some twisted sicko revenge on Paul Shrader, to whom he feels he prostituted himself in American Gigolo, when he was just a poor up and coming Hollywood big shot wannabeeee.

 

[equationgirl]

Sometimes, it's just nice to see a film with a happy ending.

I think there's a large number of films that are distinctly more vile than Pretty Woman - films containing graphic rape scenes for example.

 

[Dubversion]

Sometimes, it's just nice to see a film with a happy ending.

I think there's a large number of films that are distinctly more vile than Pretty Woman - films containing graphic rape scenes for example.

But as horrible as a graphic rape scene is, it's extremely rare that it's presented as acceptable. What happens in Pretty Woman IS presented as acceptable.

 

[Leica]

Sometimes, it's just nice to see a film with a happy ending.

It depends on your notion of what a happy ending is.

 

[Dubversion]

precisely

 

[spanglechick]

so i wonder what's wrong with me that i like this film?

i can see the rotten gender roles and grim messages, and i still like it.

and my lovely monkeygrinder stayed up and watched it with me the other night, even though he doesn't like it. it made me teh happy. like this-->

 

[foo]

But as horrible as a graphic rape scene is, it's extremely rare that it's presented as acceptable. What happens in Pretty Woman IS presented as acceptable.

totally agree.

 

[Reno]

Sometimes, it's just nice to see a film with a happy ending.

I think there's a large number of films that are distinctly more vile than Pretty Woman - films containing graphic rape scenes for example.

Don't you think it's all about context ? Are The Accused or Boys Don't Cry really worse films than Pretty Woman ? Both feature graphic rape scenes, but have serious points to make about rape, gender, politics and sexuality.

 

[Orang Utan]

Don't you think it's all about context ? Are The Accused or Boys Don't Cry worse films than Pretty Woman. Both feature graphic rape scenes, but have serious points to make about rape, gender, politics and sexuality.

I think you could possibly argue that Death Wish 2 is 'worse' than Pretty Woman....

 

[Dubversion]

I think you could possibly argue that Death Wish 2 is 'worse' than Pretty Woman....

I don't think anyone has claimed it's like, the most misogynist film ever made....

 

[Reno]

I think you could possibly argue that Death Wish 2 is 'worse' than Pretty Woman....

Yes of course, it's a pile of shit and possibly one of the most offensive films I've ever seen. Just making the point that a film isn't necessarily bad because it features a graphic rape scene and that it depends on the intention of the filmmakers.

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

Yes of course, it's a pile of shit and possibly one of the most offensive films I've ever seen. Just making the point that a film isn't necessarily bad because it features a graphic rape scene and that it depends on the intention of the filmmakers.

You're right of course.

I doubt anyone would claim that a film that contains a murder scene is necessarily a 'bad' film. There must be a very large proportion of them that do.

 

[Georgie Porgie]

It's a dumb movie, alright.

But vile? I don't agree.

It depends on how you read the subtext.. the consensus on here seems to be that it's aspirational, somehow:

Become a prostitute and bag a millionaire.

But another interpretation might be:

Even a prostitute can find love and have it all.

In other words "keep your head up and your eyes open and your mister right will come along."

Not a deeply philosophical point of view, but certainly not a vile one.

 

[girasol]

Every time I watch it, and I've seen it many times (not because I like it, I just like to analyse it) I always end up asking the same questions:

Why is Julia Roberts a prostitute? It makes no sense, she's not addicted to drugs, she's not desperately poor, she could have done any other job. She's certainly not doing it for fun, the whole thing makes no sense.

Worse still, is the fact that her only way out is Richard Gere, a oportunistic bastard who buys up companies and resells them...

The whole film is about this stupid idea that the most anyone can expect from life is becoming rich - or marrying someone rich and that she needed rescuing because she was so helpless...

The stereotype of a helpless women being rescued by (a rich) man stinks...

This film is not about love. Would she still have fallen for RG if he had been poor?

 

[DotCommunist]

Pile o shite IMO

Richard Gere has all the onscreen charisma of a cheese dorito, and Julia Roberts makes me pray for death.

bollox shit film