What Am I Missing Here?

In all honesty, it didn’t surprise me that much when I heard the story on the nightly news – basketball player Tim Hardaway doesn’t like gay people:

Well, you know — you know, I hate gay people. So, you know, I let it be known. I don’t like gay people. I don’t like to be around gay people. I don’t — you know, I’m homophobic.

What surprises me is how much talk there is about Hardaway. He’s been on the news and in the newspapers … so many blog posts, I don’t know where to begin … it’s starting to seem like every time I turn around – whoops – there’s Tim Hardaway again.

You can see Tim Hardaway naked on YouTube, with not one, not two, not three, but four separate videos (and probably more than that, too)…

The openly gay mayor of North Miami, Kevin Burns, has openly reached out to Hardaway, inviting him to spend some time with his family…

Charles Berkley has said some public words to Hardaway…

There are people who think that Hardaway is up for the Asshole-Of-The-Year Award – and there are those too who are proud of Hardaway’s homophobia.

But, I get the feeling we’re missing something here. Let’s see … how did all this start? Oh, yeah – some basketball player said he was gay, and Hardaway said he hates gay people. And then … Oh. Wait. That’s it! Someone came out of the closet. Who was that? Why can’t we hear half as much about him as we have from Hardaway? (Oh, yeah…)

John Amaechi is that gay basketball player. He’s been blogged about and had a few news reports about him. (Just not all that many.) And, it seems that most of what I’ve seen (so far) has been more about Amaechi’s response to Hardaway than his original comment. Amaechi was reported to have said:

”His words pollute the atmosphere,” Amaechi said. ”It creates an atmosphere that allows young gays and lesbians to be harassed in school, creates an atmosphere where in 33 states you can lose your job, and where anti-gay and lesbian issues are used for political gain. It’s an atmosphere that hurts all of us, not just gay people.”

Please don’t get me wrong here. I think his response was great and well-said.

I just think we need to support John Amaechi a little more!

Film Ratings…

As an avid DVD collector and movie buff - I have always been just a little intrigued about the whole movie rating thing. It’s … just … confusing!

Like most people I know - film ratings don’t mean all that much to me. I can see how they can be useful to some people - especially those with children - but when it comes to movies I either rent or buy for myself … those ratings have little (if anything) to do with what I walk away with.

Personally, I usually find that the “unrated” or “NC-17″ version of movies are better than the R-rated versions, although I don’t see this as much of a “ratings” issue as it is a “director’s cut” issue. For example - Fatal Attraction’s Theatrical Release is ok… but, the director’s cut is so much better. The only big difference is the ending… that whole ‘He kills her, then she comes back to life so his wife can kill her too’ … what the heck was THAT about? The original ending was, believe me, much better!

Now - this isn’t always true… Alexander is one of those movies where I enjoyed the Theatrical Version more than I did the Director’s Cut. (Due to political pressure from right wing groups, some of the gay-related themes were taken out of the movie.)

But, lately a bunch of movies have come up with both the Theatrical Version as well as an Unrated (NC-17) Version. Usually, the Unrated Version is just a bit more graphic (either nudity/sex or violence). It’s not that rare to compare the movie run times and see that only a minute or two of added footage has been added. I think this is more about censorship than anything else. (And, censorship is a completely different issue all together.) The Unrated version of American Psycho is merely five seconds longer.

I know that not all Unrated movies would have recieved an NC-17 rating… sometimes the films would have recieved an R Rating while the Theatrical Release was rated PG-13. Charlie’s Angles: Full Throttle is a good example of this.

Comparing Rated and Unrated versions of films can be kind of fun and interesting. Sometimes, it is just silly. (Dare I mention Team America: World Police? The only difference is some pretty absurd sexual acts between two puppets…)

Sometimes, though - it doesn’t make any sense.

One of the R-rated scenes removed from Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle (but put back into the Unrated Version) was cut because it showed Dylan (Drew Barrymore) being hit in the face and spraying blood from the force of the impact. And yet, there are other movies where that happens frequently, yet still manages to keep a PG rating. (Not PG-13 … PG!) Rocky, for instance. So, why does one scene get an R-Rating, while the other gets away with PG?

When it comes to nudity or sex, however - the confusion runs more rampant. According to the MMPA, all movies are based on the same criteria, regardless of gender, race, or even sexual orientation of the characters involved. Yet gay themed movies are held to a different standard than heterosexual themed movies. A gay movie could not have two naked men wrestling each other - but a straight movie could. (Women In Love)

Last year, I wrote a blog post “Outrage Over Film Rating???” about a group of Evangelicals who were outraged that a movie they produced received a PG rating rather than a G rating (even though the movie deals with some pretty adult things like teen sex and pregnancy). Had the movie dealt with teenage homosexuality, I wonder what the movie would have been rated? I also wonder if the right-wing pundits who lobbied for a change in legislation regarding film ratings made any difference at all? I wonder what that means for me…

I started writing this blog post a few days ago, but last night I watched the movie This Film Is Not Yet Rated, that amazingly dealt with many of the topics I covered in this film, plus a lot of others. If any of this has made any sense to you - you ought to check this movie out too. Although, personally I would have liked to see the faces of those on the ratings board when this movie was submitted for rating…(wink)