Trigger warning: mentions of sexual assault and minor spoilers for Oppenheimer.
On Monday, the WGA reached a tentative agreement with Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). Today after 148 days, the writer’s strike has finally come to an end. However, the SAG-AFTRA union continues to strike and there are still many discussions to be had about the future of art.
The future should be clear: quality original art made by artists who are paid a living wage. But that future is muddied by greedy CEOs and their threats of A.I. We're also seeing in these discussions that audiences want something different in art as well but the final product is something just as soulless as 'art' made by A.I. It’s a horror film of its own, beginning with the line ‘it doesn’t add anything to the plot.’
There have been growing discussions about necessity in art, no doubt emboldened by the strikes. The plot is defined as “the main events of a play, novel, film, or similar work, devised and presented by the writer as an interrelated sequence.” It will be summarised before you go to watch a film. You stay for the entirety of the art because of the details within that. For the performances by the actors, the perspective offered by the director and the quips by the writers. It seems that audiences are becoming less interested in artistic expression. To skip a scene, because you, as an audience member, have decided that you know more about the plot of the film you’re watching for the first time, than the artists behind it, shows how much audiences dismiss the roles of artists. We’re in a climate where art is meant to be consumed under the pejorative ‘content’ and original art is suffocating.
Television series, by nature, allow for more exploration of the plot, multiple plots, and its elements, are not safe from an inquisition about necessity. As well as skipping scenes, entire episodes are skipped. People increase the speed of the films and TV shows they watch, completely disrupting the delivery of lines, the tone of the media, the music that accompanies a scene. Artistic ambition and detailed narratives are seen as a waste of time. A distraction from the plot, rather than the highlights of it. In fairness to audiences, there isn’t much TV for us to watch these days, even without the strikes. TV shows are no longer guaranteed a second season and the first season isn’t even up to 10 episodes. The contentification of art doesn’t allow for TV shows to grow. Stories are left incomplete, or even gone forever in some cases. Studios don’t want art to progress, just their extortionate wealth.
At the centre of these discussions about plot development are sex scenes. Sex on screen has been an issue of contention since cinema’s conception. In the late 19th century, society was still very conservative and this continued well throughout the 20th century. Those attitudes seem to have risen up again. Christopher Nolan’s biopic Oppenheimer was at the centre of these discussions during the summer. The film features sex scenes between Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) and Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh). As people often argue about sex scenes and nudity, the scenes in Oppenheimer were claimed to be awkward for both the artists and the audiences and add nothing to the plot. It’s not necessarily the nature of these scenes, there’s nothing wrong with sex or its portrayal on screen. There is something wrong with wanting them banned altogether. Sex scenes are not needless; they signify a shift in the relationship between the two characters, or more as we see in Oppenheimer. The sex scene in the interrogation room is arguably the most significant. As Oppenheimer relates his last night with Jean, he is literally stripped bare. His affair is revealed to all, but most notably to his wife. That was a significant part of the story. That was necessary for the plot. It may be uncomfortable to watch but good art is supposed to.
Oppenheimer is about the man who created the atomic bomb that went on to kill hundreds of thousands of people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Even those who survived faced terrible side effects from the radiation. Though the damage to Japan is never explicitly shown, the violent legacy of the bomb lingers throughout the film. That’s what Oppenheimer is about of course, but Violence in film and TV is never called into question about its necessity to the plot.
There are valid criticisms towards sex scenes in films and TV. Our patriarchal society means that sex scenes are often catered for the male gaze. As such, it means that the actresses in these scenes are not given the care and respect they deserve. Game of Thrones actress Emilia Clarke declared she would never do sex scenes again after her experience on the HBO show. Clarke told the Independent: I've had fights on set before where I'm like, 'No, the sheet stays up', and they're like, 'You don't wanna disappoint your 'Game of Thrones' fans.' And I'm like, 'F--- you.' " Such an environment makes sense when you find out that Game of Thrones didn’t have an intimacy coordinator.
Rather than a ban on sex scenes in films and TV, there needs to be a lot of changes made. Intimacy coordinators are slowly becoming the standard, allowing a space for younger and upcoming actors to express their boundaries freely and without fear. Sex scenes also give more reason for more women to be behind the scenes, especially in roles as directors and producers. The discussion becomes more egregious when sex scenes and rape scenes are often conflated, and sex scenes are compared to porn. Sex and rape are not the same and it’s dangerous to compare the two because seeing consexual sex on screen makes you uncomfortable. The sole purpose of porn is to arouse the viewer, sexuality in art is all about the characters.
Censorship in art is not something we should advocate for. The Hays Code in Hollywood were dark days. Also known as the Motion Picture Production Code, it was a list of guidelines for what filmmakers could include in their films. The code was in place from 1934 to 1968, so it was in full effect during the Golden Age of Hollywood. During this time, films were forbidden from depicting violence, the villains reigning triumph, anything alluding to sex (nudity, passionate kissing, suggestive dialogue), interracial relationships and profanity, just to name a few.
The Hays Code was put in place supposedly because the 1920s had seen a lot of pictures centred around sex and violence. The guidelines were meant to serve to perhaps balance out the debauchery of the previous decade. Despite the limit of the Hays Code, many films depicting drugs such as The Man with the Golden Arm (1955) and violence like Psycho (1960) were still made and were still very successful. European films featuring subject matters that the Hays Code prohibited were still released in American theatres. The film that put the final nail in the coffin for the Hays Code was Some Like it Hot (1959). Starring Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe, the film depicts crime, drag and alcohol and did not meet the guidelines of the Hays Code. It was released anyway and became a huge success. In 1968, the Hays Code was scrapped for the ratings system that we know today.
The Hays Code shows that morality in 20th century Hollywood is a poorer standard than what it is today. To suggest sex, sex between people of different races and genders is immoral is absurd and wrong. It’s not reasonable to limit art based on your personal discomforts. We should never return to censorship in art. The ratings system ensures that the artist is boundless and audiences are comfortable.
The contentification of art has led to the audience's lack of understanding towards artists. Art is personal, the artist is free to include whatever they wish. Art doesn’t put the audience first and often that’s the art audiences appreciate the most. The disruption of this cycle is influenced by studio executives no longer seeking original art to ensure their wealth and the poverty of the artists they exploit. The WGA and SAG-AFTRA unions are fighting against this. Audiences should be fighting against this too. Our lives are ambivalent, beautiful, chaotic and worth every moment. We all deserve to create and see the human experience as it is.