There is a movie that will explore the transformation of America by the Kinsey report. In this movie, we will understand how information can destroy myth and legend. How fact can liberate the human soul.
This is not that movie.
The movie begins in Indiana, where a young man is taking the sexual history of Kinsey. As he asks Kinsey detailed personal questions, we learn about the test, and about the personal sexual history of Kinsey.
And that’s what the movie is about. The test and how it was used to create the two seminal works on male and female sexuality and Kinsey’s rather interesting sexual life.
Kinsey’s sex life is intended to act as a proxy for America’s sex life. He starts out ignorant and fearful about sex. As he learns more he becomes more comfortable and happier. In the beginning he is reading a manual on how to avoid masturbating. In the middle we watch him have sex with a man, and then allow his wife to have sex with the same man. At the end of the film he is lecturing his graduate students about the dangers of mixing free sex with emotional entaglements.
The film stars great comedic actors: John Lithgow, Tim Curry and Oliver Platt. And it’s a shame that they play the roles of the great villians in American sexual life. A shame because although very funny they trivialize how villianous the Church, the scientific establishment, and money were. The Church used sex to control the people. The scientific establishment was unwilling to investigate the topic to avoid controversy. The establishment did not want to pretend that they were doing it and wanted to appear as good Christians. As a result thousands suffered because of their lack of nerves.
The film is funny. In some ways it’s the 40 Year Old Virgin all over again. Of course when you talk about sex, it’s going to be funny. The sexual histories that are collected and shared are absurdly funny. Kinsey’s in particular has ridiculously funny moments. For example, his wife, played by Laura Lienney, is at the doctor’s office and is asked to show us how big Kinsey’s penis was. Well it turns out that Kinsey had a 12″. But watching the whole sequence of the doctor showing the ruler, the husband squirming and then the wife squirming and then doctor’s eye bugging out is too funny.
The problem with humor in this film, is that there is a serious topic burried in all of the sex jokes. That America was repressed and as a result people were hurt. During the filme we are reminded that this is not just good clean fun but serious business. Unfortunately those moments of seriousness clash so violently with the humour that those serious side jaunts seem out of place.
The one sad truth about this film, is that in the absence of decent sexual education people will hurt themselves. With various religious groups encouraging abstinence and discouraging information in the face of plague, the tragedy of the 50’s seems to be repeating itself. This film would be a success if one of those morons and their leader that think that sex-ed is the problem were to understand that ignorance is the problem. In the profoundly ignorant 50’s people were doing it all of the time!