Controversial topic leads to NC-17 rating for “˜L.I.E.’
By Daily Bruin Staff
Sept. 30, 2001 9:00 p.m.
 Lot 47 Films Billy Kay (left) as Gary
and Paul Franklin Dano as Howie in Michael
Cuesta’s "L.I.E."
By Chris Young
Daily Bruin Reporter
The new film “L.I.E.” addresses an issue society
loathes to even mention: pedophilia. Although the film’s
NC-17 rating brands it in the public’s mind as vulgar or
pornographic, it is not.
“I think “˜L.I.E.’ is a film that can impact
people in positive ways by opening their eyes to what might be
going on in some segments of society,” said Jeff Lipsky, the
film’s distributor. “Serious films like this should be
made available for parents to take their teenagers to and spark a
dialogue about this serious issue.”
The perception of movie ratings is examined in
“L.I.E.,” which opened in theaters this weekend. Why a
film is rated R versus NC-17 is a debatable topic, and has
consequences for the success of that film and how the public
perceives it.
“L.I.E.,” which stands for Long Island Expressway,
is a coming-of-age film based in suburbia. It follows a 16-year-old
boy, Howie, who goes through a week of intense personal loss.
Howie finds new direction in the most unlikely of persons, a
pedophile named Big John. The relationship between Big John and
Howie begins with pedophilic undertones, but develops into a
father-son bond as Big John helps Howie through his time of loss
and emotional yearning.
“L.I.E.” director Michael Cuesta said that because
“L.I.E.” has an NC-17 rating, the public dismisses it
as pornography, especially if people hear it has a pedophile in
it.
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) assigns film
ratings. According to the MPAA’s Web site, these ratings are
for parents to use as a guide to what movies their children should
watch.
 Lot 47 Films (Left to right) Tony
Donnelly as Brian, James Costa as Kevin
Cole, and Paul Franklin Dano as Howie. Jack
Valenti, president of the MPAA, writes on the Web site that the
NC-17 rating does not signify gratuitous sex or pornography, but
rather a movie that parents should not take their children to
see.
Lipsky said “L.I.E.” was rated NC-17 for two sex
scenes that take up eight seconds of screen time, two seconds of
male buttocks shown in a heterosexual sex scene, and a two-minute
dialogue between Big John and Howie discussing oral sex. But it
does not glorify or promote pedophilia.
“This is not a pornography film,” said Cuesta.
“It has a very strong cautionary tale, and it provokes a
healthy discussion between a responsible adult and a
teenager.”
Richard Walter, a screenwriting professor in UCLA’s School
of Theater, Film and Television, said, “It chills me that
people think that because a movie treats a particular subject such
as pedophilia, that it is endorsing that kind of
activity.”
Also, certain theaters will not show NC-17 movies and some
newspapers do not print NC-17 movie advertisements. Thus, the
filmmakers said that giving a film an NC-17 rating is
censorship.
“To say that this is censorship is to say the Pacific
Ocean is salty. But (the MPAA) doesn’t deny that,”
Walter said.
The filmmakers also mentioned a double standard against
“L.I.E.” Certain movies have been rated R that the
filmmakers believe are equally or more suggestive than
“L.I.E.”
“”˜American Beauty,’ which was rated R, is
about a 45-year-old man lusting after a cheerleader,” Cuesta
said. “In “˜L.I.E.’ we have a 50-year-old man
lusting after a teenage boy. It’s the same lusting. (The
MPAA) is just really uncomfortable with a figure like Big John
being depicted in a real way, a three-dimensional way, not a
back-to-school-special way.”
Film versions of “Lolita,” made in 1962 and 1997,
deal with the same subject as “L.I.E.”
“The 1997 version of “˜Lolita’ was R rated, and
it was all about pedophilia,” Lipsky said. “It had many
scenes of a little girl copulating with a 40-year-old man, and
mind-numbing violence also.”
The same paradox happens for violence, said Lipsky.
He named the violent films “Scarface,” “The
General’s Daughter,” “8 MM,” “Death
Wish,” and “Hannibal,” as examples of R-rated
films.
“It’s serial killers, thumbs up, pedophilia, thumbs
down,” Lipsky said.
Throughout the film, the line between pedophilia and familial
sentiments is blurred. An especially poignant scene shows Big John
teaching Howie how to shave, something Howie’s father never
did. As Big John stands beside Howie in front of the bathroom
mirror, the audience sees both the fatherly care Big John uses as
he shaves Howie’s face with a straight razor, and the danger
that Howie might be in as he stands next to the sexual
predator.
Cuesta said that in a screening Q&A he attended for
“L.I.E.,” the people who asked the most intelligent
questions were teenagers, suggesting that they understand the
mature themes of the film, casting further doubts on the reason
behind the NC-17 rating.
“Kids are savvy enough to know it’s not as simple as
black and white,” Cuesta said. “They saw all the sides
to Big John, they saw he was a bad guy who was able to be good at
times.”
