I did an interview for the Boston Film Festival yesterday: cast, director and writer of a controversial film (L.I.E., which I highly recommend) with an undeserved NC-17 rating (there is no explicit sexual activity in the film) which depicts teenage homosexuality and portrays a known pedophile as a sympathetic character on some level (amazing performance by Scottish actor Brian Cox). The screenwriter is an ex-cop, non-Hollywood type. We were discussing the whys and hows of the NC-17 rating and this writer mentioned McCarthyism. He referred to the good senator as a "reprehensible drunk," and said having grown up in the eras of McCarthyism and the Civil Rights era, he thinks earlier witch hunts against blacks and Commies has been replaced by the same witch hunts against male homosexuals (think of Seantor Jesse Helms). Mr. Cox said this sort of prejudice is "an American disease" and went on to say that if the same sort of behavior were portrayed in heterosexual terms (in other words, a grown man seducing a willing, if underaged, girl) it would more than likely be glorified and would have received a less restrictive rating; he also said "your country puts guys who practice that sort of thing with young women on stamps!" referring of course to Elvis Presley and 14 year old Priscilla...we also discussed the rather disingenuous notion that somehow male homosexuals are thought to be incapable of any sort of restraint (hence the fear at having them in our schools or military units) but that known sexual predators of the heterosexual variety are accepted and vaunted as "playboys" or "womanizers" or "studs" or other similar euphemisms.

It was a fascinating discussion about some very controversial matters in this film (adolescent sexuality, pedophilia, etc.) and the main point that stayed with me is that in our society everyone seems to have the need to demonize some group above all others; but that interestingly enough, one's own personal beliefs and prejudices and fears affect WHICH group that is...whethwe it is women, blacks, jews, Asians, gays, pagans, Christians, Muslims, liberals or Republicans...