Here's what Jody Hill, the writer-director of the new comedy Observe and Report, told the Onion A.V. Club about the film's notorious rape scene:
AVC: Did you get a lot of studio notes on Observe And Report?
JH: Sure. It’s like anything. There’s discussion involved. That was a big difference between The Foot Fist Way,
where if Danny and me and our friends were laughing, it stayed in the
movie. With the studio, you have to explain it to them. There was a lot
of times—like the sex scene. [Rogen has sex with an apparently
passed-out Anna Faris, who belligerently moans for him to continue at
the very end.] I put it in there, and they were like, “Well, this is
too far.” And I said, “You know what? It’ll just be one shot. Let’s
just shoot it and see what happens. Then if you don’t like it, we won’t
put it in the movie.” Then we put it in the movie, and they were like,
“That goes too far.” And I was like, “Well, let’s just put it in front
of the audience and see if they like it.” You know what I mean?
You just gotta talk to people. I feel like you can argue
passionately—as long as you don’t insult anybody, it’s okay. I think
that goes a long way.
AVC: In the Times piece, they describe the scene
you’re talking about as Seth Rogen’s character forcing himself on Anna
Faris. Is that how you perceived that scene?
JH: [Pause.] I dunno. I’ve always kind of liked scenes that
you talk about how fucked-up they are. I would have been happy without
any dialogue in that scene. I wanted to show them just having sex and
her passed out, and I thought that would have been funnier. But I think
I have a darker sense of humor than most people. So at the end, [Faris’
character] is okay with it. [Laughs.] And that was like, “I’ll shoot it
both ways.” So I actually shot it both ways. I just kept the camera
rolling. There’s like a line that’s “We’re okay laughing, and you’re
pushing the envelope.” But you’re not really pushing the envelope until
you cross that line where a lot of people don’t go along with you. I
tried to do it in a few scenes in this movie, where a lot of people
aren’t going to go along with the film or with what we’re trying to do.
Hopefully that means we’re actually pushing the envelope. [Laughs.] You
know what I mean by that? I think if you’re really pushing the
envelope, you have to not include everybody, if that makes sense. Or
else it’s not really pushing the envelope.
The interviewer invites Hill to say whether he thinks he shot a rape scene, but Hill doesn't give a straight answer.
His reply seems to confirm my theory that Faris' "motherfucker" line is a cop out--a ploy contrived to keep the scene "funny" instead of taking it to an even darker place.
It's also pretty clear that Hill thinks the rape scene is funny, not merely shocking.
Rape in movies isn't inherently offensive. Even rape jokes might have a place in a dark comedy. What's really offensive about the rape scene in Observe and Report is that someone thought that having Faris wake up in the middle and act "okay with it" made the sequence funnier or more user-friendly.
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