Bad Cinema:

There are several films that have been created looking into topics that are typically seen as ‘wrong’ by the population in general.

I have recently seen the film ‘Kids’ 1995 by Larry Clark which portrays the lifestyle of an adolescence group. This is done by following the main character ‘Telly’ for 24 hours and those people he meets. This film was produced with the outlook of a fly on the wall documentary, as the camera followed the action, at times without using the proper rules of cutting between different shots. At times a single shot would less for over 10 seconds, when the average shot lasts for approximately 3 or 4 seconds, if that. By using this approach it made the film more realistic, therefore forcing those who watch it to take it more seriously and as a real event that could be happening.

The film addresses such topics as drugs, alcohol and sex, which is bad enough in itself, but when seen in the hands of ‘innocent’ children, it portrays a rather bleak outlook on life. ‘Tellys’ main objective in life was to seduce as many virgins as he possibly could. The audience are made aware about half way through the film that Telly is infected with HIV. To me, this really struck a note of discord as the first sexual encounter these young girls where having would incidentally lead to them contracting this potentially life threatening disease.

Here is a link to a trailer of this film:

http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://videodetective.com/photos/137/005777_12.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.videodetective.com/actordetails.aspx%3Fperformerid%3D16427&h=240&w=320&sz=11&hl=en&start=3&um=1&tbnid=NmGkeSPwO3iLkM:&tbnh=89&tbnw=118&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dkids,1995%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

What was the reason this film was made? Was it to shock or educate parents on the potential activities that their children could well be involved in? It makes you ponder which, if any, audiences this film was targeted at. I certainly would not want to show this film to my children. Children can so easily be swayed, especially if they aspire to popularity, I think this film can be encouraging towards this activity as the characters have lots of friends and a lot of the time are enjoying themselves.

This film brought to mind another film that I have seen called ‘A Clockwork Orange’ 1971directed by Stanley Kubrick. This film was also about young adults and what the do when they leave the home, this one included sex, violence and alcohol. I believe this film was made to shock, more than to educate. This film had a romanticised look to it, that what was occurring was something of wonder. The young adults wore masks and clothing which were strange and bizarre, almost theatre like clothes, and added to the confusion and distaste that some viewers would have felt whilst watching this film.

I think that these films certainly highlight factors of what could be happening behind closed doors which we could be unaware of. The fact that both of the above films mentioned both received callings to be banned tells us that these films were saying something about the population that they didn’t like and did not want to be made aware of.

Drugs and alcohol amongst adolescences are on the increase, here is a PDF file giving a detailed account and statistics of alcohol consumption. The girls are catching up with the boys!

http://www.ias.org.uk/resources/factsheets/adolescents.pdf

The following link is to a website giving advice on substance misuse and also details about the different kinds of drugs and the side effects they cause:

http://www.drugfree.org/Treatment?utm_source=google&utm_medium=ppc&gclid=CNqa7Y-8mZICFQ9eQgod_n1Q_A