An unnerving question but someone's gotta ask it.

Tools    





Is it OK to watch American Beauty? I mean, after the huge Kevin Spacey controversy about underaged people... it's way to correspondent with the plot of American Beauty, which gives the impression of bad taste when watching the film. This isn't really a "should you separate the man from the character" thread at all, but more of a question of timing and taste.



Of course it’s okay. IIRC, Spacey has never been convicted? I loved him in HOC & missed him so much in the final season.

We’d never be able to watch any movie if we took into account every actor & actress’s high crimes & misdemeanors.
__________________
I’m here only on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. That’s why I’m here now.



Kevin Spacey is great in American Beauty, and the movie is fantastic. Don’t let the controversies stop you from enjoying his fantastic performance. It’s one of my favorites of the 90s!



Is it OK to watch American Beauty? I mean, after the huge Kevin Spacey controversy about underaged people...
Yes, you should watch it. Then watch Pretty Baby for good measure It's a current movie nomination in the 21st HoF.



Movie Forums Squirrel Jumper
I don't think it's bad to enjoy the movie if he's in it. For example, I still love watching The Naked Gun movies even though OJ Simpson is a major character in them, but that's not bad is it?

What are they going to do? Go back to the movies and use cgi to superimpose another actor's face over top? JK.



mattiasflgrtll6's Avatar
The truth is in here
It's never a question of whether it's okay or not, it's if you feel personally comfortable with it. Can you put aside the actor's personal life and enjoy the movie or will it get in the way? If it's not a distraction, it should be perfectly fine. I still love watching John Wayne and Jon Voight in movies, even though when it comes to their personal lives I'm less than hot on them.
__________________



Ami-Scythe's Avatar
A bucket of anxiety
I think it adds a sheet of comedy to the experience but that's because I'm a terrible person. You should watch what you want. Kevin Spacey isn't the only one who was a part of the making of the film. He was playing a part in someone's well written screenplay.
__________________
|>
|
Ami-Scythe



The trick is not minding
It’s ok, because the film is not representative of a person themself. It’s like Depp, Sinatra, Casey Affleck. You don’t have to like the person to enjoy their films. Just understand that some celebrities that you have to separate the film from the real life.



The trick is not minding
It’s funny that this is brought up, because recent retrospection has made this film out to be overrated 20 years later, and one can’t help but wonder if that opinion has arisen from the controversy surrounding Spacey. How much has skewed opinion towards what, at that time and after, has been considered a masterpiece, including by me?



Welcome to the human race...
Eh, classic films age badly all the time. I'm pretty sure there was a sub-section of critics/viewers who did consider it pretentious nonsense at the time, though it was more likely to be directed at stuff like the plastic bag scene, and one could make the case that other films did what it was trying to do better (and every Best Picture winner gets people calling it overrated by default).
__________________
I really just want you all angry and confused the whole time.
Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0



Watching the movie.

This is the single weirdest ****ing movie of my life.
How did you like it?

I don’t find it overrated at all, and it was also my pick for Best Picture of 99.



There are two ways to approach this question, one personal and one a bit more empirical:

1) Comfort. If he creeps you out now and takes you out of the movie, then maybe it's not worth it. This is a personal thing, influenced by the seriousness of the accusation, the degree to which you feel it's likely to have actually taken place, and a lot of other things.

2) Economics. Even if you aren't bothered on a personal level, there's a real ethical question about whether you should support the work of someone who's done something you strongly disagree with. Increasingly, even watching such a film on a streaming service, let alone buying it outright, has an effect on that actor's career: sometimes pretty directly. The effect is usually indirect, though (and if you're willing to boycott things over indirect effects, I'm not sure you'll find a logical stopping point), and in the case of a movie you already own, for example, it's non-existent.

Personally, I have very few people that qualify for either criteria, though I take the second a little more seriously when the situation arises.



I'm so tired of people who can't separate an artist's work from his personal life. American Beauty is a classic and should be on the watchlist of all serious buffs.



Entirely up to you, of course, but I've made the decision not to avoid his films. Regardless of whatever else the man is, he's a gifted actor that was in a lot of great movies (American Beauty not among them, IMO) and if you're comfortable enough to watch him still there's no reason to deprive yourself of them.



Watching the movie.

This is the single weirdest ****ing movie of my life.
I don't get it? I mean you have Marlon Brando in a top ten movie on your profile and what he did to actress Maria Schneider in Last Tango in Paris with the butter rape scene is considered rape as it was done without her consent according to her. And that doesn't bother you, but Kevin Spacey does?



I don't get it? I mean you have Marlon Brando in a top ten movie on your profile and what he did to actress Maria Schneider in Last Tango in Paris with the butter rape scene is considered rape as it was done without her consent according to her. And that doesn't bother you, but Kevin Spacey does?

A: I had no idea about that scene, or about that movie. I typically don't look up movies with a sexual tone that heavy. But I'm reading about it on Wikipedia and they go pretty in-depth. What stands out to me is if it was done without her consent, why didn't she call her agent or her lawyer? No one forced her to do it, unless you count Marlon saying "Maria, don't worry, it's just a movie" as enforcement. Besides, Marlon did it because it was a part of the script. It looks like he didn't know about it until the last minute, either. Marlon even said he felt manipulated by it too, so the two might not be in the same boat, but it was the same stream they're sailing. Marlon himself didn't want to talk to the director for 15 years, anyway.


B: It's not just the sexual undertones in American Beauty. Everyone's freaking weird in that movie. Take it from a man who's seen lots of Malcolm in the Middle: these guys need several kinds of help. I mean, that crazy teen's willing to
WARNING: spoilers below
film naked people exercising without even a passing thought
which is weird as hell.



C: The Kevin Spacey controversy did bother me for a while, but as a man who knows how hard it is to break bad habits (though I don't have anything as bad as his), I can really stay "furious" at a person for so long. I don't condone what he did, but it's at the point if where I boycott something it's gotta be real fury. I'm only asking the question



I'm so tired of people who can't separate an artist's work from his personal life. American Beauty is a classic and should be on the watchlist of all serious buffs.

I don't mind either way. I'm just wondering if the time is right now because I don't know how much the controversy has died down. A movie starring a real-life pedo about him having sexual fantasies about a 16-year-old girl? Come on. One has to question the taste of watching the film at this kind of time.



Yeah, I'm not here to debate who did what in the Brando butter thing, so while I could add some more info about the incident, I won't...My point was almost every movie will have an actor or director or writer (etc,etc) who's done some horrible things at one time or another. So my post is just food for thought.

Personally I like both Marlon Brando and Kevin Spacey as actors, but I can't stand to watch O.J. Simpson knowing he cut his girlfriends head off with a large serrated knife. Oh, I know he wasn't found guilty. Still I ain't watching him and I never call Orange Juice - O.J. ever since I watched the trial back in the day.