DVD Review: Kinsey

Bill Condon continues his portrayal of Great gay men of the Twentieth century with ‘Kinsey’. In his previous work, ‘Gods and Monsters’, he gave a visual and touching epitaph to the late great James Whale and ‘Kinsey’ is very much akin to this, with an emotional and a tour de force performance from Liam Neeson as the titular character, who never has showed such a depth of emotion and angst as here, in what is probably his careers best.

 

Condon’s movie follows Dr. Alfred Kinsey, from his youthful days dominated under his stoic and religious father (an almost scene stealing John Lithgow), to the controversial days of waking up a naive and morally ambiguous America through his work. Starting with a flashback, a black and white montage of Kinsey training his team of assistants, at the beginning of his sexual research days of the 1940’s we are introduced to frank and topical sexual debate that sadly might make a few viewers a little red around the ears. I say ‘sadly’ as the frankness of the movie is why it should be watched; it does not hide behind a curtain and looks at its subject matter seriously but yes I do acknowledge that this might not be for everyone’s comfortable viewing pleasure.

 

 

We jump around Kinsey’s life concentrating mostly on the last 30 of his years. From his youthful days as a scout studying nature, much to his fathers disliking, he starts talking to his peers about his sexual feelings. His family seem too distant to approach on this matter. John Lithgow, as Alfred Kinsey senior, is wonderful in this role. Spouting biblical monologues and ambushing local businesses with his puritanical morality, it’s through gritted teeth that we smile when we hear him referring to the zipper as mans way to moral oblivion.

 

Through this repressed upbringing Kinsey takes his love of nature to a profession and the study of gall wasps, charting their existence and changes from area to area, documenting in detail, trying to obtain some empirical existence of the species. It is through his college lectures that he meets one of his students, Clara McMillen (Laura Linney) who takes a shine to the impassioned professor. Prok, as all on campus knows him, is intrigued at the attention from Clara and they spend many hours tramping through the local woods. They eventually marry and on their honeymoon they disturbingly learn that they are woefully uneducated and inexperienced when it comes to getting physical; Kinsey’s scientific mannerisms kick in and this leads them to a physician’s door not long afterwards. <!--page-->

 

It is here that Kinsey’s life changes, noticing that he is in some ways not very different from the majority, that the fact that people are not told what sex is all about and they think they are doing things wrong and being unnatural. It seems that human beings are all individuals after all, just like his gall wasp specimens. The song being sang at the time was that masturbation leads to insanity and that oral sex could lead to complications in giving birth, and yeah and I am sure that hitting your penis with a very large book or hammer would do the trick as well but abstinence is not the answer to all of the sexual questions and morality codes. Kinsey knew that ignorance was not the right answer and this led him to what would be the start of an explosion that would shake up the attitudes of a Nation.

 

 

He gets the go ahead to put a marriage class together at the university, but there is public outcry of a breach of morality and pornography, it is a far cry from the scare tactics of the Hygiene films that were more commonly shown, focusing on the devastating effects of syphilis and gonorrhoea in all their gory glory were almost enough to hinder any erection. The University however has more students than ever before and Kinsey’s class is a popular choice. This leads him to put a research team together, partially funded by the Rockefeller foundation, to get down to a scientific basis. The only way to talk about sex is to study it. He trains his assistants to interview with ease, as the more relaxed the interviewee the more information will be shared. This is not all that the team share, sleeping with each other’s wives and test subjects, in order to be filmed, and even Kinsey has an affair with one of his assistants, the bi-sexual Clyde Martin (Peter Sarsgaard). His book, ‘Introduction to Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male’, became a bestseller in 1948 much to everyone’s surprise and to some, despise. This, and the interviews with sex offenders and paedophiles brought condemnation from the public at large and finally the strain and stress of Kinsey’s obsession with his own work consumed him.

 

‘Kinsey’ has lots going for it, Carter Burwell’s restrained score is sheer brilliance, the lush and colourful photography by Frederick Elmes is poetic at least, the technically brilliant and fluid direction from Condon, but most of all, it is not just Neeson alone that excels in the acting stakes. Solid performances come in from the lead and supporting cast, Linney, as Kinsey’s student and later his ever-supporting wife, is wonderful and both Sarsgaard and Lithgow are amusing and solid in support. Even in a small cameo role near the end of the movie by Lynn Redgrave is heartbreakingly felt, and you remember her performance long after the credits role.

 

On the extras front this Region 2 edition is the same as the Region 1 single disc edition, with around twenty deleted scenes, most of which are just padding but 'Giving Up the Marriage Course' in particular begs the question of why it was cut out, and we also have an alternative ending. All are accompanied by an optional audio commentary from Condon. The movie itself has a very interesting and informative audio commentary from Condon and the transfer is sharp and the sound clear. There is also a gag reel, but seems perhaps a little out of place but then again why not. This time 'Inside Look' takes a peek at the up and coming Ridley Scott action movie 'Kingdom of Heaven'. This is very light compared to the Region 1 two disc edition, for more information on this check out the details in our database.

 

'Kinsey' is out to own now and available via AmazonUK in the UK and in the US via Amazon as a single or double disc release.