Sex scenes, as we know them today, were very different (a.k.a. non-existent) only a few short decades ago. Us Weekly teamed up with Hershey’s Kisses and America’s top movie houses to identify the Top 10 All-Time Best Kisses in Film.
1. Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh in “Gone With the Wind”
2. Omar Sharif and Julie Christie in “Doctor Zhivago”
3. Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman at the end of “Casablanca”
4. Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn in “Sabrina”
5. Rock Hudson and Doris Day in “Pillow Talk”
6. Molly Ringwald and Michael Schoeffling in “Sixteen Candles”
7. Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift in “A Place in the Sun”
8. Molly Ringwald and Judd Nelson' in “The Breakfast Club”
9. Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds in “Singin’ in the Rain”
10. Winona Ryder and Ethan Hawke in “Reality Bites”
This list was unveiled atop the Empire State Building; the scene of many of the most memorable, romantic movies kisses ever. Most of these scenes were the most touching, passion, sexually charged scenes in film history, and if you notice, most of these kisses are in old-school movies from years past.
So why is it, that with all the movies out nowadays, all the best sexually passionate moments were set way-back-when. Today, a sexual moment in a film usually consists of, well, a sex scene.
Don’t lie. You all know the difference between a good sex scene, a hilariously funny-because-it-could-happen sex scene, and an incredibly uncomfortable sex scene that always seem to come on when you’re with a family member or on a first date. The purpose of the typical sex scene in movies today seems to be simply because if it doesn’t have one, the movie is seriously lacking and basically boring, yet, if it has too many, its trying too hard to be artistically dramatic and gets labeled a slutty soft-core porn.
It’s interesting to think about how sexual ideas in older blockbusters (think black and white) were so incredibly taboo or socially unacceptable, and now we can’t even turn on a toothbrush commercial without a sexualized version of a woman and a phallic object in her mouth.
We now live in a society where the romantic kisses are scoffed at, and the idea of “long walks on the beach” are only said in reference to a cheesy personal ad. Sex scenes have evolved from the climactic romantic kiss of soul mates at the end of the movie, to the climactic…well, climax of the we-just-met-through-the-internet College couple’s “first” time (with that particular person) or the adulterous husband’s fling with the copy girl. On top of that, (no pun intended-thanks Matt) actors/actresses are paid a ridiculously large sum of money depending on how naked they get on-screen (think Halle Berry in Swordfish).
This evolution of the way sex is portrayed from “then” to “now” has been so drastic, I’m almost afraid to think what my children will one day be watching on the “family” channel.
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