Free The Movie Dr. Kinsey Essay Sample
“Dr. Kinsey” is a bibliographical film which was released in the year 2004 and directed by Bill Condon who is also the writer. The movie describes the life history of Alfred Kinsey (in Liam Neemson) who is viewed as a pioneer in the study of human sexology. This was after the publication of the book Sexual Behavior in Human Male in 1948. The film opens with an interview of Alfred Kinsey which is intercepted by a series of flashbacks from his past life including childhood, young adult, and being a professor. He enrolls for a sexology class and embarkes on teaching the subject. However, he realizes there are many unexplained mysteries in the matters pertaining to human sexology. He embarks on a research mission to unravel the mystery and interviews hundreds of people and gather data that are analyzed with the help of various experts in the field. Episodes of difficulties in the research work and frustrations are depicted in the film. The movie ends with a success recap of one person who benefited from the research, and Kinsey was satisfied with his findings. The film portrays the community that lived then as ignorant and ready to believe concepts which they were not verifiable and the credibility could not be ascertained.
Kinsey (Liam) is a professor who studied the behavior of humanity but was clueless on human nature; a man who is unaware of his behavior and is only driven by his goal of unraveling the information on the human sexual behaviors. He disregards the feeling of others towards his enquiries on the issue (sexual behavior). This resulted in spoiling the relationship between him and his associates as well as with those who were funding him. His research goal also tarnished his image to the extent of feeling very frustrated, and he did not realize it till it was too late. But even with all this information, the community received well his publications despite his questionable characters.
The man ventured into the research firstly with wasps. He collected 1 million wasps and when his career took a turn into the humans, he seemed to regard them as the wasps. His methods and style of working seemed to detach him from the rest of the world. He seemed to focus on only one issue. His passion on the subject is also questionable as he seems to have arrived on the subject accidentally. But still, people went to him on advice pertaining to sexual behaviors. This is depicted in a scene where a newlywed couple who were both virgins went to seek advice from him.
In one of the scenes, Kinsey makes bold assertions in a class openly; this is in spite of the fact that in 1940s, talking about sex in public was a taboo. He is seen driven by his desire to deliver the message regardless of the people’s reactions and feelings. His disregard for the feelings of others and the social setups is also portrayed in a scene where he discloses that he does not believe in keeping secrets thus he tells his wife who is in tears all his secrets. In another scene he even asks his employees to have sex in the office and record the observations.
It is the human nature to tend to be curious on issues around us that are mysterious. In the past, people accepted philosophies without questioning them, and this has been practiced till the recent past when researches were accepted without verification. Unlike the past, today, hundreds of publications are available for comparison and verification. (Jack & Myerson pg. 15)