What’s The Big Deal about the CAPTIVITY poster?
I was lucky (OK, maybe not THAT lucky) to get to see CAPTIVITY months ago when it was being shopped to buyers for distribution. The film looked like a good film on paper- starring Elisha Cuthbert (THE GIRL NEXT DOOR, HOUSE OF WAX), directed by Roland Joffe (THE MISSION, KILLING FIELDS) and written by Larry Cohen (PHONE BOOTH, CELLULAR) but ultimately the company I worked for passed without viewing it even though I reccomended that they pick it up. Maybe that’s why they are doing so well financially now? (insert sarcasm).
Anyhow, the film’s about a hot chick (Cuthbert) who is trapped by some sick fuck and surveilled the entire time. I will not give away any of the plot - but it’s a pretty smart set up and unravels quite well if you are into this kind of genre film (which I am not, but because it was well made, I didn’t suffer.) Of course the film is limited in its scope and entertainment value cause it’s a small film shot with a relatively small budget and I suppose as a viewer you can feel claustrophobic by the fact that the film itself doesn’t leave the one location for the entire time. But I guess that’s the appeal.
My psychic eye tells me that the film is a natural for the DVD market and I suppose that’s why AFTER DARK FILMS (a division or an affilitation of LIONSGATE) picked up the domestic rights to distribute the film. I took a look at AFTER DARK’s credits and it seems that most of the 13 films that they’ve distributed thus far were direct-to-DVD thrillers. THE ABANDONED and AMERICAN HAUNTING being exceptions and having been released theatrically. Nevertheless, apparently this company is cutting edge and defiant and was trying to do something interesting in the marketing of the film by posting large Outdoor ads of the film (see picture here - http://www.celebrityhack.com/captivity-movie-billboard/ ) that the MPAA found to be too gruesome and offensive. Well, as you might guess - our opinion is that the MPAA itself is a gruesome and offensive organization that pretty much polices and forces its morality down America’s throat in its monolopy of decency rating system.
Of course there were complaints to the MPAA (why would someone complain about being able to see a hot upper breast of Elisha Cuthbert?) The aftermath was messy too - The Distributor AFTER DARK was defiant and “metal” in that they removed the (offensive- to some) posters and replaced them with a poster that read “CAPITIVY WAS HERE.” I mean - why wouldn’t they? They paid for them - why not make some use of them. What was the MPAA’s response- you know it - they weren’t impressed and didn’t think it was funny and made all kinds of threats.
My take on it is that the producers of CAPTIVITY had it unfair. Sure they didn’t play by the rules, but who makes up the rules? And why would this never happen to Disney or to Paramount? And for that matter- what kind of a country do we live in when we can show pictures of Abu Ghraib on the nightly news but we can’t show cute pictures of a hot, young blonde actress being tortured? Beats me… All I know is that CAPTIVITY opens in May (if the distributor AFTER DARK remembers to kiss the MPAA’s ass in time)- here’s the website - http://captivitythemovie.com/
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