Erotic 'Playback' challenges censorship policy
By Laksmi Pamuntjak-Djohan
JAKARTA (JP): That Playback can be shown in cinemas here begs at least two fundamental questions. Firstly, what has become of our censorship policy? Playback is, put quite simply, a product of the Playboy Entertainment Group, and is unequivocally classified as erotica, rated R for strong sexuality and language.
Stripped of most of its graphic lovemaking scenes, this film is, of course, better off not being shown at all. The plot is typically thin, the acting wooden, the dialogue stale, the morals shady. Every scene that doesn't have two naked people (or more) writhing and groaning in ecstasy seems forced and unnatural, and it usually isn't the reason for paying the price of a ticket.
Pornography, after all, is an accepted phenomenon, albeit not of the kind that one wears and shows to the public. It inspires whole industries, has its own criteria of quality and sensibilities, and is a genre in itself. It happily re-cycles its most talented actors and unabashedly borrows plot ideas from a variety of mainstream screen hits. For moral weight, it invariably feeds off Cosmo philosophy: hell hath no fury than a woman scorned; men are lechers and they deserve chastisement; infidelity is punishable even by death. In effect, corporate skirmishing, domestic abuse, and lunatic baby-sitters are mere sub-plots. Lurking beneath is the raging feminist exacting revenge at all costs.
Which is what renders Playback's riding above our censorship board's moral high ground a trifle odd, particularly at the time when our own artists have come under fire for their alleged overt sexuality. But it isn't as if double standard is a novel issue.
Furthermore, Playback is a 1995 release. It has been sitting on LD rental shelves for practically a year, and doing quite well too with soft-porn aficionados. Two years ago, Jakarta's multiplex was similarly rocked by the sexy thriller Dead On, starring Shari Shattuck and Matt McCoy. With most of its highlights unceremoniously slashed, there was virtually nothing left to hold our interest. But what made its screening even more senseless was the fact that it had been on LD circulation for almost two years. It seems that while blockbusters jet their way here at the speed of light, porn films take a backseat and arrive on slow carriages. But they still arrive.
Playback opens with Sarah Burgess (Tawny Kitaen), waking up from a troubled night of unfulfilled sexual fantasies. She is a lovely vision, with her lush tawny locks and long legs. What's more - she's wronged, through and through. Her husband, corporate ladder-climber David (Charles Grant) is a good sort, but being the heir apparent to his boss, Gil Braman (George Hamilton) he just doesn't have time for her. While he battles it out on the hand phone, in the board room, and in the not-so-private seclusion of his office, she is the very picture of innocence and wasted sensuality.
"My problem is what he does with me whenever we're together, " she laments to a friend. "What's that?" asks her friend. "Nothing!" she finishes.
Trying to spark their love life, David comes home with a sexy video and settles for a long night of seduction. A thrilled Sarah reciprocates with a video tape of herself seducing David in a sexual fantasy come-to-life. Their sex life picks up, and she finds herself becoming more involved in David's office affairs, while unknowingly rousing Gil's desire.
All these variables, once known to Karen Stone (Shannon Whirry), David's ambitious colleague, are manipulated to catapult herself to the top. As expected, the ensuing commotion is Disclosure meets The Temp - and yes, she gets a dose of her medicine, too. The difference is that Karen is deadlier than Demi Moore's and Lara Flynn Boyle's characters combined. She is also direct. After all, what do you expect of a thigh-baring vamp who declares to a bunch of men in suits, "I'm the Ivy Leaguer here. Yale. Summa Cum Laude."? Only God knows what she's capable of when she feels slighted.
In fact, the entire film is as direct. You just know what's coming, be it an activity of self - or shared- pleasure. Every line is terse, not given to wit, subtlety, or any form of stylistic indulgences. Often, points are neatly enumerated and summarized, lest we miss them.
The woman's version: Sarah's friend advises her on deciding whether a man is having an affair: a) spends more overtime at work, b) wants to have sex with his wife more often, c) hangs out more with his buddies, d) comes home "smelling of soap". When Sarah concedes to one, her friend yelps, "He's flunked the infidelity test!"
The man's version: David's friend asks him, "When was the last time you did it with your wife?" When he is met with silence, he exclaims, "That's it, you didn't remember. If I ask your wife, I bet she'll remember. Give her roses? What are you? A f------ florist? Surprise her. If it surprises you, it sure as hell is going to surprise your wife." You kinda wonder whether he is not missing the point altogether.
It seems that the women are having more fun finding answers. While poor David stumbles and fumbles in a sex video store, looking decidedly out of place, Sarah leaves through a female magazine and reads aloud with perfect gusto: "Do you have problems reaching orgasm? Yessssss!" Now you understand why female magazines make so much out of sex trivia.
Don't expect much acting either. This is TV soap-dom. Although George Hamilton gets top billing, he's just sideshow with too much eye make-up. Granted, he's been around since the 60s, but rarely does his acting credits extend beyond TV sex-saga mini-series like Danielle Steel's Vanished (1995), Alex Haley's Roots (1977) and Harold Robbins' The Survivors, or soapies The Bold and The Beautiful (1987) and Dynasty (1981). When he does venture into quality movies such as The Godfather: Part III (as the Don's consigliere B. J. Barrison), he becomes an embarrassment.
When not in TV series such as Hercules (1994) and Santa Barbara (1984), Tawny Kitaen finds herself in movies with titles as ridiculous as Perils of Gwendoline in the Land of the Yik Yak (1984), or does voice-overs for Eek! The Cat (1992).
Shannon Whirry, a favorite with Axis Film's soft-porn director Alexander Gregory Hippolyte, has bared her all numerous times for films such as Animal Instincts and Mirror Images. She's good at it, but that's the only thing she's good at.