Hollywood movies strongly criticized

Hollywood movies strongly criticized

An Australian medical team has strongly criticized the Hollywood film industry for overt display of unprotected sex, use of illicit drugs and uncontrolled consumption of tobacco alcohol saying that their portrayal is detrimental to the overall welfare of the society.

The report says that it is particularly causing harm to the children who are resorting to such practices after seeing them in the movies. Led by Dr. Hasantha Gunasekera, this group of researchers from the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney conducted a survey on 87 box office successes starting from 1983 and has come to the conclusion that almost all of these films portrayed indiscriminate and unsafe sex and depicted the use of banned drugs at various places.

The study also accused the industry of paying no heed to such social problems as undesired pregnancy, HIV transmission and other sexually transmitted diseases. The confirmed that of these 87 movies surveyed 28 included sex scenes and there were 53 such depictions in total but none of them barring one showed the use of condoms. When it comes to illegal drugs, the report highlighted that 8% of the films portrayed the direct consumption of marijuana.

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They have only given a clean chit to the 1990 Academy Award winning comedy Pretty Woman starring Julia Roberts in the lead role as a prostitute. Otherwise they have come down heavily on several films including blockbuster thrillers like Basic Instinct, American Pie 2 and Die Another Day. They were especially critical of the Bond movies, known for their sizzling girls and sleazy scenes, saying that these films over the years have showed maximum sex scenes without any protective measures thereby ignoring the increasing social concern about sexually transmitted diseases.

The study agreed that unprotected sex and consumption of banned drugs are such matters that it is impossible to successfully enforce a ban on them more than one can on tobacco and alcohol. But it also highlighted the sorry state of the film industry relating to trafficking of such issues and said that the directors, the producers, the actors, the actresses and all concerned should take more responsibility while exploring human behaviour in these areas.