KINSEY

US, 2004, 120 minutes, Colour.
Liam Neeson, Laura Linney, Peter Sarsgaard, Chris O’ Donnell, Timothy Hutton, John Lithgow, Tim Currie, Oliver Platt, Veronica Cartwright, Dylan Baker, Lynn Redgrave.
Directed by Bill Condon.

Kinsey is a well-written, intelligent biopic of the renowned sexologist. Clearly its subject matter is a minefield: the sexual behaviour of American men and women in the 20th century. Kinsey published his book on men in 1948 and his book on women in the early 50s. He was dead by 1956. He belongs to an era when the subject matter was not spoken about publicly in the United States, where research was limited and research and interviewing techniques still in development. It was also the era of the Depression, World War II, the Cold War and hearings into Un- American activities. Looking at Kinsey at the beginning of the 21st century, listening to its quite frank screenplay, looking at some of its images, this is a film that Kinsey might have only imagined and never believed would be made.

Bill Condon wrote and directed the biography of director, James Whale, Gods and Monsters. He also wrote the screenplay for the film version of Chicago. His writing skills are in evidence in the way that he has structured this biography, how he has evoked Kinsey's very strict household, Kinsey’s early career studying insects and producing research on thousands of specimens, his move from insects to studying the variety in human beings to the limited courses on sexuality in Indiana universities in the 1930s, to his move towards his famous research.

Kinsey has been blamed for everything that followed in the decades after his death from the pill to gay marriages and all kinds of permissiveness. In retrospect, it is clear that psychologists from Freud, to sexologists from Havelock Ellis, were moving the study of human sexuality to centre focus. Kinsey was articulating this, uncovering taboos and enabling doctors, philosophers, moralists to probe more deeply into normal and aberrant behaviour.

Kinsey himself was a strong man who was not above being caught up in the dangers that his investigations could lead to, permissiveness in relationships, his own and those of his interviewers, to same sex encounters. He was open to attacks concerning his own moral stances - many of which were resurrected by American groups and boycott movements on the release of this film.

With a respected actor like Liam Neeson playing Kinsey, there is a gravity in the treatment and in the character study. Laura Linney leads a wide-ranging supporting cast as his wife, John Lithgow as his father and Peter Sarsgaard as his chief researcher and confidant.

We all probably take a prurient curiosity into watching this film. That is natural. What the film offers in the space of two hours is an opportunity to understand Kinsey better in his context and to evaluate what has happened in sex research, writing and discussion in the ensuing fifty years.

1.Kinsey’s reputation, studies, influence? Audience interest in sexology in the 20th century? Relevance for the 21st century?

2.Differing moral attitude towards Kinsey and his work? The subject, the treatment, methodology, consequences for society? Awareness of sexuality? Every person being different? Insight, permissiveness?

3.Kinsey as a strict scientist, gathering data, statistics, measurements, quantity and quality? Issues of reliability? The veracity of those interviewed?

4.The re-creation of the period, the early 20th century and its look, homes, small towns, shops, the developing century and universities, lifestyles? Costumes and décor? From 1900 to the television age? The exterior shots? The woods, the animals? The credits at the end and Kinsey’s own animal sequences?

5.The structure: Clyde and his interviewing Kinsey, Pomeroy and Gephardt and their questions? Clyde and his particular perspective? Kinsey and his answering all the questions on the questionnaire, his giving advice to his proteges about how to ask the questions?

6.The black and white scenes of the questioning and the advice? The three proteges, their research, the questionnaire techniques, ease, the issue of multiple questions, not judging (and Pomeroy later walking out of the interview with the older man and his sexual prowess?

7.The early biography of Kinsey, the facts about his background, childhood, illnesses, relationship with his mother, siblings, his father – and his reaction to mention of his father?

8.His going to the woods as a boy, observation, the animals, study and learning? His scouts’ experience, the discussions about sexuality, prayer and the young man praying with him in the woods? His father, the domestic humiliations?

9.The influence of his father, his reaction to him, his imitating him in later life, wanting his approval, a final reconciliation of sorts? His father’s character? The preaching scene, the denunciation of everything permissive and new? At the college, his despising his son’s career course? The shop and the cigarettes and Alfred defying him? His leaving home, his return with Mac and his wanting her to meet and understand his father, his father’s domination at the table, ridiculing his wife? His brother? The transition to the funeral, the father’s bitterness? His despising his son, Alfred confronting him in front of the visitors? His going to answer the questions, his explanation about his childhood and the strap, his son’s compassion for him?

10.The world of insects, Kinsey’s research, zoology? The months alone collecting samples? His study, the collection, his identifying and pinning them? His lecture and enthusiasm, the students, the women, Mac and her devotion? Meeting him on the picnic lawn? Their shared interests? The gift of the shoes, the kiss? Mac not sure about marrying him, another proposal, his studying and her agreeing to marry him? The first night, the sexual difficulties, the strain on each of them? The visit to the Kinsey family? The voice-over and the story about family, the arrival of the children, their growing up?

11.The 20th century and their sexual attitudes, virgins, the difficulty of the first night, consulting the doctor, the physiology difficulties and their cure, the bond between them, sexual experience, laughter?

12.Kinsey’s preoccupations, sexual problems, discussions, his concern, wanting better information? The decision to have the class, the discussion with the principal of the college, the professor and his teaching sexuality and hygiene, the opposition to Kinsey’s ideas? The president, the party concerning his book – and few people reading his tomes? The agreement for the lectures, the limitation of those able to attend, Clyde and his presence, Mac and her presence? The explicit language, frank language, the frank slides? Students and some embarrassment, the discussions about sexual stimulation etc?

13.His beginning his research, the people coming to him for counselling, the young couple and their being no research available? The meeting with Clyde in the rain, inviting him to be a researcher? The interviews with the other two? Mac and her support? The building up of the questionnaire, the range of interviews?

14.Chicago, going to the gay bar, accosting the clients, the mixed reactions? Their stories, the young man and his story? Rooming with Clyde, Clyde and his going to the shower, sitting on the bed, the discussion about where men stood, one to six, about homosexual leanings, Clyde’s approach, the effect on Kinsey, the kiss? His talking it over frankly with Mac? Her reaction, her language concerning feelings, love rather than statistics? The issues of feeling, hurt, truth? Kinsey and his focus on scientific evidence and people’s case histories rather than morality or expectations of society? Mac and her later friendship with Clyde, discussions, the sexual encounter?

15.The dangers for the personnel, Clyde and his marriage, Alice and Gephardt, the marriage break-up, adultery, the consequences? Kinsey’s disapproval and telling Gephardt to break off the affair? The danger of prurience, observation of sexual behaviour, filming? The proteges and their participation in the experiments – the older lady and her being filmed?

16.The interviews, the collage, the map of the US, the range of stories, the links, the data?

17.The Rockefeller Foundation, the president and the board, his persuading the board to approve Kinsey’s book? The representative of the Rockefeller Foundation, Kinsey’s full-on asking for money, explaining things, the meal, Mac trying to be diplomatic? The reaction of the representative, the enthusiasm for Kinsey’s work? The atmosphere around 1950, the anti-Communist investigations, J. Edgar Hoover and homosexuals in departments, the suspicion of Kinsey’s work, the Rockefeller Foundation severing links? Kinsey and Mac watching, the researchers watching?

18.The difficulties of money grants, the dinner with the Hartfords and the conversation, their unwillingness to be associated with sexology? The reactions of the press, interviews, the magazine stories, negative reactions, negative phone calls?

19.Kinsey as a person, relentless and thorough, even obsessed, getting the data, the questionnaires, workaholic – his lecture, people walking out, his collapse? His hardness on the staff? Reliance on Mac?

20.The final interviews, the man with the long data about his sexual activity, his prowess, the details, Pomeroy and his walking out? The elderly lady, the discussion of her lesbian leanings, her suicidal approach, Kinsey saving her life, her gratitude?

21.Mac, a good woman, supporting her husband, loving him, bringing up the children, patient when her husband was like his own father with his children? With Clyde? The finale – in the woods?

22.The moral perspective on Kinsey’s work, on the role of sexuality, in American discussions about sexuality, the Puritan tradition, permissiveness in fact? The reaction of government, churches? The case of the pornography being imported and the Customs case? The role of science, the separation of science from moral issues? The need for mutual interaction – Kinsey’s own behaviour, stricter attitudes, Mac’s contribution to the discussion?

23.The finale in the forest, the wonder at the trees, his rekindled enthusiasm and dedication? His achievement despite his limitations