Cinema: In Defense of Dirty Movies

Sex and violence. They are yoked in the politician's sermon like Sodom and Gomorrah or Bonnie and Clyde. Their effect on the young is pernicious, folks: film violence will put a gun in a kid's hand; film sex will grow hair on his palm. But this argument didn't come from anyone who actually goes to movies. Sure, there's film violence, so much that it's numbing. But where's the sex?

Most R-rated films get that tag for lurid violence and language. If there's a bosom on display, it's usually either as a gag (the prosthetic dugs in There's Something About Mary) or...