I have to agree, I think the USA specifically has major hang ups on nudity, but putting it in film is incredibly irresponsible at best, but could be considered exploitation in truth. As far as Hound Dog, I find the film interesting because the main focus is on the sexuality of 11 year old kids, not just coming of age, but more sinister I think. The scene itself is sickening. Some writer director thought, this will he good entertainment. That is deeply disturbing. And her acting is superb, but lacks an innocence that should be present for an 11 year old girl. The face she makes, and the inhaled breath show knowledge of something she should be only beginning to learn about. It could be derived from good directing, but that brings me again to the disturbing attitude of the director. How would a conversation like that look between an unrelated grown adult and a child.dunbarbarian0 wrote: Sat Aug 01, 2026 6:28 pmContent Warning: I'm going to talk in detail about terrible things that happen to children in the aforementioned film Hounddog and a film called Doctor Sleep. I'm doing so to make a point, but the events I describe (one has already been mentioned in the post I'm replying to) are very upsetting and could ruin a decent person's entire day just by reading about them, so... exercise caution.ChuckFin84 wrote: Sat Aug 01, 2026 1:50 pm The movie Hound Dog with Dakota Fanning is one that might be a lot less scandalous in some ways. To me however; and I believe as an American film, it pushes the boundaries of what is considered acceptable. Throughout the film she apears in to small revealing clothes and has many intentional panty slips. She wears one dress that belongs to a much smaller girl and her panties can clearly be seen when filmed from behind. She is filmed taking that dress off and therefore is shown in only panties and a tank top. There is a bath scene at 12:43 that apears to be fully naked although i dont think anything is really shown. She must feel quite exposed in front of everyone like that.
A theme throughout is her relationship with a boy her age. Both were 11 when the film was made. In the first 3 minutes of the film she convinces him to take off his shorts to show her his willy in exchange for a kiss. He pulls down his shorts and is seen in his underwear. She says "no stupid, you have to take it all off." He pulls down his briefs off camera. At 10:48 there is a swimming scene with her and him where she is in panties and a tank top. Close ups of her wet panties are included. They leave the lake and find an abandoned car and begin playing in it, she is still in panties and a tank. 27:11 begins another similar swimming scene, less revealing, but very interesting. When they leave the lake she puts on an adult sized dress that is vey open at the front. They go to a small general store full of boys and men and she shops at the store with her panties on display.
Throughout the film she steals things and pulls up her dress to put items in her underwear.
Lastly is a scene that starts very interesting and becomes very difficult to watch. A recurring theme is her desire to see Elvis live. A man tells the boy that he will give her tickets. When she shows up to collect the tickets, the boy and the man with the tickets are there. The boy tells her she has to sing hound dog by Elvis to get the tickets. She begins to sing, the boy then whispers in her ear. She cries out "what, why!" She then starts unbuttoning her dress and removes it. We again see her in panties and a tank. She begins singing again. The boy then says "no stupid, you have to take it all off." She protests, but removes all her clothes and starts singing. Obviously we can't see anything, but she acts the part of embarrassed yet determined very well. If the scene ended there I would be ok, but the man proceeds to have his way with her. It is very disturbing as she is crying out and her face is very expressive throughout the scene. The boy is shown quite distraught that he put her in this situation. The scene starts at 52:30.
I find it unusual to have such a charged movie version focused on the sexuality of young children. I also wonder how Dakota felt knowing she was in her panties in front of the boy and so many men, as well as knowing that anyone could watch the movie and see her. She would no longer be able to see any boy or man and be sure he hadn't seen her in underwear. She knew that many of the boys she came across had seen her and that she didn't have many secrets from them anymore.
https://ok.ru/video/1599089805951
Very deeply disturbing film, and while it was extremely controversial it showcases the unspeakable stupidity of how my culture sees nudity and violence.
You are right that the film shows the girl in her underwear quite often, but is very careful not to show Dakota Fanning's naked body. If it had, the film would not have been made. However, it is perfectly fine depicting the girl being raped, showing her horrified face close up as she begs him to stop, and even her inhaling and eyes widening which is I'm pretty sure the moment the rapist actually thrusts into her. One of the worst things I have ever seen in my life, and it doesn't help that she is such an incredible actress.
If the girl had been filmed swimming naked, it would have generated more controversy. In fact, there is no way the film would have passed the censors. The girl is raped, but at least you don't see her genitals... not even her completely flat chest. Give me a f**king break, and to be clear I am NOT saying one is necessarily ok and the other isn't. I've posted before that I think specifically the parents who consent to their children being filmed naked are at worst knowingly selling out their child who depends on them, or at best are very, very, extremely, unspeakably naive. You might think I'm a hypocrite because I simultaneously have contended that there is nothing wrong with general nudity in and of itself whatsoever, particularly that of a child, but the society we live in contains a lot of very creepy people and by consenting to your child to be filmed like this you are consenting to ANYONE on the planet to be able to see their naked body, and unfortunately it is a reality that many, many people who can easily access these scenes FOR FREE will gratify themselves by watching them. It is just a statement of fact, and I really am curious if the parents of these kid actors really thought about that. It is absolutely the case that many of said parents and children from earlier films could not have known what was coming with the advent of the internet. But I digress.
The Hounddog scene reminds me of the film Doctor Sleep from 2019 in which a boy is graphically tortured to death. Again, an extremely good actor whose character is deliberately tortured slowly and with intent to inflict the maximum amount of pain that he can possibly feel before he finally dies. He begs them for mercy as they fasten him down to the ground, and they directly tell him they are going to inflict fear and pain on him. They stab him for hours, deliberately calculating how they can make him feel ALL of the pain he can possibly feel before he dies, and they do. He screams and cries in unspeakable pain. The book details that he screams for so long that his vocal chords rupture and he can no longer scream. While Stephen King is one of my favorite authors, I will never forgive him for writing this, and I can never forgive one of the modern masters of horror Mike Flanagan for filming it as graphically as he did when he did not need to. Behind the scenes interviews revealed the boy Jacob Tremblay had a great time filming the scene, and there is a great picture of him smiling after filming it with the actress Rebecca Ferguson (who had a son his age at the time this was filmed) looking deeply upset, something she (and the other actors playing the other torturers) later confirmed. So at least the boy had a good time... but it makes me wonder if he had any idea the reality that he was portraying in this scene, and how he looks back on it retrospectively. Again, I digress.
A film that depicted the boy where, for whatever reason, you could see his penis, would never have made it past the censors... because the nakedness of a child is more objectionable than a child being tortured to death, dying in the maximum amount of fear and pain and being stabbed until he can no longer scream in pain. There is something DEEPLY twisted about a society where this is the case, where violence against children including being raped and being tortured to death is more acceptable to film than their naked bodies. I'll leave it there.
I find it interesting as well that her reputation was undamaged, but Brooke Shields' reputation was quite tarnished. Like you said, the nudity itself was more controversial than the violent sexual content. It could be argued that Pretty Baby was very sexual in nature as well, but had they handled it without nudity, it might have been treated much like Hound Dog. Both children were exposed to extremely adult content, and their innocence most certainly destroyed, but because one lacked the body parts, it was ok.