American Pie is not the movie I thought it was
There are many memories associated with the film American Pie (1999), especially if you were a young boy coming of age (ahem). It’s a cult classic that made us laugh riotously in select company, and which we disavowed piously in mixed company. So many phrases from the film entered our daily vocabulary, as did gestures and some mild form of perversion.
Recently, I guiltily re-watched the film. And I couldn’t believe this was the same one I had watch so many summers ago.
American Pie is one of the most sensitive and nuanced films on teenage sexuality I have ever seen. No, I mean it. Watch it again to see for yourself.
Those randy boys and their pact to lose their virginity were surprisingly good role models for boys and young men everywhere. Consider the following:
· The first thing they clarify is that sex has to be consensual.
· The boys don’t ignore the feelings involved in co-mingling an emotional relationship with a sexual one. In fact, the film very clearly states that caring about a partner’s feelings does not make any of them lesser men, not even the athlete.
· The girls also express their own sexual concerns and desires and are not just tools.
· They ultimately don’t force each other to do anything they don’t want to. In fact, they are very supportive of each other, and don’t shame each other for their vulnerabilities.
· They never make a move on a girl without their full consent (except the whole Nadia incident, on which more later). Those who don’t want personal details revealed to the others get to say so and their request is respectfully kept.
· The father-son relationship is extremely healthy, though there are some major cringe-worthy moments.
· Simple horniness is not shown to be a matter of great alarm or shame, but neither is it shown to be an excuse for criminal behaviour.
· One of the boys even learns a technique called Tongue Tornado (I leave the details to your imagination) to give his girlfriend pleasures that have hitherto been reserved for him.
· When they final have their big night, it is a mix of gentleness, small disappointments, big surprises — the whole gamut. Nothing is too straightforward. It is all a revelation.
Coming to the Nadia problem — the foreign exchange student is, unconscionably, treated very badly by the friends. Filming her without consent and then (accidentally) sharing it with the whole school, is bad to the point of actually being criminal. The fact that she takes everything so sportingly is utterly inconceivable and a terrible way to avoid the real injuries she would have experienced. The only concession to this is made by the fact that it is one of the boys who faces the walk-of-shame after this episode (though it is she who is made to return to her home country). This amounts to almost nothing given the stakes, but it also ought not to be entirely ignored.
Naturally, I cannot say this is some unimpeachable manual for correct or sex-positive behaviour, but this certainly is much, much more than just a comedy romp. A lot of positive behaviour can be found without trying too hard.
Of course, the movie’s the same as it always was. But I, the viewer, have changed.
