Kinsey (2004)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kinsey is a historical and biographical drama which premiered in 2004.

 

The topic is the life and career of the ground-breaking and controversial American scholar Alfred Kinsey.

 

Here is some basic information about this drama:

 

** Writer and director: Bill Condon (born 1955)

** Producer: Gail Mutrux (born 1945)

** Available on DVD and via Amazon Prime Video

** Run time: 118 minutes

 

The cast includes the following:

 

The first group

** Liam Neeson as Alfred Kinsey (1894-1956) – professor of biology, Indiana University

** Laura Linney as Clara McMillen (1898-1982) – Kinsey’s wife

** Peter Sarsgaard as Clyde Martin (1918-2014) – Kinsey’s assistant

 

The second group

** Chris O’Donnell as Wardell Pomeroy (1913-2001) – co-author of Kinsey’s reports

** Timothy Hutton as Paul Gebhard (1917-2015) – an anthropologist who worked with Kinsey 1946-1956

** John Lithgow as Alfred Seguine Kinsey – Kinsey’s father

 

The third group

** Will Denton as Alfred Kinsey – age 10 – ca. 1904

** Matthew Fahey as Alfred Kinsey – age 14 – ca. 1908

** Benjamin Walker as Alfred Kinsey – age 19 – ca. 1913

 

Alfred and Clara get married in 1921. They are married for more than 30 years, until his death in 1956. Together they have four children:

 

# 1. Donald, 1922-1927

# 2. Anne, 1924-2016

# 3. Joan, 1925-2009

# 4. Bruce, born 1928

 

Some scenes contain graphic images. Some scenes offer strong and direct language. If you are offended by this, you should not watch this movie.

 

This historical drama covers Kinsey’s life and career from the time when he is a young boy until the time when he is an old man. He is the main author of two scientific reports which became best-sellers:

 

** Sexuality in the Male – published 1948

** Sexuality in the Female – published 1953

 

What do reviewers say about this historical drama?

 

Here are the results of three review aggregators:

 

** 71 per cent = IMDb

** 79 per cent = Meta

** 75 per cent = Rotten Tomatoes (the audience)

** 90 per cent = Rotten Tomatoes (the critics)

 

On Amazon there are at the moment more than 900 ratings of this product, more than 200 with reviews.

 

The average rating is 4.4 stars which corresponds to a rating of 88 percent.

 

As you can see, the ratings are quite good. When you look at Rotten Tomatoes, you can see that there is a gap between the general audience and the professional critics. The critics like this drama more than the audience, but both groups are positive.

 

This is an interesting drama about a person who plays an important role in the modern history of the US. But it is not perfect. There are some flaws here and there.

 

I will mention three examples:

 

# 1. One part of the drama is not quite successful. This is the part where we see Kinsey and his staff as they travel all over the US in order to interview people from all walks of life and from all states.

 

The clips shown are meaningless, because the statements of the interviewees are only fragments; they are cut of in mid-sentence.

 

# 2. When Kinsey hands out a questionnaire to his students and when he interviews people, it seems there is (almost) no opposition. The students fill in the questionnaire and the people who are interviewed answer his questions.

 

This is not realistic. I want to see some opposition. I want to see some people who hesitate or simply refuse to answer his questions. Or maybe offer false answers. But in this drama, this never happens.

 

Regarding the questionnaire and the interviews: what about the answers that are given? Are they honest? Are they true? Neither Kinsey nor any member of his staff raises this fundamental issue:

 

** Is the information we are collecting reliable?

** Can we trust the answers people give us?

** Is our research based on unreliable information?

** Are we drawing the wrong conclusions?

 

# 3. When Kinsey begins his project, there is (almost) no protest from the local community or from the general public. This does not seem realistic.

 

As you can see, there are some flaws which cannot be ignored. I have to remove one star because of them. 

 

This historical and biographical drama deserves a rating of four stars (80 percent).

 

PS # 1. The long-running program American Experience has devoted an episode to Kinsey: season 17 episode 05, which was shown on US television (PBS) in February 2005. 

 

PS # 2. For more information, see the following books:

 

The Inner Circle

By T. C. Boyle

(2004 = hardcover)

(2005 = paperback)

 

This book is a work of fiction. It is a historical novel inspired by the life and career of Kinsey

 

Kinsey: A Biography

by Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy

(2005)

 

Kinsey: A Life

by James A. Jones

(2005)

 

Authors Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy and James A. Jones are both featured in the episode of American Experience.

 

PS # 3. The following items are available online:

 

Dina Spector, “Why Kinsey’s research remains even more controversial than the Masters of Sex,” Business Insider, 18 October 2018

 

David Spiegelhalter, “Is 10 per cent of the population really gay?” The Guardian, 5 April 2015

 

PS # 4. Judith A. Reisman – co-author of Kinsey, Sex and Fraud (1990) and other books - is a prominent critic of Kinsey. Another critic is Susan Brinkman.

 

PS # 5. Kinsey’s study of sexuality in the United States was followed up by William Masters and Virginia Johnson in the 1950s.

 

Their lives and careers are portrayed in the television series Masters of Sex, which ran on US television for four years (2013-2016).

 

*****

The controversial American scholar

Alfred Kinsey

(1894-1956)

Featured on the cover of 

Time Magazine in 1953

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Kinsey, Sex and Fraud:

The Indoctrination of a People

by Judith A. Reisman and Edward W. Eichel

(1990)

 

*****