Posted by Lawrence Morgan on January 03, 1999 at 15:12
I found a copy of a film that was mentioned several weeks ago on this board. It's called _Dead Men Can't Dance_. Someone had said something about seeing it in German. (?) But I found it immediately at Blockbuster, and it's clearly an American film. The poster may have been watching a version dubbed in German, on a European cable station.
Anyway, it's a rather remarkable scene. Not the most graphic, and not exactly what some of us are looking for, but definitely noteworthy in that it contains some of the most explicit dialogue about accidents that I've ever heard in an American R-rated film. Not explicit in terms of sexual or profane words, but explicit in the sense that people openly talk about having an accident, which is something you just don't find in American movies.
I didn't watch the whole film. To be honest, the plot didn't interest me that much. The pee scene is perhaps 30 to 40 minutes into the film.
The movie is about a female captain in the US Army who is sent to ranger training, which is one of the most rigorous training programs in the Army.
One of the training exercises involves sitting in an airplane all day without getting up or even moving for any reason. I suppose it's intended to be an exercise in discipline, to hone the skills needed to "lay low" and avoid detection if you are trapped in enemy territory.
As the sun begins to set, the camera pans across the faces of the soldiers (male and female), and you can see sweating and signs of discomfort. The sergeant in charge of the soldiers, a black female, is permitted to walk around and do as she pleases, of course. Walking down the aisle of soldiers seated on both sides of the plane, she addresses them: "I know what you're all dying to ask... It's the question of solid waste that's causing most of you discomfort." After a brief pause, she adds: "You either hold it in... do it in your pants... or fail out of this program."
The camera then pans across the faces of three or four soldiers (male and female) with various expressions of relief on their faces (closing the eyes and relaxing, etc.)
Finally, you get a shot of one soldier's legs and knees, with pee running off the bench from under his or her ass, and pooling around the boots.
Incredibly, there is then a scene among the female soldiers in the shower, where one of them comments, "I haven't crapped in my pants since I was a baby." And another one says, "You could've held it in, Stinko!" And this degenerates into a confrontation that has to be broken up by the captain (our main character in the film).
There is no real nudity involved, and the pee scene was probably faked. But it was pretty realistic. The other problem is that since the camera shifts position, you really can't tell whose legs you're looking at, and you can't really associate it with a face.
But this is definitely a film worth renting from Blockbuster.
Lawrence
Email: lawrence_morgan@hotmail.com