Why I Walked Out of ‘Year One’ Crying
by Victoria JacksonI had a date with Judd Apatow. It was around 1991 and I was between husbands: the out-of-work-Jewish-Gypsy-fire-eater-musician, and the high-school-sweetheart-Baptist-helicopter-police-pilot. I needed a date to a premiere. I knew the rules of engagement for a Hollywood career, and I tried to follow them. It’s difficult to do this when you carry the burden of ethics around with you, but I tried to do it and stay within the bounds of morality.
1) Go to the right places. I went to the Playboy Mansion to find an agent, and I did. I was 21 and a Baptist virgin, and I found Betty from the William Morris commercial department there. Check.
2) Wear something provocative to a Hollywood premiere so you can get free publicity. I did that. When I was an SNL castmember trying to increase my movie roles, I attended some Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan premiere (go figure – it was a flop!) in a see-through black shirt with a flowered bra underneath. I felt ashamed, but I did get my picture in a few magazines. All press is good press, and press leads to opportunity.
3) Date famous men or up-and-coming smart Jewish comedy writers. I went on a date with Arthur Godfrey right before he died, and ten years later, when I was 30, I asked Judd Apatow to escort me to some Century City event. I was pretty much invisible to him the whole night, but we did get our picture in People Magazine.
That is about it in my list of cliché things I have done to help my career move along.
Well, today I walked out of a Judd Apatow movie crying. It was the scene where the obese homosexual is fortune-telling by looking at the bowels of a sheep that has been sodomized by a person. The movie was “Year One.” I tried to be open-minded as I watched the first 20 minutes of masturbation, fornication, circumcision jokes, continual penis references, bestiality, violence, and Biblical blasphemy. I told myself this was a PG-13 movie and the writers were “lost” so they didn’t know how vulgar they were being. I looked at the ten-year-old and his father sitting next to me. I must be old-fashioned or something. But, then I noticed no one was laughing. No one was walking out either. I was hoping that the crude jokes were flying over the heads of the poor children who were sitting there wide-eyed and innocent. My daughter is 15 and she loves Jack Black and the guy from “Juno,” so I thought we could have a Mom/teenager date. I asked myself, “Vicki, is this movie making you feel good?” Myself replied, “This movie is making me angry, very sad, hopeless, and dirty-feeling.” As the onscreen obese gay man poked at the bloody intestines and told the fifth anal sex joke, I looked at my daughter, and we got up and walked out. I started crying in the parking lot as we walked to our car. I am not from this world. I am an alien. No wonder me and Apatow never hit it off.
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[...] the original here: Why I Walked Out of ‘Year One’ Crying This entry is filed under America – Blogs, Big Hollywood. You can follow any responses to this [...]
[...] 2009 June 20 tags: bad cinema, Jack Black, movie review by vivianlouise Over on Big Hollywood, Victoria Jackson wrote a review of Jack Black’s new movie, Year One. I’m glad she reviewed it, I’m thrilled she [...]
[...] And another thing: I was looking at the TV listings for Sunday night and one “show” was called “Obese and Pregnant”. Who on God’s green Earth would watch this crépe? Probably the same people who enjoyed this movie. [...]
Uhm, Victoria – Judd Apatow had nothing to do with this movie:
Writing credits
(WGA)
Harold Ramis (screenplay) &
Gene Stupnitsky (screenplay) &
Lee Eisenberg (screenplay)
Harold Ramis (story)
From IMDB.com: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1045778/fullcredits#w...
Victoria Jacksonwas a big ditzy clown on SNL. Who knew she was even worse in real life? Hopefully she too will feel the wrath of the GOP like Sarah Palin has.
I saw the movie as well, and I agree that it was terrible. I was surprised, as I am usually a fan of Ramis' movies (even the weaker ones, like My Super Ex-Girlfriend or Evolution, which have a certain charm to carry them through clunky movie cliches). That said, I am very confused by this movie review. First, the only way that I can interpret your comment that the creators are "lost" is that they are Jewish an therefore misguided and immoral. Second, it sounds as though you prostituted yourself for the sake of fame, then claim this is your badge of authority. As a moral and ethical person myself, I believe it is important not to compromise my principles in pursuit of my ambitions. I must also ask which would be the more immoral course–to act improperly under misguided principles, or to do so knowing I was debasing myself and my values? I believe it is the latter. I should also add that my only memories of Ms. Jackson were as an SNL member whose primary character was a blond bimbo, dressed in scantily clad outfits, and engaging in various sexual calisthenics for laughs. People in glass houses, as the saying goes…
Victoria,
I liked you on Saturday Night Live and I like you even more now. It is fantastic that you, a celebrity, is willing to listen to the Holy Ghost and look at your feelings and walk out of a movie because you have moral integrity and a conscience. I am very impressed. I have had to do this in several movies and what I find is that when I do people follow and have even said thank you to me because they didn't want to look bad but because of my example they felt the courage to do it too. Way to go. I applaud you and am happy to know that you stand for your values.
P.S. A great website to use to prevent this is http://www.screenit.com. My wife and use it before every movie.
Thanks so much, Victoria. I felt the same way while sitting through "Whatever Works". While we weren't visually subjected to the bloody bowels of a sheep, we did hear about a "guy back home doing it" with one of our woolly friends ("back home", of course, referring to the bigoted, Jesus-loving, Bible-thumpin', one-tooth grinnin' south) . And I can completely understand why you cried. My husband asked me why I was that disturbed after the movie (I wasn't crying, but I was passionate), and I told him it made me sad to think that so many people were going to see it and think the message was right on the money. I was grieving, in a way.
Dana, while I don't want to be so presumptuous as to "speak" for Victoria, I will say that I don't believe she was equating "lost" with "Jewish". I really don't. The fact that the writers may or may not have been Jewish is inconsequential. She was basically trying to "excuse" the material because whoever was responsible for presenting it apparently felt no sense of accountability before God (I felt the same way during "Whatever Works"). I also believe that she prefaced the meat of the article by filling us in on her past to let us know she was not coming from a place of moral perfection.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0031976/
Victoria, As a mother to a daughter who has begun to feel the conviction of the Spirit, and as a woman who is also not of this world but in it, and as a former actress who left University due to the requirements of me that went against my conscience, THANK YOU. Thank you for warning us of the grotesque nature of this film. My children love Jack Black. He was Po, in Kung Fu Panda, and on Yo Gabba Gabba recently, so they have been exposed to him in ways better suited for children. My husband and I think that he, like many of your former cast members, is quite funny. However, we must see the comedy for what it truly is and compare that message to Scripture.
Love you, Victoria. Sorry you and A. had to see that. So glad to know I'm not the only soft-hearted prude out there. We'll stand by you!!
ARTHUR GODFREY???????????
You forgot to mention that nude scene you did in "Casual Sex' with Lea Thompson and Andrew Dice Clay.
I am by no means trying to insinuate you are a lying hypocrite, so please don't make that assumption.
I am just pointing out that you neglect to mention that you did a nude scene in a film called "Casual Sex". In the nude.
I just stumbled onto this website today (9/21/2009). Man! I totally agree with Victoria's assessment. There was a crop of guys with real talent in this movie, but it was a terrible, degrading piece of filth. Sorry that it ruined Victoria and her daughter's evening as well.
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