Born Innocent | |
---|---|
Genre | Drama |
Based on | Born Innocent by Creighton Brown Burnham |
Teleplay by | Gerald Di Pego |
Directed by | Donald Wrye |
Starring | Linda Blair Richard Jaeckel Kim Hunter |
Theme music composer | Fred Karlin |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Executive producers | Robert W. Christiansen Rick Rosenberg |
Producer | Bruce Cohn Curtis |
Production locations | Albuquerque, New Mexico Algodones, New Mexico |
Cinematography | David M. Walsh |
Editor | Maury Winetrobe |
Running time | 98 minutes |
Production company | Tomorrow Entertainment |
Original release | |
Network | NBC |
Release | September 10, 1974 |
Born Innocent is a 1974 American made-for-television drama film which was first aired under the NBC World Premiere Movie umbrella on September 10, 1974. [1] Highly publicized and controversial, Born Innocent was the highest-rated television movie to air in the United States in 1974. The movie deals with the physical, psychological and sexual abuse of a teenage girl, and included graphic content never before seen on American television.
Christine "Chris" Parker is a 14-year-old runaway who, after getting arrested many times, is sentenced to spend time in a girls' juvenile detention center. It is revealed that Chris comes from an abusive home. Her father beats her on a regular basis, which leads to her repeated flights from home. Her mother is unfeeling, sitting in her recliner, watching television and smoking cigarettes all day, and in complete denial as to what her husband is doing. Chris' older brother Tom is aware of the abuse, but he is unable to help Chris, as he is absorbed with the care of his own family.
Chris' social worker Emma Lasko never realizes that her dysfunctional parents are the cause of her troubles, and the juvenile justice system places the blame for her troubles on Chris herself. With the exception of one dedicated counselor named Barbara Clark (Joanna Miles), the reform school personnel are mostly apathetic and allow an unhealthy, destructive culture to fester. Despite Barbara's attempts to help Christine talk about her problems, Chris refuses to open up to her or anyone else about her abuse.
After Chris is attacked in the shower and sexually assaulted by her fellow inmates, as well as witnessing a pregnant resident whom Chris befriends suffer a miscarriage while in isolation, and the pervasive indifference of the staff, Chris – feeling abandoned by the system in addition to her family – becomes angry, cold and bitter. When an argument between Chris and Ms. Lasko turns physical, a riot ensues. Chris is investigated for causing the riot. She calmly maintains that she had nothing to do with it. In the final shot, Barbara looks on helplessly as she sees Chris, an innocent, intelligent, decent girl, transformed into a violent, pathological, manipulative, vengeful and cold person, devoid of guilt or remorse for her actions, who is destined to become a criminal adult when released upon reaching legal age.
The original cut of Born Innocent contained a scene where several girls, led by Moco (Nora Heflin) and Denny (Janit Baldwin), use a plunger handle to rape Chris in the communal showers.
Born Innocent is credited with being one of the catalysts for the National Association of Broadcasters creating a family viewing policy. University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee educator Elena Levine pointed out that the film was advertised in The New York Times alongside the television show Born Free , which she theorized may have encouraged viewers to believe the film to be family friendly. [2]
The film made several negative references to lesbianism. One version of the script implied that the character Moco's lesbianism was a result of her surroundings and prompted her abuse of Chris and others. [2]
The film was criticized by the National Organization for Women, the New York Rape Coalition, and numerous gay and lesbian rights organizations for its depiction of female-on-female sexual abuse; the Lesbian Feminist Liberation dismissed the film, stating: "Men rape, women don't," and regarded the film as "propaganda against lesbians." [2] The shower scene was eventually cut from the film due to multiple complaints. [3]
The film was blamed for the rape of a nine-year-old child at Baker Beach, San Francisco, by some of her peers using a glass soda bottle. Valeria Niemi, the victim's mother, sued NBC and asked for damages up to $11 million. Her lawsuit cited the facts that one of the perpetrators, Sharon Smith (the only one jailed for the attack, having been sentenced to three years in a federal prison), evoked the movie when she was arrested, and that William Thomas, 14, the boy who provided the bottle, asked if it would be "like it was done in the picture". Two other girls, 10 and 15, and the boy who served as lookout saw charges dropped. [4] [5] In 1981, the California Supreme Court ruled the film was not obscene, and that the NBC network was not liable for the actions of the persons who committed the crime. [6] [7]
Blair cited what she felt was one positive outcome of the film, saying that she thought it made it easier for rape survivors to come forward. [8]
In a response to the incident, re-airings in the late 1970s and 1980s did not air any of the rape sequence. The California rape influenced the establishment of the Family Viewing Hour which became briefly mandatory for the networks in the late 1970s, as the movie's first hour was aired from 8 to 9 PM Eastern Time, when some children may not have been in bed.
After the edited re-airings in the 1980s, the uncut version appeared on VHS in numerous budget-priced editions. In 2004, VCI Entertainment released Born Innocent on DVD with the rape scene included. More recently, a remastered version of the unedited version is available on the Shout Factory Channel via Amazon Prime.
Radical feminism is a perspective within feminism that calls for a radical re-ordering of society in which male supremacy is eliminated in all social and economic contexts, while recognizing that women's experiences are also affected by other social divisions such as in race, class, and sexual orientation. The ideology and movement emerged in the 1960s.
Elizabeth Ann Gilmour is an American child safety activist and commentator for ABC News. She gained national attention at age 14 when she was abducted from her home in Salt Lake City by Brian David Mitchell. Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee, held Smart captive for nine months until she was rescued by police officers on a street in Sandy, Utah.
Linda Denise Blair is an American actress and activist. Her portrayal of Regan MacNeil in the horror film The Exorcist (1973) established her in popular culture and as a scream queen, earning her a Golden Globe Award, as well as an Academy Award nomination. She reprised the role in two sequels: Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) and The Exorcist: Believer (2023).
Mariska Magdolna Hargitay is an American actress, producer, and philanthropist. Hargitay has played Olivia Benson on NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit since 1999, which is the longest-running character in the longest-running American primetime drama. Since 2013, she is among the highest-paid actresses on television. Her accolades include two Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award, and in 2013, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She is also known for her philanthropic work and activism.
Meredith Ann Baxter is an American actress and producer. She is known for her roles on the CBS sitcom Bridget Loves Bernie (1972–1973), ABC drama series Family (1976–1980) and the NBC sitcom Family Ties (1982–1989). A five-time Emmy Award nominee, one of her nominations was for playing the title role in the 1992 TV film A Woman Scorned: The Betty Broderick Story.
Barbara Lynn Herzstein, better known as Barbara Hershey, is an American actress. In a career spanning more than 50 years, she has played a variety of roles on television and in cinema in several genres, including westerns and comedies. She began acting at age 17 in 1965 but did not achieve widespread critical acclaim until the 1980s. By that time, the Chicago Tribune referred to her as "one of America's finest actresses".
Victim blaming occurs when the victim of a crime or any wrongful act is held entirely or partially at fault for the harm that befell them. There is historical and current prejudice against the victims of domestic violence and sex crimes, such as the greater tendency to blame victims of rape than victims of robbery if victims and perpetrators knew each other prior to the commission of the crime. The Gay Panic Defense has also been used to justify violence against LGBTQ people.
Monique Angela Hicks, known mononymously as Mo'Nique, is an American stand-up comedian and actress. She has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Golden Globe Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award, as well as nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Grammy Award.
Freeway II: Confessions of a Trickbaby is a 1999 black comedy crime thriller film and the sequel to Freeway (1996), written and directed by Matthew Bright. It stars Natasha Lyonne as Crystal "White Girl" Van Meter and María Celedonio as Angela "Cyclona" Garcia. While the first film was partly inspired by "Little Red Riding Hood", the second film is somewhat based on "Hansel and Gretel". It was an international co-production between the United States and Mexico.
The women in prison film is a subgenre of exploitation film that began in the early 20th century and continues to the present day.
The Family Viewing Hour was a policy established by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States in 1975. Under the policy, each television network in the U.S. bore a responsibility to air "family-friendly" programming during the first hour of the prime-time lineup. The policy was abandoned in 1977 following a 1976 ruling by a federal court that found it violative of the First Amendment. However, the concept has continued on a voluntary basis in various manifestations.
Angela Shelton is an American screenwriter, actress, and documentary film director and producer, best known for the film Tumbleweeds (1999) and the documentary Searching for Angela Shelton (2004), which she wrote, directed, and edited. She is the author of the 2008 book Finding Angela Shelton: The True Story of One Woman's Triumph over Sexual Abuse.
A Case of Rape is a 1974 American made-for-television drama film directed by Boris Sagal and starring Elizabeth Montgomery, Ronny Cox, and William Daniels. It premiered on NBC on February 20, 1974. The film tells the story of a wife and mother who is raped twice by the same man and her ordeals dealing with the actual rape and her subsequent dealing with the police and the trial.
Exposé is a 1976 British psychological horror thriller film that was referred to as a video nasty during the 1980s. It was directed by James Kenelm Clarke, partly financed by Paul Raymond and stars Udo Kier, Linda Hayden and 1970s sex symbol Fiona Richmond.
Linda Lovelace was an American pornographic actress who became famous for her performance in the 1972 hardcore film Deep Throat, which was an enormous success. She later alleged that her abusive husband, Chuck Traynor, had threatened and coerced her into participation. In her autobiography Ordeal, she described what took place behind the scenes. She later became a born-again Christian and a spokeswoman for the anti-pornography movement.
The rate of sexual violence in South Africa is among the highest recorded in the world. Police statistics of reported rapes as a per capita figure has been dropping in recent years, although the reasons for the drop has not been analysed and it is not known how many rapes go unreported. More women are attacked than men, and children have also been targeted, partly owing to a myth that having sex with a virgin will cure a man of HIV/AIDS. Rape victims are at high risk of contracting HIV/AIDS owing to the high prevalence of the disease in South Africa. "Corrective rape" is also perpetrated against LGBT men and women.
Michelle T. Clinton is an American poet.
Cristina Perincioli is a Swiss film director, writer, multimedia producer and webauthor. She moved to Berlin in 1968. Since 2003 she lives in Brandenburg.
Domestic violence within lesbian relationships is the pattern of violent and coercive behavior in a female same-sex relationship wherein a lesbian or other non-heterosexual woman seeks to control the thoughts, beliefs, or conduct of her female intimate partner. In the case of multiple forms of domestic partner abuse, it is also referred to as lesbian battering.
After a sexual assault or rape, victims are often subjected to scrutiny and, in some cases, mistreatment. Victims undergo medical examinations and are interviewed by police. If there is a criminal trial, victims suffer a loss of privacy, and their credibility may be challenged. Victims may also become the target of slut-shaming, abuse, social stigmatization, sexual slurs and cyberbullying. These factors, contributing to a rape culture, are among some of the reasons that may contribute up to 80% of all rapes going unreported in the U.S, according to a 2016 study done by the U.S. Department of Justice.