Unplanned (2019)
Unplanned is a prophetic name, as I had no real intentions of seeing it. But after Twitter blocked them (since removed), movie labels wouldn't license songs, most TV stations refused their benign advertising, and it was unfairly given an R rating, I knew I had to see what was the Citizen Kane of our day. (Remember the studios/powerful tried to block Orsen Welles from telling the truth as well, even in allegory form). Here, take my money! Gosnell last year and Unlplanned this year are probably the most important movies of the year, not because I agree with everything in them (I'm pro-choice), or they're the best production (they aren't), but they tell powerful, mostly true stories that the rich, powerful and intolerant want to suppress. And if you hate bullies, you want to see the little guy succeed, even if you're not 100% in agreement with their message. That and it's a pretty good story, and I want to see the best arguments the other side can make to challenge myself/my beliefs -- so whichever side you're on, you should see it to be informed. But of course, that view is not for everyone.
Spoilers required to talk about the movie. But I think most pretty much knew the plot by the teasers, or the title.
Unplanned is a true story, based on the memoir of the same name by Abby Johnson, a Director of Planned Parenthood, who was named Employee of the Year. Then she had to help with an ultrasound-guided abortion at thirteen weeks gestation. After Johnson witnessed the fetus struggling for its life as it is dismembered by an abortionist's cannula, she resigns, becoming an anti-abortion activist, and founds a ministry to assist former Planned Parenthood employees turned anti-abortion after their own experiences.
Christian films normally have a quality slightly above Lifetime movies.
Hypocrisy
- MPAA Rated-R - While the movie has a couple of mildly graphic scenes like blood dripping down a girl's legs, it's nowhere near the blood or gore of many video games or PG-13 war movies. Think about the irony that a 14 year old girl can get an abortion without her parents consent -- but she can't see a movie because it depicts one through the fuzzy lens of an ultrasound? You can show graphic sex, violence, degradation, murder and mayhem and get a PG-13 rating, but if you show a truth that the left doesn't like, they'll try to narrow your audience with an artificial-R? That's pretty fucked up. If course I don't mind it, as most kids should probably see this with their parents -- but hypocrisy irks me.
- The same with Record labels that would support songs/artists like Cop-Killer, or that sing about rape and the denigration of Women... but they wouldn't license Cyndi Lauper, "Girls Just Want to Have Fun", or Oingo Boingo's "Dead Man's Party"? Again, that kind of bullshit hypocrisy does trigger my ass. Makes me feel better about any bootleg copies of music I got/made as a teen!
- And as usual, the Reviews are biased. They scored it 53%, while audiences are scoring it at 93% on Rotten Tomatoes. Either that means the Reviewers are out of touch, or they're polemics -- either says more about the Reviewers than the audience, if you ask me. Of course the audiences are self-selecting this movie based on their open/close mindedness on the topic -- but the Reviews are demonstrating which side of that spectrum they're on, and it isn't the open minded side. Obviously.
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