Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22862 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-07-11
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 114 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
One of the best films of 2004, Kinsey pays tribute to the flawed but honorable man who revolutionized our understanding of human sexuality. As played by Liam Neeson in writer-director Bill Condon's excellent film biography, Indiana University researcher Alfred Kinsey was so consumed by statistical measurements of human sexual activity that he almost completely overlooked the substantial role of emotions and their effect on human behavior. This made him an ideal researcher and science celebrity who revealed that sexual behaviours previously considered deviant and even harmful (homosexuality, oral sex, etc.) are in fact common and essentially normal in the realm of human experience, but whose obsession with scientific method frequently placed him at odds with his understanding wife (superbly played by Laura Linney) and research assistants. In presenting Kinsey as a driven social misfit, Condon's film gives Neeson one of his finest roles while revealing the depth of Kinsey's own humanity, and the incalculable benefit his research had on our collective sexual enlightenment. With humor, charm, and intelligence, Kinsey shines a light where darkness once prevailed. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

Synopsis
Liam Neeson gives a bravura performance as the title character in KINSEY, which details the controversial and dramatic rise of sex researcher Alfred C. Kinsey. Raised in a sexually repressed household with a preacher father (John Lithgow) who believes the zipper is the devil's work, young Kinsey goes against his father's wishes and studies biology, eventually becoming a leading authority on the gall wasp. His skill at classification, organization, and research, combined with his own burgeoning sexuality following his marriage to Clara McMillen (Laura Linney), leads him to begin investigating the nature of human sexuality. Working at Indiana University, Kinsey finds that sex is something many Americans have been waiting a long time to talk about. Unfortunately, others consider his work to be disgusting and want it ended. Writer-director Bill Condon (GODS AND MONSTERS) alternates between short black-and-white scenes of Kinsey answering his own sex survey questions, with longer colour scenes that flash back to the important moments of his life. Kinsey's boyhood through his formative years, and his obsessions with the gall wasp and human sexual behaviour, are thoroughly documented. The publication of the seminal books SEXUAL BEHAVIOUR IN THE HUMAN MALE (1948) and SEXUAL BEHAVIOUR IN THE HUMAN FEMALE (1953) mark his primary achievements. Interestingly, it is the second book that causes the biggest panic, as a repressed society refuses to believe that women have the same needs and desires as men. Neeson and Linney make a wonderfully refreshing couple, freely sharing each other for all to see. Peter Sarsgaard, Chris O'Donnell, and Timothy Hutton lend fine supporting work as Kinsey's staff. KINSEY is an enlightening, engaging, yet frightening film, revealing how far the understanding of American sexuality has come--and how far it still has to go.

Customer Reviews

Enjoyable romp
Not being a huge fan of Liam Neeson, despite an electrifying performance in Gangs of New York, I didn't have high hopes for this film but it really turned out to be very good. Kinsey, a professor, specialising in a particular wasp turns his research to the controversial subject of sex and in particular what couples of any gender, do in the bedroom. His studies spill over into his personal life and the lives of his research fellows. Laura Linney plays his long suffering, but with moments of pleasure, wife. Both performances are believable and credible. The plot is engaging and keeps quite lighthearted in the face of such controversy. My only complaint is that just as we seem to get to the meat and bones of Kinsey's story the film ends. It really left me wondering "what happened next?" Usually in a good film that ending can be used to great psychological effect, but in a semi-biopic film it just seems odd and more than a little unsatisfying. Stilll enjoyable watching, and I may review my stand on Liam Neeson as an actor.

Neeson shines again
A brilliant scientific mind and/or a sexual deviant? However you feel about Kinsey, he opened up a subject that was at the time publicly unapproachable and educated people. One cannot ask more of a scholar.
Bringing to life a movie solely about a man who initially spent his career studying insects was always going to be a big ask but Liam Neeson once again struts his stuff and consumes his character as does Laura Linney. Peter Sarsgaard provides another excellent support role, and pulls off a rather courageous scene which one doesn't see very often.
An excellent biography.

What's With That Hair, Alfred?
Part of the Kinsey Report:
Wardell Pomeroy: How old were you when you first engaged in sexual activity with a partner?
Research Subject: 14.
Wardell Pomeroy: How?
Research Subject: With horse.
[pause] Wardell Pomeroy: How often were you having intercourse with animals at age 14?
[stunned] Research Subject: It's true. I f***ed a pony. You are genius, how did you know?
Wardell Pomeroy: You just said you had
[pause]
Wardell Pomeroy: sex with horse.
Research Subject: Nooo... Whores, not horse, *****.

Alfred Kinsey interviewed hundreds of thousands of people in his career to unveil his 1948's Sexual Behavior in the Human Male and its sequel, 1953's Sexual Behavior in the Human. He was THE authority on the subject of sex, and of course, he had quite an audience. Who doesn't want to know all about sex?

Alfred Kinsey as played brilliantly by Liam Neeson, started his professional life as a zoologist. He met a student, Clara, Laura Linney, and even though Alfred was a bumbling nerd, she married him. Alfred was the son of a tyrannical religious minister, and he could never live up to his father's hopes. Yes, Alfred had hang-ups of his own.. Along the way, in his career, he was asked to teach a class on sex, and he looked for research to bring to his class.. Of course, there was none. So, Alfred started surveying his classes and everyone he knew. This lead to his textbook, which led to censure and outcries from the religious right. Clara and his children accepted him, and his college Indiana University made him one of their own. He received research grants and went out of his way to garner monies for his research. All of us, who are sexually active, need to thank Alfred Kinsey and has wife Clara. Where would we be with out his work and study?

"Kinsey" was directed by Bill Condon and has received multiple awards and Academy Award Nominations. Liam Neeson, in his best performance, is remarkable as Alfred. And, where Alfred got that haircut is a mystery that needs to be solved. Laura Linney as Clara, has a wonderful affinity in her relationship with Alfred. They had that magic. This is a movie to be revered, it is sexually explicit and hurrah for that! Highly Recommended, prisrob 1-7-06