The Love that really shouldn’t speak its name

Dear Readers–

Words literally fail me regarding the Daily Variety’s movie review of one Sundance documentary entry:

A horse is a horse, of course — unless it’s the one at the center of “Zoo,” a breathtakingly original nonfiction work by Seattle-based filmmaker Robinson Devor (whose “Police Beat” was among the highlights of Sundance’s 2005 dramatic competition). Based on the widely reported July 2005 incident in which a man died of a perforated colon after getting intimate with an Arabian stallion, pic will disappoint those seeking cheap, perverse thrills and likely baffle as many viewers as it intrigues. But enthusiastic reviews and sheer curiosity value should bring healthy specialized biz and strong festival interest to this ThinkFilm release.

[snip]

Given a premise that smacks of sensationalism, Devor and co-scenarist Charles Mudede have taken anything but an exploitative approach. They’ve crafted a subdued, mysterious and intensely beautiful film that presents bestiality not for the purpose of titillation (a la the 1970s porn films starring Bodil Joensen) or comic relief (as in last year’s “Clerks II”), but as a way of investigating the subjective nature of morality.

In “Zoo,” Devor and Mudede show considerably less interest in the events of that July night than in the circumstances that brought them about — specifically, the online world of zoophiles, of which Pinyan and others at the scene were members.

The men speak with remarkable candor and lack of embarrassment, explaining their animal affinity as a natural desire. … Despite the film’s compassionate approach, the question of whether these men were right or wrong is one on which the filmmakers reserve judgment, instead turning their attention to the larger question of how human beings have revised and re-evaluated codes of acceptable behavior over the ages. … The film’s dramatic re-enactments, shot in lush 16mm by cinematographer Sean Kirby (previously responsible for the equally impressive 35mm widescreen lensing of “Police Beat”) create a fascinating blurring of the line between narrative and documentary storytelling, reminiscent of the work of Werner Herzog and Errol Morris.~~quoted at Rod Dreher’s Crunchy Cons

Is Western society so corrupt and berefit of any moral compass that we produce nonjudgemental and “mysterious and intensely beautiful” movies about bestiality? The protaganists should be killing themselves out of shame, not giving unembarrased interviews “explaining their animal affinity as a natural desire.” What next - documentaries about necrophilia? It must be getting difficult for filmakers to find sufficiently disgusting subject matter to titilate the jaded, amoral sophisticates that make up the audiences for such filth.

However I wonder what the Biblical revisionists would say about bestiality as a “natural desire”. They’ll probably claim that the death was due to the inherent Zoophobia of Society. The biblical passages condemning bestiality (along with homosexuality) e.g. 

Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it [is] abomination. Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it [is] confusion. Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you: (Leviticus 18:22-24)

were obviously wrong. Moses just didn’t understand that Zoophiles are just poor misunderstood people. It’s not like this behaviour was the result of events in their upbringing and their personal history. No, they were born with this sexual orientation, just like being left-handed and they couldn’t be changed. And anyway the passages didn’t refer to loving committed animal-human relationships - they were just part of the obsolete Holiness code which distinguished the Hebrews from the surrounding tribes.

And if you believe any of those arguments, I’ve got a bridge to sell you. Call me an old-fashioned conservative Christian but any sex outside of marriage (between a man and a woman) is morally wrong and frankly loathsome and disgusting. The moral relativism that advocates an equality between normal sexual relations and aberrant homosexual relations is what has made movies such as this possible. Once the basis of Christian morality is removed – all that is left is an amoral do whatever feels good ethos and limitless human perversity.

Yours sincerely,
Mild Colonial Boy, Esq.