Nude Boob a Hot Topic, According to Plan

The new poster for 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' is a hot topic today. Most don't like it. They find it objectifying. Say it doesn't keep with Lisbeth Salander's character as she is a private person who would not pose nude, especially with a (clothed) man.

I don't see that. She doesn't seem objectified. She seems very much like it's exactly where she wants to be, exactly what she wants to be doing. She also seems like she's thinking of killing you, or maybe breaking Craig's arm. She looks powerful, in control, despite being nude, which is, I would imagine, a non-factor for her -- she'll kick your ass while wearing clothes or butt naked, makes no diff.

But, not so with a lot of fans. Makes a big diff to them and websites are buzzing with heated discussion, and I think the boys in Dragon Tattoo Marketing have scored...again. Possible objectification and deviation from character aside, Sony is getting more free press with this poster than they did with the faked 'bootleg' red band trailer that rolled out (or was stolen!!!) last week. Just as one brouhaha dies down the next starts up. Right on cue.

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(UPDATE 6/9 9:40 AM: Found a couple entries at moviepostershop that run down the Sony marketing ploy in detail).
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Fans keep talking about this poster, arguing, supporting their case while trying to undermine the other guy's. In comment sections webwide it's going up fast and furious. At Anne Thompson's site it's vociferous.

sofia savage says: ...even though Lisbeth is all about retaliating against men who hate women, male audiences still like the idea of her being treated like an object…and torture porn. Putting a man’s arm around a naked Lisbeth is negating the power she’s meant to have - it’s using her anger and sexual independence as a titillating turn-on rather than a source of power, and something to be feared. The poster obviously considers itself badass, but really it’s protecting its own balls by making Lisbeth an object.

TJ says: The poster is just to grab a male audience to see a movie about a strong woman.  If Fincher thinks having the character naked is the same as being bad-ass then he doesn’t really understand her.  In her world, the man behind her would be the one naked and submissive with HER protecting HIM.

From Anne Thompson: I’m OK with this poster because in “Dragon Tattoo” Blomkvist and Salander do have a comfortable, loose sexual relationship. She looks pretty powerful in this picture, not submissive at all. I wouldn’t want to run into her in a dark alley. My sense from Steve Zaillian and Scott Rudin is they have a strong handle on who Salander is. Fingers crossed.

Melissa Silverstein at indieWire's Women and Hollywood bemoans the poster as being 'The Pornification of Lisbeth Salander'. She says:

I have officially become angry at the latest poster to appear online for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

and

I don’t know exactly what to make of it.  I’ve read the books, I’ve thought about Lisbeth (a lot) and while I believe she is one of the most interesting characters on screen I’ve seen in a long time (I’ve seen all the Swedish movies and read all the books and even wrote a chapter for an anthology about my hopes for the Hollywood film), I never expected to see a poster of Lisbeth topless.  Never.  I don’t care that this is for the international version, it still doesn’t work.

This sparked a healthy debate.

Johnnie replied: None of us have seen the movie, so we’re not sure what the relationship is between those two characters. For all we know, the source material has been substantially changed. So until we know the details of this relationship between these two characters, we have no idea if the poster is accurate.

Whether it’s aesthetically pleasing is, of course, another matter. I’m just saying we don’t know if the shot represents their relationship in this specific film.

Roy Watson chimes in: ...and this comes as a surprise to the author of a blog entitled Women And Hollywood why, exactly?

And clara says: i agree with you compleatly. this is a total slap in the face for the character lisbeth and also to stieg larsson who wrote the millenium books. it’s just sad. the swedish version was so good, why ruin it with a hollywoodversion? :(

Over at Vulture they ask "Does this poster contrast with the premise of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo? Or is it more about Salander being a bad-ass?"

JKWALL: It may be a little antithetical to the character but I think its a good marketing strategy. They're keeping the edge of the original (a vastly overrated film) and this shows it. It also gets the point across that this film isn't a light remake, like many of them are. Let Me In, another great American remake (calling this film great is premature, just making an argument) did nothing to point out that it would have any substance, and it didn't really get anywhere. 

Not that tits = substance. But this is just a teaser poster.

MOCKINGBIRD: This poster is wrong in so many ways. Objectifying, making Salander look like she needs protection, ugh. And Fincher is ridiculously hands-on with his films, so this can be blamed on him, not the Sony marketing folks. I know people who worked on the international campaign for "Benjamin Button" who dreaded every meeting with the man. He rejected so many gorgeous ideas, bored them to death with long lectures on minute lighting details, and made offensive comments. These were folks who happily deal with Joel Silver.

Gotta love that. And, I do. I love it. All of it.

It's passionate, and I don't mean to diminish that. It's a good thing. But, that all this fervent back and forth is probably what the poster was designed to engender in the first place can't be ignored.

I can see some suit in the promotions department sitting behind his desk, elbows resting on the shiny black surface, fingertips touching forming that pyramid of power that rarely occurs in the real world, saying 'Exxxcellent' a la Mr. Burns as he hits site after site watching comment sections fill with pointed observations about the poster. Exxxcellent!

You can't buy this kind of press. Well...you can, but it would cost a helluva lot. Hats off. That poster was put together just so, and just to create the firestorm that resulted. Sony Marketing is taking us for quite a ride.

I love that. I do. I love all of it. The one sheet, the ardent discussion, and fucking slippery marketing campaign, the pure art, the pure commercialism. They're brilliant.

I love the movies. Love the people that love the movies. Could not survive a world without them.

Goodnight. See you tomorrow.