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Carnal Knowledge Movie Review

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Sci-Fi/Fantasy Comedy & Personal Dramas Action Dramas
Actors: Jack Nicholson, Candice Bergen, Ann-Margret, Art Garfunkel
Review Summary and Plot Commentary about Carnal Knowledge
Sandy (Garfunkel) and Jonathan (Nicholson) are college roommates at Amherst in the 1940s, two Jews who are superficially different (Sandy shy and considerate, Jonathan brash and womanizing). Together they provide a scathing study of the American male and how he relates to women (or rather, doesn't). Jonathan sleeps with Sandy's blonde girlfriend Susan (Bergen) first, and over the next 20 years we witness their lying, inability to love, sexual obsessions, anger toward women, and fear of commitment in action. By the 1960s, Jonathan is a pathetic balding man in his 40s, employing a hooker to get him up and off. Mike Nichols intelligently directed this 1971 Jules Feiffer script to make a slick, cynical, satirical movie for grownups that was banned in Georgia for its strong sexual content.
--David Loftus, Resident Scholar




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Analysis of Carnal Knowledge
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Time/era of movie: - 1930's-1950's
Romance/Love/Hugging Yes
Kind of romance: - inconveniently married while playing footsy
Taboo Sex Story? Yes
Kind of sex: - main character serviced by a prostitute

Main Character
Identity: - Male
Profession/status: - student
Age: - 20's-30's
Hair color? - brunette (Brown)
Hair type - (man) short/standard curly
Body type - (man) average
Unclothed? - Chest and Buttocks
Events of movie makes character more... - sad
Ethnicity/Nationality - Jewish
How sensitive is this character? - middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor? - Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence - Average intelligence
Physique - average physique

Secondary Main Character
Identity: - Male
Hair color - brunette (Brown)
Hair style - (man) short/standard curly
Body type - (man) very skinny
Unclothed? - chest
How much in movie? - 80%
Ethnicity/Nationality - Jewish

Setting
United States Yes
The US: - West - Northeast
Misc setting - school

Style
Accounts of torture and death? - no torture/death
Movie makes you feel... - depressed/sad
Sex/nudity in movie? Yes
What kind of sex: - actual description of sex - seeing breasts - seeing nude female butt - seeing nude male butt
Any profanity? - Some foul language
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