An Open Letter to Alan Ball Regarding the Graphic Depiction of Child Sexual Abuse in Towelhead

by Gil Mansergh

Dear Mr. Ball,

I saw Towelhead last night. It is only one of nearly three hundred movies I will screen this year for my two newspaper columns, two radio shows and NY Times affiliated blog, yet it is the first one which compelled me to write to the filmmaker and express my anger and concern.

What were you trying to accomplish when you made this film?

Because whatever you intended your message to be, the inclusion of voyeuristically graphic sex scenes between the dad-next-door and the thirteen-year-old girl make your movie into a pedophile’s fantasy come true.

You seem to have forgotten Hitchcock’s advice to filmmakers that “less is more.”

Having seen your work on “Six Feet Under,” I know you can effectively stage a scene. And in fact, the opening sequence about the mother’s boyfriend shaving her daughter’s pubic hair is handled with finesse. You don’t need to show everything that happens. The mother’s discovery of clumps of hair is enough to prompt her to remove the daughter from potential harm by sending her to live in Texas with her father.

So why did you stage the rape scenes the way you did?

I ask this with a sincere desire to understand the motivations behind your artistic decisions. Was it an attempt to shock audiences by pushing the envelope a little further? Was it to garner attention to your film with the belief that controversy builds a bigger box office? Was it an attempt to show what a “cutting-edge” filmmaker you are? Or are you really unaware what a powerful tool a movie can be.

For if you had handled things more deftly, this film could have provided an opportunity for discussions about the important topic of teens and sexuality and sexual predators. I say this with authority, because in addition to being a film critic, I am also a respected psychological educator who uses movie clips to teach thousands of teachers, psychologists and other licensed mental health professionals in seminars like “Sex, Trust and Intimacy,” “Parenting Teens.” And ‘Spousal/Partner Abuse.”

In these seminars. I use carefully selected clips from some quite controversial films ( i.e. Larry Clark’s “Kids,” Alexander Payne’s “Election,” and Catherine Hardwicke and Nikki Reed’s “Thirteen,”) to focus on important topics for discussion including sensuality, sexual identification and sexual abuse.

So I was dismayed when I searched and found some of your rationale online including the following statement attributed to you: “Aaron [Eckhart] said, ‘I don’t want to play a pedophile,’ when we were developing the role,” Ball explained. “And I said, ‘I don’t think this guy is a pedophile.’ “

There, in a nutshell, is the problem. So to clarify terms, in law enforcement, a “pedophile” is anyone convicted of sexual abuse of a prepubescent child and/or adolescent minor under the age of consent.

In your film “Towelhead,” a man with a ten-year-old son is obviously attracted by the new girl next door. He asks her how old she is, and when she says “Thirteen,” he replies “You look older, ” as if that provided a rationale for not only continuing to make inappropriate advances, but to escalate his attack. He seduces her by covertly giving her a skin magazine, repeatedly engaging her in sexual conversations, and arranging over and over again to be alone with her. Then, when everything is set, he fondles her, penetrates her vagina with his fingers, and ruptures her hymen. Even then he doesn’t stop, but keeps coming back. He lies to her that he is to be shipped out at 4:00 AM the next morning to the Gulf War Zone, and as a going away present, he asks her to strip naked and pose for him. Finally, he has her lay down on the floor and has sex with her. I am at a loss to understand why you don’t think this guy is a pedophile.

In many ways, the casting of the charmingly handsome Eckhardt in this role is brilliant. Sexual predators are charming to young people, and they often appear handsome to their prey. And the reaction the young victim in the movie has to her molestation is classic “an opportunity for professionals and non-professionals alike to observe a very frequent response from victims of sexual abuse. “I’m your girlfriend,” she calmly announces to her attacker when she accepts his invitation to have dinner in a Mexican restaurant. She knows exactly what is happening. She even goes so far as to ask why they drove such a long way from home to find a place to eat. Her molester’s response is equally candid: “I wanted to find a place where no one would recognize us.”

But the potential for learning from this film ” not only about sexual predators but the expectations and responsibilities of parents (both present or absent), friends, teachers, neighbors, the police and the courts “has been lost by your failure to present this sensitive material in a more creative and artistic manner.

I look forward to your reply.

Gil Mansergh