Let’s just get it out of the way: PENIS. There, now let’s get on with the story. YouTube user Now You See It examines how phallic symbolism is used in film—specifically, its use for dramatic purposes and not comedic ones. By looking at films ranging from Birth Of A Nation to Inglourious Basterds, Now You See It meditates on how filmmakers use a phallic symbol to represent power and domination. Or, if it’s an (ahem) smaller phallic symbol, its representation of weakness and lack of power.
It’s an interesting hypothesis that reaches its zenith of metaphor in Alien and A Clockwork Orange. Both used overt sexualized imagery to convey terror, violence, and power, in order to let the audiences know who was in control of the situation (and of whom they should be frightened). It could just as easily have been a bunch of dick jokes for its eight-minute running time, but instead the video is a considered meditation on what it means to use this imagery, and the deliberate manner in which filmmakers tap into subconscious sexual insecurities to help tell their stories.
