Hounddog kicked up a lot of dust when it premiered at Sundance. By all accounts Dakota Fanning gives a great performance as an Elvis-obsessed 12-year old who dances suggestively (but unknowingly so) to the King’s early rock and is raped by an older boy. By some accounts, unsurprisingly, the rape is in extremely bad taste. It has been labeled child pornography by people who don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about, in much the same way as fools have lambasted the sexual abuse in Towelhead. Now director Deborah Kampmeier has recut the film with a great deal of new footage compared to what was seen at Sundance. The idea is not to downplay elements that have angered moronic conservative groups, but to bring out the characters. “I had time to go in and dig into the performances and let these
incredible actors tell the story. Fifty percent of the footage is
different,” she tells the LA Times, “because we went in and chose the performances. I think
the film is much more nuanced.”
All of which is interesting enough to draw an audience. So why create a one-sheet that so strongly echoes an approach that has become increasingly stale over the last year?
