Writer/director James Gunn was on hand for a recent Q&A session to discuss some secrets of his hit 2014 film Guardians Of The Galaxy. The live commentary was held on Facebook and saw Gunn answering pretty much everything and anything that came to fans' minds over the course of a three hour period, including commenting on Star-Lord's clever, dirty little overtly-sexual innuendo that Disney chose to leave in, shocking audiences everywhere.
You probably know the line in question, which featured a joke revolving around a famous painter from the 1940s-1950s. Let's just call it "the Jackson Pollock line." Are you with me now? The line really was delivered in a fairly subtle fashion, so subtle I almost wasn't sure if I heard it correctly, myself. This is what Gunn had to say about the line.
"The Jackson Pollock line was something I said on set and asked Chris to say. We only filmed it one time. People thought we were wasting time on set, because nothing that dirty would ever make it into the film."
So even the director himself sounds a bit shocked that it made it in the film. I credit the subtlety and hilarious delivery by Chris Pratt for its not hitting the cutting room floor. The fact that the line is about an abstract expressionist painter and it's expressed in a somewhat abstract fashion also had to have producers rooting for its inclusion.
During a Guardians Of The Galaxy screening's post Q&A session last year, Gunn was asked by a little girl what the reference meant and he proceeded to point toward Quill's intelligence as a child, saying he knew the work of Jackson Pollock. He then pushed the child to hit her dad up for any further explanation, calling her father a very smart man and assuring her he could clear up the confusion. While it sounds bad, it's actually kind of funny. See for yourself in the vid below.
Guardians Of The Galaxy isn't the first Disney film to let subtle sexual content slip through the cracks. Their 1989 film The Little Mermaid included a very large, golden phallic image on the original VHS cover. That film is also known for showing the minister get what looks like a brief erection when marrying Ariel. The word "sex" also allegedly appears among stardust in the sky in The Lion King (though some argue that it spells out "SFX," instead), as did an image of a scantily-clad woman (on the poster for the 2002 film).
So as you can see, Gunn probably isn't too far out in left field, sneaking a line like this through. While it may have turned a few heads. it certainly didn't seem to have an impact on box office sales as the pic ended up one of the top grossing films of 2014. It also sold tons of copies of its classic throwback soundtrack. It's even been remade in 8-Bit, for the real geeky fans. Maybe if Guardians Of The Galaxy 2 is as successful or better, it will get a 16-Bit remake. One can only hope!
