Sex scenes in movies are fake.
aka, Tits Malone

It wasn't violent. He didn't slap her around or force her.
It's just a sex scene. No big deal. It's not even much nudity.

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Just watched this movie for the first time.
This is a great post, sums up well.

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I think Emakii hit it spot on except for one thing. And BadAsCan wrote exactly what I wanted to add. This was a fabulous scene and very appropriate. It was a difficult scene played very well. I have gone through narcotic withdrawal and the only thing that makes you feel better, albeit for just a very short time, is having sex, especially rough sex, because having an orgasm takes the pain away. I think Jim was just trying to make her feel a little bit better because he knew that was the only thing he could do at that time.

Emakii, I think you're on the right track, especially with you're thoughts on the sex being a kind-of metaphor for their relationship (I paraphrased); also thought MusicMan and Bsimko were close.
But the reason it fits, and is NOT gratuitous, is that when you withdraw from opiates, everything that was suppressed and deadened by the drugs comes back 100 fold. (If you won't take MY word for it, see the scene in 'Trainspotting' where Ewan McGregor near craps himself when he starts to withdraw from the dope, and his opium suppository hasn't had enough time to kick in; also, in Burroughs book 'Junkie', he's in a jail cell, withdrawing, and he comes in his pants because his sex drive, for so long suppressed by heroin, comes back gangbusters. In the same book he talks of he and his junkie friends beep (them)selves like geese" when there's no dope around. And, in addition to the drive coming back, another reason to want to orgasm is that it releases endorphins into the brain, which are natural opiates. Of course it only takes your mind off the withdrawal for about the time it takes to pull your pants back up, but when you feel that lousy, you'll take it.
It was a great movie, and a true-to-life scene. I'm watching it now, and it's not easy to see them doing all those drugs, especially at the beginning, as the downward spiral starts
"How do you feel?"
"Like the Kling-Klang King of the Rim-Ram Room!"

Can anyone please explain the one scene when Jim comes home to find Kristen on the floor then out of no where, he roughly throws her on the bed, rips down her underwear, and in my opinion, basically rapes her, I know she didn't resist, she actually enticed him to do this, but what the heck was that all about!?!?
I think this scene is all about desperation, need and guilt. In the scene immediately before this one, we see Raynor strung out, twitchy, making a drug buy. He barely registers a face or name from the dealer; he's no longer a cop making a case, but a junkie desperate for a fix.
When he sees Kristen, in little girl pink pajamas and white anklets, scrounging on all fours like an animal, he sees what he has done to her, sees the pure, sincere young rookie he has turned into a rank junkie. They are both out of control, out of their mission, they have become the purest form of what they came to destroy, their hypocrisy, their fall, is complete. And both of them realize it.
When Jim comes to her she grabs at him, clings to him desperately; she repeats this later when she realizes she wont get a fix or an answer from him. There are no answers, he never had them. She claws at him, pouring out sexually the intensity of her desperation, her need, not only for drugs but for release, for a way out, a way back to where this all started. She is clinging to, grasping for Jim, the reason why she came down this path, the original fix. He was her mentor, her teacher, her boss, her partner, her lover, her mission. He is the one who taught her how to shoot up, and was the first to shoot her up, even now he is her dealer, looking for her fix. He the one who, literally and symbolically, took her "virginity", destroyed her innocence as a cop, a narc, a user.
His violent sex with her is, I think, symbolic of his own recognition of this, his own desperate expression of self-loathing and need. He is acting out physically the violence he has done to her life, "raping" her, bending her to the service of his demons. He does this from behind, he does not face her. When he tells her he is sorry at the end, he is not so much apologizing for the sexual act as for what it symbolizes, for what he has taken from her and how low he has brought her.
The sex also manifests the intensity of their need for each other. The isolation and loneliness of drug addiction is exacerbated for the two of them because of the their position; no one else can understand what they feel or where they are, they live in a world of two. This sexual encounter is a physical expression of desperate loneliness and need, and the violence of feelings they can only express to each other.
This scene plays like a rape, but it really isnt; Kristen is fully complicit with her victimization, she accepts and even initiates it. Again this is symbolic. Kristen became his partner willingly, followed him unreservedly down this path. He is not raping her, he is doing to her what she has chosen and willingly accepts, no longer out of a rookie's idealism or blind faith, but out of love and a commitment to being his partner - in the fullest sense of the word - that will, ultimately, transcend even his death.

Yes, rough sex can be very distracting.

I thought he was trying to exhaust her to the point where her cravings were less intense, or distract her from them. It reminded me of when an esthetician pulls wax off your legs at a salon, while quickly "slapping" the exposed skin to confuse the pain receptors, so it hurts less.
But that's just a guess.
Honour thy parents. They were hip to the groove too once you know.

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oh I know about this i am a recovering Heroin addict and pills galore horrrible experience detox specially when methdone and beep is mixed in the thoughts and actions in your head arent there in your head you are pretty much messed up like these 2 he thought he was helping

Jesus Christ, man!
Clearly, Jennifer Jason Leigh goes all out for a role. So, she let Jason Patric tear her anus for the role, huh?

This scene is important because it shows us how out of control they are getting. Beforehand and after they get clean, these two were always very gentle and loving with each other.

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you seriously think movie sex is real?

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Anal or not Anal.THAT IS THE QUESTION!!!! and now a brief statment from two officials on the subjectBoy george .Sen. Craig"OUCH!
"Titus pullo is not afraid of any bastard with a dogs head on him"-Rome

It didnt have to be anal for it to hurt her. He was dominating her and took her roughly with no lubrication.

It looked like anal sex to me. He was obviously hurting her.
"Would you like to see a long arm, Otis?"

any feelings out there on this subject?
i agree w/ your assessment that a scene as such maybe unnecessary. although i haven't watched the movie yet. i'm planning on taping it to view on my long train ride to chicago so checked the imdb for reviews. so far-so good

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