Ben Shapiro: Modern Wuthering Heights Reflects Cultural Degradation

Critique of Modern Wuthering Heights

• ⚠️ The new "Wuthering Heights" film is described as "disastrously bad" and a reflection of the "complete and utter degradation of our entire culture".
• 🎬 The speaker argues it represents the "pornification of our society" and the destruction of true eroticism, contrasting it with the original novel and the 1939 film.
• 🗑️ It is labeled "absolute gutter trash" for its portrayal of lust and materialism over genuine love and virtue.

Comparing Adaptations: 1939 vs. New

• ✨ The 1939 "Wuthering Heights" film, starring Lawrence Olivier and Merl Oberon, is praised for its superior values and portrayal of deep, unfulfilled longing.
• 💔 The original film's central conflict revolves around love versus material prosperity and love versus virtue, with Kathy choosing marriage for comfort over Heathcliff.
• 🕊️ The 1939 version depicts an "unbelievably romantic" narrative where Heathcliff and Kathy's union is only possible in death, emphasizing virtue and the apology for materialism.

Flaws in the New Adaptation

• ❌ The Emerald Fennell version is deemed "insulting, degrading, and stupid" due to its lack of plot tension and moral scruples.
• 🚫 It depicts immediate sexual encounters and "minutes long montages of them banging," removing the romantic tension and conflict present in the original.
• 🔞 Perverse elements include Heathcliff being "turned on" by Kathy's pregnancy with another man's child and his overt abuse of Isabella, treating her "as a dog" in a BDSM context.

Societal Implications of Value Shifts

• 📉 The speaker attributes the decline in birth rates and sex to the "pornification" of life, where true eroticism is lost.
• 🎭 There's a fundamental difference in how men and women view sex and romance, with women desiring plot and emotional structure before sex, unlike the new film's approach.
• 🔑 Society has "obliterated everything that was forbidden" by removing virtue, leading to a constant search for "new highs" through increasingly bizarre sexual perversion.