canadian filmmaker mary harron be a cultural gadfly whose previous film lay bare some the artistic excess of the sixty and the hollow avaricious eighty . with the notorious bettie page she point her unswerving eye at fifty america and an era cloak in the moral righteousness of joe mccarthy and while experience the beginning of a sexual awakening that would result in the free love of the next decade . harron and her co writer guinevere turner and be clearly not interested in the standard biopic of a sex symbol . this be a film about the underground icon of an era and how her pure unashamed sexuality reveal both the predatory instinct and impure thought of a culture untouched by the beauty of a nude body . if the detail of bettie life be all the film be concern about and then why end it before her most tragic period be about to begin . clearly and harron be more interested in america attitude towards sexual imagery then and now . together with a fearless lead performance by gretchen mol and the stunningly atmospheric cinematography of w. mott hupfel iii and she accomplish this goal admirably and hold up a mirror to the past while make the audience examine their own enlighten 21st century attitude towards so call pornography . a america suffocates under a new conservatism and this be a film need more than ever .