The controversial movie Lolita (1997) is based off the novel written by Vladimir Nabokov in 1955. What made directors and producers decide to create a movie out of this novel is beyond me. Being adapted from the 1960s version of Lolita, this version sends your stomach into an upset. Director Adrian Lyne put on a sexual, forbidden-love spin to the tale. Instead of having Lolita act like an innocent and naive girl, Lyne’s version poses Lolita as a crafty tease towards Humbert.
The morality of this story is that there is no morals. An adult male insisting himself upon a tempting child makes for a disaster for both characters. From watching the movie, I saw no good in either characters. Each had their moments of being morally just, but as a whole, both were rotten in their motives. Humbert wanted a girl who reminded him of his first love as a preteen. However, he failed to realize that is culturally wrong and damaging to himself. Stated in class, Humbert could have stepped away from the whole mess at the hotel when he went outside. He could have just kept walking and left Lolita there. Of course that would be abandoning her without anyone to care for her, but he wouldn’t have become so engrossed with always having her around. Lolita was naive but not innocent; she was not pure. Lolita knew what she wanted and how to get it. Yet she too failed to realize this was damaging to herself. She could have run away, which she eventually does, but that puts her in a worse position of child-pornography.
Neither character wins in this story and audiences are left feeling disgusted. The morals are unclear/nonexistent in Lolita, looking at the book or movie versions. This story tells people what not to do and what should not be seen as an acceptable forbidden-love tale.
Adolescence in 1990s Films 
April 23rd, 2014 at 3:06 pm
I agree when you say that the movie lacked morals because it certainly did. Not only involving Lolita, but the mother too. He stayed with the mother because he secretly couldn’t part with Lolita. Normally a husband would be distraught if their wife was struck and killed by a car, but not Humbert. Although all of this and everything you said was true, I wouldn’t go as far as to say he didn’t realize it was culturally wrong. Humbert knew enough not to make public, his love for Lolita, he knew one hundred and ten percent what he was doing was wrong. His hesitations were evident in the hotel room when he offered Lolita a cot instead of sleeping with him in the bed. But, he obviously goes along with her and follows his perverted sense of love, which makes him the undesirable character we come to know after watching the film.