The ABC of Sex Ed for Trainables (film #12 on The Educational Archive, Volume One: Sex and Drugs DVD (Fantoma 2001)). [Category: Educational]

This 70s film would have been impossible only a few years earlier. It's about the touchy subject of sex education for mentally retarded adolescents (called "trainables" throughout the film). It starts with a really creepy scene of a sexual predator luring a mentally retarded girl into his car. The rest of the film isn't quite that bad, but it will make you squirm at several points. Memorable scenes include a training session for special-ed teachers in which they are asked to list all the slang terms they can think of for "penis" and then say them out loud, over and over; a menstruating teacher showing a retarded girl one of her own soiled sanitary napkins and saying very stiltedly "This is what happens to me. It's normal. It's part of being a woman," (this scene is repeated three times in order to stress the importance of repetition); and a teacher explaining intercourse to two retarded girls, who react like most little kids react when they first hear about it (i.e. "Ewwwwwww!!!!!!"). I actually don't want to make too much fun of this film, though, because its subject matter is necessary and probably impossible to present without making you squirm a little bit. In other words, they deserve credit for trying.

Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ***. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ****.