The Erectionman-A Review

The Erectionman, a Dutch documentary directed by Michael Schaap is, according to the synopsis of the movie, a story on “how one little pill changed the course of sexual evolution.” The documentary also touches upon important subjects like marketing techniques, societal changes, male sexual insecurity, and pornography. However, it doesn’t do justice to anyone of them.

Both, the animation and the portrayal of what one dose of Viagra does to a man’s libido is vulgar and certainly not one of the documentary’s essential requirements. In an attempt to make his documentary funny, the director, very insidiously puts in a dose of sex and titillation. 

Semi-clad girls, gyrating in parties, tell him how they carried Viagra for their partners, heavily-busted women argue that breast implants should not be compared with Viagra. The director is seemingly amused by all this and nowhere in the movie does he look particularly serious in his pursuit to find out the truth about Viagra, which he proposed to do at the outset.

Schaap talks to an upcoming author who has written a book on sex, which turns out to be totally futile. He meets an anthropologist also, who explains, very briefly though, how male sexuality has evolved over a period of time. There is no attempt to meet a reputed expert on the subject of sexual evolution.

The most ridiculous part, however, comes when he joins a group of men which had no connection, whatsoever, with either erectile dysfunction or Viagra. Only Schaap can probably explain the relevance of this scene in the documentary. 

It’s quite amusing to see Schaap ask a doctor to explain penetration. One wonders where the curiosity about erectile dysfunction vanished. What puts the documentary really down however is to see that Schaap did not make any serious attempt to get someone from Pfizer or a rival pharmaceutical firm to talk about the created need for Viagra, about Pfizer’s strategies to market the wonder-pill.

When Pfizer does not respond to his requests for a meeting, he writes to them by email of-his take on the side-effects of Viagra on men. What are these side effects?-Dependency and loss of self confidence! Whereas, there is no attempt to point out the real side-effects like headache, facial flushing, and upset stomach, bluish vision, blurred vision, or sensitivity to light. 

The director does not feel the need to relate exploitation of men’s sexuality through these pills with the larger context of the sexual exploitation and branding in today’s world by companies who benefit from it. That erectile dysfunction is closely linked to love and emotion, does not figure anywhere either.

The documentary is a very frivolous attempt at trivializing some serious issues.  There is an attempt to hop on to too many things in fifty minutes. After ranting about its side effects, Schaap gulps a blue pill down in the last shot, leaving the audience as confused as he himself probably was, while directing the documentary.