'Twilight' grows up with the release of 'Breaking Dawn Part 1'

Photo by Andrew Cooper, © 2011 Summit Entertainment, LLC. All rights reserved.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1

In The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1, Bella and Edward, plus those they love, must deal with the chain of consequences brought on ...

Rating: PG-13 for disturbing images, violence, sexuality/partial nudity and some thematic elements

Length: 108 minutes

Released: November 18, 2011 Nationwide

Cast: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Billy Burke, Peter Facinelli

Director: Bill Condon

Writer: Melissa Rosenberg, Stephenie Meyer

More info and showtimes »

Until now, it was easy to dismiss the "Twilight" film series — which has grossed nearly $2 billion worldwide — as fodder for adolescent girls. Lots and lots of girls.

But with the arrival of "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 1," which likely began breaking box office records at 12:01 a.m. Friday, the story takes a decidedly adult turn. This one tackles marriage, sex, abortion and family demands, themes that can no longer be deemed kid stuff — and reflects the growing inclusion of adult content in TV shows and movies aimed primarily at teens.

The legions of fans who devoured Stepheniev Meyer's novels, which have sold more than 100 million copies, knew what was coming: In "Breaking Dawn," the 18 year-old Bella (Kristen Stewart) marries the vampire Edward (Robert Pattinson), who looks 17 but was born in 1901 (he could be her great-grandfather!) They honeymoon on a remote island off the coast of Brazil, where Bella loses her virginity and discovers vampires like their sex extra rough. Then, along with the black and purple bruises dotting her body, Bella discovers she is pregnant — and the baby she's carrying, which is growing at a supernaturally fast rate, may be an immortal human-vampire hybrid that will drain the life from her before it's born. Edward and his clan of vampires implore her to terminate the pregnancy, because it may kill her. But Bella refuses.

Strong stuff — strong enough, in fact, to earn the first cut of "Breaking Dawn — Part 1" an R rating. But Oscar-winning director Bill Condon ("Dreamgirls," "Kinsey," "Gods and Monsters"), who shot the two "Breaking Dawn" movies back to back, knew he was required to edit the film down to a PG-13.

"More than anything, I wanted to make sure that the intensity of two specific things — the first time they make love during their honeymoon and the birth scene — wasn't watered down," Condon said from Los Angeles. "The ratings board is so subjective. They have certain rules everyone has to follow, and one of them has to do with the amount of thrusting you can show. There was never any nudity or anything like that. And the solution we settled on was to give you Bella's point of view as much as I could in those scenes. For example, during the birth scene, we limited what you can see to her point of view as she's lying on that gurney. And it turns out that allowing the audience to use their imaginations to fill in what's happening makes the scene even more powerful."

Despite the restraint, though, "Breaking Dawn — Part 1" represents a surprisingly bold change of direction for a series that, in the previous three films, had traded primarily on high-school angst and boyfriend troubles. The movie is the latest example of an ongoing cultural shift in that allows movies ("Easy A," "Remember Me") and TV shows ("The Vampire Diaries," "Gossip Girl") aimed at teenagers to tackle subject matter that might have seemed too adult even a decade ago.

"I think what has happened from the 1950s onward is that the culture has gotten more comfortable over time talking about issues," said "Breaking Dawn" screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg, who was an executive producer on several TV series (including "The O.C." and "Dexter") before signing on to adapt all of Meyer's "Twilight" novels into movies. "Maybe this is an overly hopeful and idealist perspective, but we've learned that talking about something is much healthier than pretending it doesn't exist. In the TV and film world, that allows us to get into these issues within the context of a story. Everyone is always nostalgic about the 1950s, but there was all this horrible stuff going on then, too. Film and TV have helped bring these things out into the open."

The ability to delve into adult territory within the context of a familiar horror genre — vampires — also earned "Twilight" a devoted following that transcends adolescents. Danai Pestanav, 26, a fifth-grade school teacher at Somerset Academy in South Miami, happily admits that she read all four "Twilight" novels in the span of a week — and had to lock them in the trunk of her car so she wouldn't keep reading whenever she stopped at a traffic light.

"'Breaking Dawn' is very much an adult book, very intense," Pestana says. "It's pretty crazy. The whole series is bizarre, but I thought it was perfection. This is a true love story, so it's going to appeal to an older crowd. You can relate to her first love, her first time. ... I just wish the movie had been (rated) XXX, so I could see what I really wanted to see from the book!"

But even as Meyer's novel brought adults into the "Twilight" fold, the book also drew the attention of critics who disapproved of the message it might be conveying to young people — a complaint that will only grow louder when the movie opens.

"'Breaking Dawn' was what got me interested enough in 'Twilight' to write a book," said Beth Felker Jones, a professor of Christian theology at Wheaton College in Illinois and author of "Touched by a Vampire: Discovering the Hidden Messages in the Twilight Saga." "The themes are so intense: The wedding night, the honeymoon that leaves the wife bruised and then this horrific vampire C-section where she literally dies. Meyer took some criticism from her fan base because they did not expect this pregnancy/ child birth narrative. They loved the romantic teenage-love part. Maybe they could get into a wedding, but not a devastating child birth.

"There is also a kind of abusive strand to the Edward and Bella's relationship," Jones said. "Edward is very controlling, watches her sleep and prevents her from going to visit her friends. That's a lot like abusive relationships in real life. And then that she's willing to give up her humanity for him — her soul, her life? There are questions to be raised here for the way girls are being trained to think about love."

For Condon, the rich stew suddenly bubbling beneath "Twilight's" simple surface was one of the main reasons why he wanted to be a part of the series.

"Within all of Hollywood's oldest genres, there were always 'encoded movies' in which all this stuff was going on that none of the characters ever spoke about directly," he said. "A lot of people have complained about the last two 'Twilight' films, but they were really just one long, extended second act. This one is the third act. When I read the book, I was blown away by how much happens, but also how strange it all is. 'Twilight' has always had the potential to be a horror movie, but it hasn't quite embraced it until we get to this story. I hope it doesn't upset the girls too much. We'll see."

Whatever critical barbs are slung at "Breaking Dawn" — and there will be many — fans will not be able to say that the movie doesn't do the book justice.

"People assume a great deal was edited out of the movie in order to get the PG-13," Rosenberg said. "But we didn't hold anything back. In fact, when it came to the birth scene, I was going to cut out the, um, sort of Caesarean, if you will. I was saying 'We don't really need to see that.' But Bill was like 'No no no. It's gotta be in there.' I can't imagine people walking out of the movie thinking 'I just wanted more blood and guts.'

"But maybe they will. I'm sure the deleted footage will show up on the DVD," Rosenberg added, laughing. "And the movie is still pretty damn sexy!"

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