I laughed.
mmm
I remember when Siskel and Ebert named the original the Worst Movie of 1980.
The gore during the revenge isn’t the worst part, to me. It’s made to be a gory movie, some people like those. It’s the highly sexualized and explicit rape scene that shatters all the filmmaker’s lies about a it being a pro-women movie.
“What’s all this, then?”
My question stands.
I saw this as a revenge movie. The woman didn’t take the rape lying down. She didn’t crawl off to a mental ward. She got even and killed everyone of those S.O.B.'s that were involved. (At least, I think she killed them all. It’s been a decade since I saw it. She definitely kicked ass.)
YMMV, but for me she more than got even. I don’t see this lady living in fear or jumping every time she hears a strange sound. She took charge of the situation and regained her self-respect.
Sure, it’s not an easy movie to watch. It’s one of the more graphic rape scenes I’ve seen. It’s a little too close to real life for my comfort. I think it was mistake making it that graphic. The movie would have a much bigger audience with less shown and a more subtle directorial approach.
Haven’t actually seen the thing thought I did really enjoy Carol J. Clover’s take on it in her book Men, Women & Chainsaws (IIRC she compares it to movies like *The Accused *which, at first glance, are less crude and sexist but usually involve women getting revenge through men or the system).
On thing I did think was interesting about the remake’s poster was that they shaved about 15 lbs off the lead, at least in the artwork.
I’ve never seen this movie or actually any of the Rape/Revenge grindhouse genre–but the supportive intellectual examinations and papers written on them and this one in particular usually take the track of–“if you found these brutal depictions of rape and violence tittilating it’s by design. You are punished later by showing the results of these actions.”
Hey you like that rape! Watch this rapist get his dick cut off in the tub! You still like that rape? Huh, do ya!?!?!?
I don’t know why such a noise is made about this movie being so pro-woman because a woman takes revenge on her rapists. I Spit on Your Grave is from 1978, but in 1976 there was a movie with the same plot (although much less disgusting) called The House by the Lake where the woman took out all the bad guys too. It stars Brenda Vaccaro, and I didn’t try to walk out of that one.
If you found the rape scenes sexually exciting, maybe you should look for therapy.
Personnally, I found it refreshing to see violence that realistic. I think the main problem about the so-called “violence in the movies” is that it is so toned down that people think that it is what “real” violence looks and sound like, so they more tempted to use it. How often have you heard people say after hearing a gun firing : “I can’t believe how loud it was” ?
Because it behooved a lot of gender-hustlers to reduce potential members of the power base to nothing more than their designated sex. If the apprentice myrmidons regarded themselves as women first and individuals hardly at all, they’d be less likely to think for themselves, and thereby better candidates for said hustlers’ hoped-for hives.
Umm, WTF?
That you’ll probably get more out of the movie (if you like that sort of thing) if you regard the protagonist as an individual person, and not simply as a member of a gender. Though most of us have been conditioned to do the latter, for reasons of (see above).
Don’t attend too many screenwriting classes, do you?
I found it very hard to watch, the rape scene was disturbingly nasty.
I also had to wonder on the (supposed) psychology of the good ol’ boys - so were they planning on murdering her and dumping the body the whole while? If not, how did they expect to get away with it?
Yes…I realise that it’s a movie, but that was a big plot hole to me.
The revenge scenes were depraved…particularly the “so you like to watch”.
And to actually see such a common threat carried out with the garden shears…hoo boy…
I would also be interested to know…if you are “titallated” by the rape scene (not in the form of "I will watch this as spank material though) does that indicate that you really need therapy?
I know that rape is a really common fantasy - does that mean those that hold it need help?
No, but I have written screenplays.
Heh- that’s what my brother said about “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.”. In the interest of not spoiling it, we didn’t tell him much about it, especially THE scene. He watched it in the theater with our parents.
Sorry, bro… scarred for life.
45 minute rape scene has to be some kind of record for a movie. Ebert hated, hated, hated that movie.
The DVD issue seems to imply the producers were sincere in believing the revenge aspect of the movie ameliorated the rape.
One of the rapists was somewhat developmentally disabled which added a bizarre note to an already unusual film.
Not unless he feels ashamed of having the fantasies.
I used to think like you do. Then I actually got lots of therapy, although for other things. But along the way I learned that my wacky fantasies were perfectly ok. So it turned out I didn’t need therapy for the fantasies at all, I needed it to scrub away the feeling that there was something wrong with me for having those fantasies in the first place. Because there wasn’t. And isn’t. And most people would find the inside of my head an incredibly shocking place.