Furthermore, a lot of the scenes are shot from the victim's perspective. The scenes are shot practically real-time which brings home the gritty and sickening nature of what is being displayed. There is no kind of glorification of rape here. The scenes are horrific, grueling and ugly. In this case, this is far from the truth. It seems that a lot of critics think that by proxy, long scenes of violence equal pure exploitation. Much is made of the fact that the rape scenes last for around forty minutes. I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE offers a truly subjective message in that it presents gritty reality and leaves the viewer to make up their mind on the matter. Similarly he offers no moral judgment on the revenge that is carried out by the female protagonist. Zarchi doesn't praise the rapists- nor does he condemn them. However, it goes even deeper than this in this particular case. In essence, films of this type ARE exploiting the subject of rape (and sadly, often presenting it in a sexually ambiguous way) but does this mean that they are not able to condemn the subject matter, or offer a powerful criticism of the behaviour of many men towards women? The same school of argument is used against critical film-making like CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST- can a film truly condemn what it exploits? I believe so, and I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE is a triumphant example of this, putting forward more powerful a message about violence of rape and the attitudes of some men towards it than any other movie I care to mention. The whole "rape/revenge" genre is one that is fraught with moral contradictions. That is the last thought that crosses my mind whilst watching this. A worryingly high percentage of them accuse this movie of somehow advocating rape, and being sexist and demeaning. I've read a large number of reviews of this film. Certainly, the title and advertising campaign (in classic exploitation fashion) was garish and contentious, but unlike some other films that suffered the same fate (such as SS EXPERIMENT CAMP), Zarchi's film is extremely powerful and disturbing. I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE joins a select few as being one of THE films cited for causing the most problems at the time. Of all the films that were implicated in the absurd and sickening tabloid-fueled "video nasties" witch-hunt in the UK, some were demonised more than others.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |