The movie version of A Clockwork Orange is famous for pushing the limits in depicting violence and sex on the movie screen. Somehow, movies I recently watched put me in mind of the Stanley Kubrick's infamous opus...
Red Sparrow (2018) directed by Francis Lawrence
Jennifer Lawrence (no relation to the director) plays a Russian ballerina whose leg is broken on stage by a co-worker who wants his girlfriend to have the lead. After her leg is mostly healed, she finds out the accident wasn't an accident and gives some ultra-violent payback to the couple. All of the sudden she is in a desperate situation and goes off to "Sparrow School" where she is taught to be a seductive, manipulative, and deadly agent. Her first assignment is to shack up with a CIA agent (Joel Edgerton) who has a contact in the Russian intelligence community. The Russians want to find out who their betrayer is. If she can earn the American's trust, she can find out and her comrades can take care of the betrayer.
The movie doesn't stint on the violence--we see the broken leg pointing the wrong way, we see the surgery, we see a tortured cadaver, we see a long and gruesome torture scene, and more. Clearly these were meant to be shocking and revolting but they cross the line into bad taste for me. The movie doesn't stint on the sex either--we see Jennifer Lawrence in various states of undress and in sexual situations with several characters, often just for the sake of her character manipulating someone else. It's a more explicit version of the sex content in the tv series The Americans, so also in bad taste for me.
I wish I had those two hours back and had watched a different movie. The plot is sort of clever but one of the twists I found too unbelievable so that ruined the story for me. Maybe if the characters had been more likable or sympathetic that might have made up for the flaws. It's just a lot of bad people treating each other terribly. Nothing to see here, move along...
The movie doesn't stint on the violence--we see the broken leg pointing the wrong way, we see the surgery, we see a tortured cadaver, we see a long and gruesome torture scene, and more. Clearly these were meant to be shocking and revolting but they cross the line into bad taste for me. The movie doesn't stint on the sex either--we see Jennifer Lawrence in various states of undress and in sexual situations with several characters, often just for the sake of her character manipulating someone else. It's a more explicit version of the sex content in the tv series The Americans, so also in bad taste for me.
I wish I had those two hours back and had watched a different movie. The plot is sort of clever but one of the twists I found too unbelievable so that ruined the story for me. Maybe if the characters had been more likable or sympathetic that might have made up for the flaws. It's just a lot of bad people treating each other terribly. Nothing to see here, move along...
Straw Dogs (1971) directed by Sam Peckinpah
Dustin Hoffman is a nebbishy American mathematician, David Sumner, who moves to a small English village, the hometown of his wife Amy (Susan George). The locals remember Amy, especially some of the young men who run the gamut from cordial to flirty to sexually aggressive. David and Amy have a house that needs some work. The local boys are on the job but are very slow and enjoy peeking in the windows (especially the bathroom window) at Amy. The situation escalates. Amy complains to her husband who doesn't like, want, or have any skill at confrontation. Through a plot contrivance, the house becomes besieged and David finally mans up in fighting off the besiegers.
Director Sam Peckinpah is famous for his violent westerns (like The Wild Bunch) and this movie is indeed set in a western English town. As with most non-violent people, when David takes up violence to defend his home, he goes overboard. Peckinpah clearly thinks David finally becomes a man by the end of the movie, though his ideal of manhood is stereotypical and superficial.
Even more problematic in the film is an extended rape scene of Amy by two locals. The way the scene is filmed, Amy objects to but appears to enjoy the first rapist; the second rapist is completely unpleasant. That's a problem, because there is no justification for depicting rape in any positive light, least of all as positive for the victim.
So Straw Dogs is another movie that makes me wish I had those two hours back.
Why bother writing reviews of these films? Hopefully I can spare you, dear reader, from wasting four hours of your time.
Director Sam Peckinpah is famous for his violent westerns (like The Wild Bunch) and this movie is indeed set in a western English town. As with most non-violent people, when David takes up violence to defend his home, he goes overboard. Peckinpah clearly thinks David finally becomes a man by the end of the movie, though his ideal of manhood is stereotypical and superficial.
Even more problematic in the film is an extended rape scene of Amy by two locals. The way the scene is filmed, Amy objects to but appears to enjoy the first rapist; the second rapist is completely unpleasant. That's a problem, because there is no justification for depicting rape in any positive light, least of all as positive for the victim.
So Straw Dogs is another movie that makes me wish I had those two hours back.
Why bother writing reviews of these films? Hopefully I can spare you, dear reader, from wasting four hours of your time.
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