Pointless Announcements

Charles Bronson films are rape-torture flicks, too. Just with a different emphasis. How could you not know that?

 

The obvious TFP problem: I guess I see it differently. It's one thing when an anonymous louse is molesting a girl for 39 seconds and gets blown away by a .45 Winchester Magnum. The presumably 5+ minute rape-torture scenes in the aforementioned two films is a little different in my mind. That and the comfort level of the women watching the film next to me. After watching the flick where Gillian Anderson sodomizes some dude with a 12g shotgun after being raped, I decided I'd have enough of the rape-torture revenge genre. Nothing makes my cock softer. Not even Tilted Politics.

I'm not a violent person. I don't get off on the suffering of others, whether on screen on in the bedroom. Not my bag.

Although it's blatantly obvious and I'm clearly wasting the keystrokes: I think the emphasis matters.

The use of characters and the setting tells us how we're supposed to feel about it as the audience.

Or maybe how we should feel about it. A suggestion. I worry some people don't feel that way.

/waste of time post

 

Well, number one, I am 46 years old and it is the first time I ever watched the film even though I have heard about it all my life. The rape scenes are not anywhere near five minutes and not nearly as disturbing and graphic as the rape scenes in Death Wish and the other Charles Bronson movie I have seen the name of which I don't remember. I don't make a habit of watching films that exploit violence, whether their emphasis is on crime or on revenge fantasies. I really don't see how one is better than the other, either. In fact, if you read up on Wes Craven's motivation for making a film that was, for its time, so intense and brutal, you will hear him talk about violence and our society. About how things changed after the JFK assassination and the Vietnam War. A lot of horror directors from this time period express the same sort of theme. That's not to say that they weren't motivated by exploitation and its transformation into money via drive-ins all over the country, just that the violence that you see isn't necessarily as self-evident as it seems. I don't recall ever reading anything that explains Death Wish as being anything but a simple piece of revenge fantasy. And, yes, characters and settings tell us how we should feel about a character. What am I supposed to feel about Charles Bronson? Good? I don't feel good about any them.

 

I agree with Plan9 and mixedmedia analysis's of the torture porn/horror film genre.

Side note: This music cafe has amazing sandwiches.

 

I do agree that it is worrying to know that so many people see violence and torture and degradation as entertaining things with no sense of irony or metaphor about it. They just like watching it because it is shocking and exposure to violence, like a drug, requires more and more intensity to remain exciting and effective. In fact, I've taken quite unpopular stances in the past about the increasing amounts of violence and degradation in porn and video games (particularly when it comes to women) for that very reason. So it's not to say that I am here taking a stand for The Last House on the Left as a film that everyone should run out and see. It's kind of legendary and I watched it. That's pretty much it.

 

I passed with an average of "Advanced Internship Level"... A full year ahead of where I am now.

Party! Time to drink!

 

omg! Luther!

The way I described it to my daughter just now (and I think I hit the nail on the head): It's just sensational enough to make it totally absorbing. And just good enough to make you not feel guilty about it.

Good show.
--- merged: Sep 8, 2012 at 3:38 PM ---

Who? What? Sometimes it's good to be old.

 

Grunge? *piffle* The Big Band Era is where it's at!

 

Ok, so I looked up the rembrandt's song and I remember that.
even though I've never seen a complete episode of Friends. I just was not in that place at the time.
I was not into the grunge movement, either. I mean, it sold out so quickly.
Punk, it was not.
I was into hip-hop in the '80s-'90s.
and radiohead. and classic jazz.

 

My current girlfriend spent all night last night drinking and dancing with one of her girlfriends.

Hah, she didn't come home until today at like 0900. She had too many shots and crashed back there.

I came downstairs and found her unconscious ass atop a blanket and clad in smeared make-up and a thong.

I woke her up to see how she was doing. She wiped away some drool and asked, "Do we have eggs? I want some eggs."

Fuck yeah.

 

I can't move my arm, I chopped a whole tree down in the garden today and everything hurts. And I still have a bad belly

 

all in all, though, Nirvana came out ahead in all that business as far as I can tell. Musically speaking.
I can buy more than a few of their tunes. I think it's prob. unfortunate that he died so early on. There was a certain philosophical momentum going there that was interesting.

 

So glad I'm not about to die. Unless I happen to be the harbinger of the Zombie Apocalypse.

Mmmm... more Vodka.

 

Prevent infection from within. Good thinking!

 

I only come home like this these days after a night in at my sister's place. I don't know what it is, but whenever we get together I can drink four times the amount I would normally drink. And still sit there without pause and eviscerate Republicans and laugh like a loon at Bernie Mack. Those are good times. It's about time, too.