Straw Dogs (remake)

Started by Gold Trumpet, April 09, 2003, 10:36:05 PM

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

polkablues

Quote from: Merrill Errol Lehrl on May 14, 2011, 09:48:02 PM
Hasn't actual porn been missing from torture porn?

Clearly you haven't seen A Serbian Film yet. I highly recommend it, if you have the disposition for it.
My house, my rules, my coffee

Mr. Merrill Lehrl

Quote from: polkablues on May 14, 2011, 10:31:15 PM
Quote from: Merrill Errol Lehrl on May 14, 2011, 09:48:02 PM
Hasn't actual porn been missing from torture porn?

Clearly you haven't seen A Serbian Film yet. I highly recommend it, if you have the disposition for it.

Highly recommended because of the quality of the film or the extremes of the subject matter?  Torture porn is my least favorite type of movie.
"If I had to hold up the most heavily fortified bank in America," Bolaño says, "I'd take a gang of poets. The attempt would probably end in disaster, but it would be beautiful."

polkablues

A little of both. I have a complicated relationship with the film since I saw it, but above all I admired the way it made explicit the psycho-sexual undercurrent of the torture porn genre. It's a hard film to watch, but it has more cinematic value than twenty Saw sequels.
My house, my rules, my coffee

Mr. Merrill Lehrl

Does it use psycho-sexual motifs to justify its violent content or for self-critical purposes, i.e. do the motifs elevate the material into higher thematic grounds or simply amp the drama?
"If I had to hold up the most heavily fortified bank in America," Bolaño says, "I'd take a gang of poets. The attempt would probably end in disaster, but it would be beautiful."

polkablues

That's actually the big critical controversy over the film. I feel like it's tackling its themes with an eye toward an intellectual critical analysis of them, but there are a number of reviews I've read that feel otherwise, that it's extra shocking simply for the sake of being extra shocking. This isn't to say I don't think it has its problems, but I'm convinced there's more to it than its surface level.
My house, my rules, my coffee

matt35mm

Hey, funnily enough I'm downloading A Serbian Film as I read this. It's actually playing at the theater next to me, and I'd normally prefer to see it there, but apparently the film is so extreme that there has been no distribution of the full, uncut version, so the only way to view the uncensored film is to download a DVD screener that was making the rounds before all the hoopla.

It actually took me a decent amount of research to figure that out, as there is a British cut that has like 5 minutes cut out, and an NC-17 cut in American theaters that has 2 minutes cut out, and a legal online stream of the movie that calls itself the uncut version but actually has 5 to 10 seconds cut out of it.

I've read all sorts of things about the movie and I'm glad to see you say what you're saying, Polka. I don't normally seek out "torture porn," but I try to seek out interesting and different film experiences, and this sounds like maybe it could be that.

Pas

It's not a good movie by any standard. I made a big post about it last night be deleted it this morning because it made me look like heartless bastard.

polkablues

However anyone feels about A Serbian Film, the important thing is that we continue talking about it instead of the godforsaken Straw Dogs remake that this thread is purportedly about.
My house, my rules, my coffee

Pubrick

Fuck a Serbian film. I felt sick just reading the whole plot on wikipedia and watching the trailer.

Whatever "themes" it ostensibly deals with can be addressed just as well if not better without resorting to extreme violent rape, misoginy, child sodomy, etc. It adds nothing to the dialogue which in any event remains centered on the extreme brutality of the film and not on it's supposedly high aspirations.

The filmmakers said it's a metaphor for the treatment by the eponymous government but you obviously wouldn't know that from watching a guy rape his own son up the..... i can't even finish that sentence without feeling sick let alone imagine the depravity of these people who enjoy FILMING this shit.

I don't think my opinion would be any different having seen it.. nor would the validity of my criticism be affected.
under the paving stones.

polkablues

I can understand not wanting to watch it, but I can't understand dismissing it out of hand.  Is morally abhorrent subject matter off-limits to film in your view, then?  Or is it cool as long as it's not shown in a way that makes us uncomfortable?  That, to me, seems way worse.
My house, my rules, my coffee

matt35mm

Oh right, I forgot that that we were talking about A Serbian Film in this thread (it should be split into its own thread, perhaps?).

I saw it. I had a very different reaction than most people, in that I thought it was funny. I think it's a dark comedy/satire. I actually didn't find it disturbing, and I watched the truly uncut version.

I suspect that it's possible that the censored version is more disturbing. It reminds me of Robocop, where the violence was originally so over the top and laughable, but got an X-rating, then was cut down to a level that just ended up feeling like realistic and horrifying violence.

But there's so much that's so over-the-top and ridiculous and funny that I really do think that this was intended to be a satire. A satire about serious stuff, to be sure, and there is probably some sincere rage about the Serbian government. I think it's a satire on obsessive artists and extreme things that are done for the sake of "important art," as well as on authoritarianism within the society (the film within the film is shot by cops or cop-like people who, rather than just doing their job objectively, keep entering the scene and fucking people). And in a satire, it makes sense to do the thing that you're making fun of, which is part of why this film had to be so extreme. If it wasn't extreme, it wouldn't be funny.

Of course, if you're not willing to find it funny, then it just comes off as sick and horrifying. It's obvious that the movie has a "point" that it's trying to get across, but if you're not seeing the humor, or if you're hearing about this film from other people, you'd think that it was very serious about that "point."

I think there was one review that likened the movie to a filmed "Aristocrats" joke, because the very last scene is a silly punchline (and is funny) after having heard the most horrendous stuff that the mind can come up with. I think the movie definitely works that way. In fact, all the stuff that happens in this movie is stuff that you hear in Aristocrats jokes (full of incest, baby rape, shitting and eating shit and whatever else you can think of). It's supposed to be so ridiculously terrible that you laugh.

I don't think you're supposed to take the morality of the movie seriously, or have any serious moral dilemma about watching it (though, of course, a lot of people always will with this kind of content). It's in your face in the way that comedy is often in your face.

It's not a great movie and you're not missing much by not seeing it, but I think that the impression that the hype gives you is not quite accurate because not a lot of people are watching it as a comedy.

To clarify: When I say it's funny, I don't mean in a "so bad it's funny" kind of way, but I actually think that it's intended to be funny. Not exactly wall to wall laughs but it's not super serious, either.

polkablues

Very well said. I agree entirely.
My house, my rules, my coffee

Ravi

Ugh, reading the Wikipedia entry for A Serbian Film before bedtime was a bad idea. Glad I didn't watch the trailer. I'm probably going to watch the film at some point, but I'll have to watch it with someone else in the room. The film sounds abhorrent, but at the same time I'm kind of interested in testing my limits as a moviegoer and seeing whether there's actually anything to this film.

polkablues

My house, my rules, my coffee

Mr. Merrill Lehrl

They're straight taking a stinky poo on the original.
"If I had to hold up the most heavily fortified bank in America," Bolaño says, "I'd take a gang of poets. The attempt would probably end in disaster, but it would be beautiful."