Subject: gender: Watching with eyes wide shut
From: Peter Debruge (peterd@mail.utexas.edu)
Date: Thu Oct 21 1999 - 04:06:03 CDT
Sometimes I consider the greatest drawback in reviewing movies the
desensitization that comes with seeing extreme content in film after
film. I find that I become calloused to a great deal of the violence in
movies, and I tend to accept the full range of "deviant" sex I see
depicted as some sort of common practice (if fathers rape their sons
nearly as often as I've seen it happen in dysfunctional family films,
this country is beyond salvation).
What I saw this afternoon broke through every defensive barrier I have
managed to erect between my cushy little reality and the world I see on
film. Sure, they were actors, but even acting out what I saw requires a
certain degree of participation. How much different could it really have
been walking up to four guys and asking them to "act" in a movie in
which they could pretend to rape a woman, considering that's really just
about what we see happen on film?
I guess what I found most disturbing about this film was the way I felt
myself somehow implicated in the whole thing. There I was, forced into a
role somewhere between voyeur and participant. As offensive as it was, I
can't discredit the careful thought that went into its construction.
Before we even get to the part that turned my skin clammy and my stomach
inside out (I would have retired to the bathroom to lean over a toilet
bowl had I not been so dependent on knowing what would become of the
victim and her assailants), we see a young woman passed out as the guy
beside her takes casual advantage of her dazed state. And then there's
the charge that comes with walking in on a forbidden act, a curiosity to
see more that reverts to horror when the filmmaker gathers his friends
and we are finally forced to watch.
I can't help thinking of a little experiment a couple filmmakers tried
this summer, packaging a not-too-different piece as a highly marketable
indie horror film. There's more than a superficial similarity, and I
must say that what I saw today was far more effective. That millions of
viewers turned out to watch THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT believing that what
they were seeing was really the last days of three living humans strikes
me as just as disturbing, though the filmmakers there had nothing on
this film for shock value.
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PETER DEBRUGE http://go.to/themovies
Entertainment Editor THE DAILY TEXAN
4330 Bull Creek #113 peterd@mail.utexas.edu
Austin, TX 78731 (512) 589-8721
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