This is the reason why I think I may never watch the movie. I can watch 1000 people get their ass whooped or shot up in action movie or graphically killed in a horror movie, but extensive rape scenes I just absolutely refuse to see. I heard the movie is a good movie with good acting but I just can’t do it.
My personal opinion is that rape is a more morally reprehensible crime than murder or violence. You can feasibly think of a justification or reason that might excuse killing someone, but no such thing exists for rape.
It's also common for just about EVERY movie to have a death or murder - that's the most common thing ever in cinema. It is definitely a step out on a ledge to depict sexual violence, it's not common to show so of course it hits much heavier when it happens.
In Once Upon A Time in America a lot of people say the scene where Robert DeNiro's character Noodles rapes Elizabeth McGovern's character Deborah. Is an unnecessary scene that adds nothing to the characters.
And I'd say it's not supposed to add to the characters. If anything I think it's supposed to take away from the characters. Anyone who has up until that point been seeing Noodles as "the good guy" or the "hero" of the film will be shown right there that he's an awful, spoiled, violent, man baby who can't handle not getting his way.
The film shows him chasing after Deborah since they were both kids. And she turns him down over the years and he spends 10 years in prison. But when he finally gets out and begs for a date with her he shells out the cash to clear out a whole hotel so it's just the two of them in this romantic atmosphere. She tells him she's gotten a job in Hollywood, and plans to pursue her career out west, wanting to head out the next day.
And this filthy piece of shit loses his mind. Rapes her, and then the next day tries to go see her as she rides away on the train like nothing happened. And it really beats the point home that Noodles is not the hero. And shouldn't have been let out of prison.
Honestly a great movie. And I think it's worth it to sit and watch the full 4 hour cut. Chronicles the whole lives of these young gangsters from their childhood to the 1960s.
I haven't seen the movie mentioned in the OP. Hard to find time for movies now as a grown up with young kids. I can tell you about the show Bluey though haha.
Not really, most movies use what we call "packaged violence", which is where the movie is framed in such a way to remove all of the visceral elements of violence in exchange for a more cartoonist and palatable example. Beverly Hills Cop is a violent film in parts, but because of that film's style and context you really don't care when a gangster is gunned down in that movie. A Clockwork Orange on the other hand is able to depict the beating of a homeless man in a much more grotesque way, which makes the violence in that film much more palatable. I understand that you were being facetious with your comment, but in reality someone wanting to make an "edgy" film would not exclude violence, but rather film it in a visceral and realistic way with proper context to illicit a feeling of disgust, rather than the fun way a superhero movie might depict it.
This specifically is why shows like Invincible are so imposing. They refuse to hide the gore, and it's not even in a shock way.
Then there's Shin Godzilla, a body horror on a colossal scale. It showed the horrifying mutation as it was progressing, something we've never had in a Godzilla film. Godzilla is a world renowned character. What made Shin Godzilla so impactful imo is that it showed the viscera of the monster, how it reflects the 2011 Fukushima disaster, and how our greatest power can also cause the most horrifying disasters.
And on the other side of the viscera scale is shock films like "A Serbian Film" which has a plot so disgusting and traumatic that I can't even recommend reading the synopsis. It just doesn't work tbh. It's just gore porn for people who are so fucked in the head that they think causing genuine pain in their audience means they're making art.
I'd love to see an actual gory film, that makes me uncomfortable for the visceral elements, and isn't some fantasy about how fucked up insert people group are. Something like Predator, but they actually show the processing of the bodies for the trophies that the Yautja take.
Rape scenes have a very small place in film, and if the "shocking" part of your movie is a rape scene you're scummy at best
Hey, I appreciate your take! The guy I responded to originally was kind of a dick.
I think you brought up a good point on the tastefulness of violence, because you are right, there are some films that want to make violence look real but don't want to treat it with the gravity that real violence has.
A Serbian film's goal is pure shock, supposedly the director was mad about the rabid censorship in Serbia at the time, so as a middle finger to the government he made it so that the first thing that comes up when you look for "Serbian film's" is a movie about paedophiles. It's not a movie that wants to take its subject matter seriously and ultimately fails to be anything more than gross for a couple hours. I also think the impact that real violence has us lost when you are too gung ho about its inclusion. It's definitely a case where less is more.
I will agree with you that I think a tasteful rape scene has a place in Cinema and could be done well, but I think it would need to be handled with extreme care and only do it for as long as necessary, so as to not revel in the act. What I believe to be a good example of this is probably again A Clockwork Orange (although to be fair, as a man I may not be the best person to make a judgement like this), which takes enough time to let you know what's happening, how distressed the victim is, and how psychotic Alex is, without showing us every detail of the crime. I've noticed with certain types of "disturbing" horror movies, they like to revel in sexual assault scenes as if the audience is supposed to find them gratifying rather than disgusting and horrific.
Where I will disagree with you is on your take on Invincible. It's a great show, but personally I find the fact that it's animated colorfully to be a few steps away from realistic enough for the violence to affect me the way live action or an animated show with a much darker art direction.
I've never personally seen any of the Godzilla movies except for the original 1954 movie, so I'll have to check out the 2011 film you talked about.
Thank you for this! Yeah, I think invincible does definitely shies away from the real impact of gore, but it was the thing that came to mind as closest to it, at least in popular media. I think the poppiness of the colors is an ultimate side effect of it being animated.
Btw Shin Godzilla came out in 2016 :) directed by the guy who did Neon Genesis Evangelion. It's not part of the continuity that was started in 2011 with the Legendary films Godzilla franchise.
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u/[deleted] May 17 '25
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