Take Your Political Correctness Elsewhere

Many months have passed since I watched 'The Hateful 8' at the cinema, and got to bask in all it's violent glory. It's a film I had been looking forward to when I heard about it's script being leaked. I never bothered reading the script, instead I wanted to remain surprised, and I am so glad I held out from taking a sneak peak of what was to come. I saw 'The Hateful 8' with my four best friends and my partner, who are all open minded when it comes to film, and will usually give most things ago no matter how awful they are. These people were the best kind of people to watch 'The Hateful 8' with, because I knew once the film was over, the discussion would be full of praise, happiness, and our nostalgic buttons would be pressed. Is it bad when that button is pressed? Hell no. I know you elitist film snobs out there don't like to let yourself enjoy films which pander to your childhood or a period in your life where you were more impressionable. It seems we cannot like a film just because it pays homage to a genre or style of film, as well as being fun, which for people can be extremely engaging. It's becoming increasingly aware that we have to like films that have a message, as well as appeal to subcultures that were once ostracised. We are meant to be equals when it comes to film, we are meant to make sure that our films are politically correct with the right amount of diversity. This is how we are meant to engage with our audiences now as we are apparently more 'socially aware'. Well I call bullshit on that.

After watching 'The Hateful 8', I decided to peruse the message boards on IMDB as well as reading articles and essays on the film; opinions were very divided. 'The Hateful 8' is a film with no middle ground, you either loved it for it's creativity to incorporate themes from the film The Thing and melt that with the Exploitation and Spaghetti Western genres, or you hated it for it's lack of strong female lead, over-the-top violence and time length. I read an article on the film which stated how women didn't like the way Jennifer Jason Leigh's character was constantly battered around, whether it was an elbow to the face or her graphic demise. Firstly let's get this straight, her character was in a gang, she murdered people, she was caught, she had a freakin' bounty on her head which is explained pretty early on in the film, so why the problem? Is it because she's a woman? Would you have the same reaction if it was a white man? No you wouldn't.

The more threads and articles that I read on 'The Hateful 8', the more I was aware that people are really trying to 'police' what we can and can't watch by deeming what is socially acceptable, and what isn't. I am not saying important real life issues should not be brought to us through film. I thought 'Spotlight' was a magnificent film which brought forward an issue that NEEDED to be addressed. Yes we do need films like 'Spotlight', but what ever happened to us being in a fantasy. Why can't we just go to the cinema and watch a film because we like the genre or a specific actor that is appearing in the film? Why does it always have to be about a social justice theme? Why is everything so political, and why are film fans like myself forced to feel bad for not wanting to continuously bask in depression on-screen? I suffer from depression and anxiety and have done so for many years. I don't watch or read the news, you may think I am uneducated but to be honest I am depressed as it is already without having constant updates on why the human race is so shitty.

I love exploitation films which push the envelope and hold up a mirror to society and show everyone for what they really are in a grotesque and vile manner; I will never deny that. However I am deemed someone with a low standard of film taste because I love films like 'I Spit on Your Grave', which has just as much an important message to give as 'The Accused' - another film depicting the effects of gang rape. But why is one film deemed a respectable piece of cinema with stunning and real portrayals that are worthy of Academy Awards, and the other depicted as dirt not worthy of a proper cinematic release? Why the double standards? Oh you want diversity, you want to tackle 'tough' issues Hollywood, just as long as you get to pick and choose right?

Violence in films is an issue that is brought up a lot on the IMDB message boards, Twitter and Facebook. I cannot count the amount of articles I have read where people are disgusted with violence, depravity or anything with a tiny whiff of a film being gratuitous. I understand that violence is not everyone's cup of tea, that I have no problem with. But when I see the same kind of people that post those articles and shrieking "WON'T SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN" and then posting comments about how much they 'adored' the pretentious arthouse violence that we see in films like 'Salo' and 'Neon Demon', it makes me realise just how many hypocrites there are.

The Great Depression was a time when people needed that fantasy of a film. People would save every dollar they could to actually go to the cinema, and forget what real life bestowed upon them for a couple of hours. We are living in a time now where we are dealing with religious bigots, over-saturation of political rallies, high-school shootings, terrorists, global warming, third-wave feminism, Catholic church abuse cover-ups. And the last thing I want to see on screen is the exact same tripe which is blasted all over the news or social media.

First Blood

Before mass hysteria within the pop culture realm decided it was a great idea to make fun at Sylvester Stallone's expense, he was a respected actor, and as an audience we saw torture within his eyes and his trembling voice. In 'Rocky' we saw an underdog fighting for his one shot to prove he was strong enough emotionally and physically to go the distance with Apollo Creed. The world saw Stallone as a man with depth, character and integrity. And it's those gifts that he portrayed in the tortured soul of John Rambo in 1982's 'First Blood'. While the 3 sequels of the original 'First Blood' are very violent and very much action films, 'First Blood' will forever be a drama with elements of thriller and action. John Rambo is a young man who has been through so much in such a short amount of time, and has had to do a lot of growing up because of the horrors that he has seen in Vietnam. This is truly a sad story of a man who is just misunderstood, a man who is unfairly treated by narrow minded simpletons.

Here is the run down. John Rambo who is trying to track down his friend from the Vietnam War only to discover he died of Cancer. Clearly devastated he walks into the local town and gets picked up by Sheriff Teasle who warns him that people like him don't belong in his quiet, boring town, so he drives him out of town and leaves him there, yet Rambo just immediately walks back in the direction he just came. Infuriated, Teasle then arrests him. Once at the police station it is pretty damn evident, that these depraved cops have nothing better to do than humiliate, and degrade Rambo which is giving him flashbacks of what he went through in Vietnam. And then finally Rambo snaps, kicking the absolute shit out of the cops in sight and escaping the station and stealing some random guy's motorbike with pure style. Rambo then lures Sheriff Teasle and his cop squad into the forest and then the real hunt begins. 

Sylvester Stallone is just perfection as John Rambo. No one could breath life into this character. He is so raw, gritty, broken, and all he wants is some peace in his life. He endured hell on earth while serving in Vietnam, and it's those hellish experiences which have stayed buried deep within his psyche and boiled over into his whole being. The character of John Rambo doesn't talk much for majority of the film, he doesn't need to. Those sad eyes tell a tale of pure sadness and horror, what he has seen, he can never unseen, those horrors don't just live in his nightmares when he sleeps, they are there with him every day, never leaving his mind; all it takes is a trigger. You can see that Stallone definitely can understand the character of John Rambo, and what he is really about. Stallone is definitely one of the most underrated actors out there. He has the ability to make the viewer experience a roller-coaster of emotions, he wants you to live and breathe the character with him, and that explains why I am always a blubbering like a baby whenever I watch 'First Blood'. It physically hurts my chest when I see him reliving all the awful experiences over and over again, 'First Blood' is just way more than any other action movie.

Brian Dennehy portrays the arrogant, narrow minded Sheriff Teasle, who would rather hunt, and kill a Vietnam war Hero than admitting he was wrong in the first place for even approaching him in the beginning and assuming John Rambo was up to no good. You can't help but love Brian Dennehy because you just love to hate Teasle. He is such a scumbag who abuses his power, and no one has ever kicked him off his self appointed pedestal until now. Dennehy was really on the money with this portrayal and he just makes you despise his character regardless of any emotional journey he may go through during the film. If all you want to do is slice his throat open with Rambo's knife whenever you see Teasle on screen, I think he did his job.

Jerry Goldsmith did a magnificent job of producing the musical score for 'First Blood'. The opening music just sets the tone for the film, it conveys the sorrow and bad memories that lie within John Rambo and how how they continue to affect his life on a daily basis. The musical score spoke volumes, and really added raw emotion to the film. Jerry Goldsmith composed a perfect musical score which also proves he was also in tune with the character of John Rambo. Goldsmith brought out Rambo's hell, his experiences, his flashbacks out through the music, and I believe that was a lot of the glue that held the film together.

My favourite scene would have to be the ending, it is just pure honesty and tragedy; a fallen hero struggling to come to terms with what his life is after his hellish ordeal. It is the first time throughout the film, where we learn how he really feels, what he thinks and what stays in his mind. The things people have put him through during and after the Vietnam war have shaped him, and therefore he is having trouble adjusting to normal life. He feels he is still stuck in the war, people will not let him forget what they thought that war was about, and instead of been treated a hero who endured so much pain for his country, he was cast aside, spit on, and banished by society. John Rambo lost his friends to a war which didn't need to happen, and he feels he is going to be paying for it for the rest of his life. When he breaks down crying and falls to the floor, it is incredibly hard to watch, because you feel the pain, you feel like your heart is going to burst out of your chest, it just hurts. It is heartbreaking to see a man so broken up inside, he doesn't know who he is, what his purpose is, so when he does break down you can see that is years of bottled up suppression of frustration, sorrow and anger. John Rambo is just a man, and all he wanted when he walked into that town was something to eat, and they took away a basic right of any human being away from him, just because of the assumption made about what kind of person he was. 

'First Blood' is a tragic story of a man trying to get a grip on reality with close minded people standing in his way. Sylvester Stallone is an absolute treat to watch in this, and his portrayal of John Rambo is timeless, and it is this role which will go down as one of cinema's most iconic roles of all times. If you haven't seen 'First Blood', you have been living under a rock, so you need to finish reading this review, grab several Cherry Coke's and you need to buy this film and watch it ASAP. I have found 'First Blood' to be one of those kind of films that I need to watch to have a good cry, now I know majority of women would do that with trash like 'The Notebook', but since I have more male chromosomes than most women, I think it's perfectly acceptable. Now forget what the haters of action films say about Stallone and his portrayal of Rambo, because all they see are the muscles and the explosions. But since the readers of my articles are intelligent life forms you should watch 'First Blood' for the brutality, the depth, the horror and the dark beauty surrounding John Rambo.

Creed AKA Many Manly Tears

I have been a 'Rocky' fan since I can remember. As a little kid I just saw them as thrilling boxing movies with super scary villains like Clubber Lang and Ivan Drago. As I grew older I saw them as films of passion, determination, courage and above all, heart.  The 'Rocky' franchise, is more than just six films about an underdog boxer who came from nothing, this is a legacy. Stallone fought hard for his creation to be on the big screen, and he fought harder to not only write and star in these films, but he also fought to keep each film relevant to the time they were in.  Stallone has passed the reigns onto director Ryan Coogler, so can this man undertake a huge task of re-imagining an old franchise for the new generation? Let's take a look at it. 

It's no secret that Adonis Johnson is Apollo's son as a result of an extramarital affair. Adonis grows quite bitter in regards to his famous father, and wants to branch out into boxing on his own terms with a different name. From just knowing that, you can already feel the tension brewing inside of Adonis because he already feels he has enough to prove just by going into the ring, so you can imagine the heights he would have to reach if people knew he was Apollo's son; unfortunately his real name doesn't stay secret for long. Adonis approaches his father's famous adversary Rocky Balboa in the hopes he will train him. At first you see Rocky doesn't want to do this, but deep down he feels it's his obligation to steer him in the right direction. In the midst of all of the training and emotional weight that Adonis is carrying, he manages to find a little love, with his very sweet yet streetwise neighbour, Bianca. Seem's like despite a few things, it seems to be all going well, that soon changes. Rocky becomes very ill and you can see he just doesn't want to fight any more. He has been fighting his whole life, he fought the streets, getting Mickey to train him, the emotional and physical toll for losing Mickey, Apollo, Adrian and now Paulie, as well as the respect from his own son. But Adonis convinces him to keep on fighting, and side by side they keep on fighting together. And despite all of the emotional baggage that is coming with everything Adonis still keeps his focus on training for his title shot against world champion 'Pretty' Ricky Conlan.

Michael B. Jordan's performance was beyond anything I expected. I enjoyed watching the duality of his character, because even though he's very straight laced and a lot more humble than his father, you can see Apollo's determination to get what he wants but through Adonis; that was so lovely to see. His portrayal of Adonis showed a lot of heart, and it was brilliant seeing so much of that being brought up to the surface especially for such a newcomer in the acting biz. This thought alone, got me thinking if Michael. B Jordan can portray such vulnerability at this stage in his acting career through the first installment of what could be a 'Creed' franchise, then who knows what else he could bring to the table in his future career. 

Sylvester Stallone knocks it out of the park once again with his portrayal of Philadelphia's favourite son, Rocky Balboa. Whenever I watch Stallone as Rocky, it is so evident that this character really is his second skin, and his portrayal in 'Creed' was no exception. We see Rocky later in his life, he no longer has Paulie, his son has moved to Canada, and all he has is his restaurant and his daily visits to sit and talk to Paulie and Adrian in the local cemetery. For the first time since 'Rocky III' we see Rocky wanting to give it up, but this time it isn't his career, instead it's his life. As soon as I saw Rocky feeling so weak, all the memories started flooding back from the previous films; I was a blubbering mess. 

Even though I was crying like a big girl, I managed to wipe away those tears with my damp sleeve of my jacket, and fire up over the brutal fight scenes. In all my years of watching action and martial art films, I will say that the punches thrown in 'Creed' were some of the most painful looking punches I have seen ever being showed on screen. With each punch thrown, I could hear the film audience wince, and that was exactly what I wanted to hear. There aren't enough words that can convey the fight scenes, other than they will make your body erupt. 

'Creed' was a film that I was certain I was going to love, and I knew I would be sitting there crying for a lot of the film, but there was a part of me which was cautious. I just didn't want my favourite on-screen character of all time not get the right treatment, as this was going to be directed and written by someone new. But Ryan Coogler exceeded my expectations, he brought everything which was necessary to make this film truly wonderful. I sat there majority of the film crying, I was so overcome with emotion, and in so much disbelief that I was so lucky to witness such tender moments on film. 'Creed' possesses a lot of the same raw emotion and aura of the first two 'Rocky' films, this was something I thought I would never see again. For the fans of the 'Rocky' franchise you won't be disappointed, because sure it does cater to the generation however, it has a lot of nods to the older films, which will make you smile and may even make you cry. And for anyone asking, YES THERE IS A MONTAGE!!! I feel the montage is very different, but again has the classic elements which make a work-out montage epic, oh and trust me this one is epic. 

Watching 'Creed' was seeing everything that Rocky had previously experienced and endured come full circle and now it lives through Adonis. Rocky has fought, lived, loved, and lost, and the fans of his legacy have seen him go through that since 'Rocky' was first released in 1976. As lovers of the film and most of all Stallone's character creation, it's as if we have felt everything Rocky has endured. We have seen him when he felt like he was nothing, and that he couldn't achieve anything great, to becoming a champion. But it isn't just about that lovely gold belt around his waist that makes him a champion. He trained hard, not just physically but emotionally, mentally and psychologically. He found passion and love with Adrian, who always supported him and always kept him grounded no matter how tough the circumstances were. He had the courage to make that leap even though the odds were against him and there would be a big chance that he would fail. And most of all he had the heart to keep going, to keep fighting, to keep loving, despite everyone around him leaving. That is why he is a champion.

My Writing Guilt

I never want to be a 'vanilla' writer. It is something I have always said to myself. But I think for a brief period I was sitting on that cliff, just waiting to jump into the ocean that conveys the colours of beige, vanilla and grey. I never want to be bland. If writing is forced out of me to the point I am rushed into a deadline, I suddenly shut down like the T-900.  But do you know what annoys me more? The fact that when this bland article hits the internet and people praise me for it, I feel like a failure; I know I can do better. I have wrote a couple hundred articles here and there and it took me a long time to find my voice, and when I found it, I felt at peace with myself. But last year something got rocked within me. I felt my confidence in myself and my abilities just leave; I haven't fully recovered. At first I thought it was writers block, and maybe for a short time it was, but in the past year it has developed into more than that. I would feel physically ill trying to produce an article. If someone says to me "Jade, I need an article in an hour", I find it difficult. And I feel that a lot of people will think that just because I write, I can produce an article in a short span of time. I need the idea to stew, and I need my imagination to be conveyed through emotion, not through recycled words that I could find on any site reviewing the latest films. There was something that always stuck with me that someone had said, "How can you be a writer, if you don't write several articles a week". My emotions are not a factory that churns out the same repetitive bollocks just so you can be higher on the Google food chain.

 I have been plagued by so much guilt because I just felt I couldn't give my all. Writing about film didn't even seem to be about expressing my own personal experience, it was just about filling quota. I understand that for publications you do have to concentrate more on the technical aspects, which I do briefly explore, but there's a difference between what I do, and what these factory workers do; I explore human emotion, and experience. Watching a film, whether it's with friends or by yourself is an experience, not just a way to pass the time. It is about being more thorough with your film journey and finding things within yourself that you didn't think could exist. Film is learning about yourself, finding elements that you gravitate towards more, as well as opening new doors.

Anybody can be a film critic, and anybody can be a film lover, but I believe not everyone can write about film with raw emotion. In my eyes it all looks a little contrived. I have written for a couple of sites in the past, and have been told they 'own' my work and therefore can't use it on my own personal blog which is non-profit. No one owns my words. If I was being paid by any of these sites then I could understand. But we know it all comes down to site traffic. I am not saying that my work is amazing, because it isn't. But I believe my words are honest, and my thoughts are organic and mine alone. They are not glossy, fake and empty. Why does everyone strive to be the same? Why do people accept mediocrity as greatness? Just because a lot of writers express themselves in a way that reads like they swallowed the dictionary, it doesn't mean there is any more emotional credibility in what they are saying. When I read reviews, discussing aspects like cinematography it doesn't make me want to watch the movie, instead it turns me off it. But every now and again I will read a review that discusses ideas, passion and experience, and those are the elements I look for when I need film recommendations

 Bit by bit, I am trying to restore my confidence. I miss the days where I would take a week to write an article, and stay up late to make sure the finishing touches were just right.I miss being emotionally and physically exhausted when I put in everything I had into an article; I actually felt proud of myself and my work. I miss the process of dissecting scenes and gutting them of all their brutality, and rawness and conveying them with my words, I hope one day I can experience those processes again; it made me happy.

Video Nasties: A Misinformed Society

Banning films seems like a normal thing now doesn’t it?

Making cuts to certain scenes so the film is more socially accepted is an important part of distributing films to the big screen and to the DVD. But back in the 1980’s when VHS and the very short-lived Betamax was king, banning and making cuts to films were causing havoc in Britain. 

Watching a film on VHS in the comfort of your own home was convenient, and a brand new medium, so you can imagine the excitement surrounding this new film revolution. Independent video stores were all of a sudden popping up over night, and corner stores were making room to shelve the latest VHS releases. But suddenly this excitement, and the potential to make a lot of money, got shot down. Police, who had no idea what they were looking for, were seizing VHS, all because of mass hysteria, scare tactics by the government, religious groups and misinformed ‘journalists’. It was this lethal combination that destroyed businesses, peoples passions and the freedom for people to watch whatever the hell they wanted.

The year was 1982, the FIFA world cup was being held in Spain, ‘First Blood’ had been released and the term ‘Video Nasty’ had been pinned, and it wasn’t going away and so the scare tactics had begun. It was clear from the beginning that the police and government didn’t actually know what they were looking for, all they knew is that overly violent, bloody and sexual violent films needed to be banned even if they hadn’t even seen the films. Apparently the brief synopsis on the back of the VHS cover told them everything they needed to know. Ignorance sure is bliss right? There were a lot of low budget horror films that did make the grade and were able to be distributed but it was films like Driller Killer and the extremely controversial Cannibal Holocaust that set off the dinner bell for the hungry government sharks. The graphic VHS cover of Driller Killer is what started VHS stores getting seized of their products. Police were just raiding video stores in the hope they will find something that looks just as graphic, depraved and explicit. It was clearly way more important to stop entertainment rather than try and find real life depraved criminals. 

For a number of years the British people would were quite fearful that their own children were going to end up as depraved as the serial killer Yorkshire Ripper if they somehow managed to obtain a film like Driller Killer.  When you went to the cinema, there were classifications, which obviously didn’t let minors into films, which were deemed inappropriate, sounds normal right? Well if a six year old walked into a video store and picked up a copy of Snuff, do you really think a grown up sales assistant is going to sell the kid a copy of it to rent?  Don’t you think it would be a little stupid of them to do so especially since law enforcement and the government were cracking down on video stores for possessing certain films?

It’s obvious that kids at times were going to have a video nasty in their possession however, do you think maybe that is the result of an older person obtaining a copy; like an older brother or maybe even a PARENT!

After the government cracked down on video stores selling video nasties, many of these stores had these films hidden behind the counter in brown paper bags or blank VHS cases, so unless these young kids knew exactly what they were looking for, something tells me these films were not ‘Raping our children’s minds’; to quote The Daily Mail in 1983. It’s scare tactics and terrible journalism like that, which instils fear into the public. Can you just imagine the meeting in the boardroom at the Daily Mail? The conversation would have sounded something like this;

“Okay what is one way we can get more readers,  and make more money?  Well, the public hate rape, and they hate anything bad happening to children, oh I got it, we will make them think that video nasties that hardly any children have obtained are raping their minds…oh and we need to put it in bold lettering, really bold lettering, because if we don’t how will the British public know that we are serious?” 

That kind of ‘journalism’ is absolutely disgusting. For a kick off, most of them hadn’t even seen past the first few minutes of a video nasty film, and probably wouldn’t know how to react if they did see one it’s in entirety. 

Another issue in all of this is something that needs to be brought up; did any of the law enforcement, government, religious groups and so called journalists actually understand that these were just films? Did they notice that they were just entertainment? Did they notice that there were people getting paid to act? And more importantly did they understand that the world had been on a cultural revolution in the last 30 years years with the civil rights movement, the Vietnam war, the corruption surrounding numerous governments and because of that people were more freely saying ‘Fuck you’, because they just had enough? How did that go unnoticed? Why weren’t anthropologists, and psychologists brought in to tell the world,

“Shit thing’s have changed, people don’t want something clean cut and glossy anymore, they want honesty, brutality and overall imagination”.

 It doesn’t take a film historian to know that when the times change, so does people’s creativity. Take a look at the music industry and how that dramatically changed generations and it made people socially aware of what political figures were spoon-feeding them. Elvis Presley was originally seen as the spawn of Satan with his gyrating hips, but the world mourned when he died. And it’s the same now with film, although it’s a little bit more selective. Depraved films can be socially accepted IF it is done in an artistic way. To be more blunt, if you have really great camera work and a foreign director attached to the piece, then it’s accepted.

Why was cracking down on these films so important? What was achieved in all of this? There is no clear indication on why 72 films were put on the infamous ‘Video Nasties List’, but what is a definite is that all these different groups came together for what they told the British public was a common good; but really it was all because they wanted to distract everyone from what was really going on in their own backyard. And the one thing that they knew they could do is create mass hysteria by faking statistics and scaring parents into believing that their children were all going to be serial killers and rapists.

Films do not make people want to go out and commit heinous crimes. If someone is psychologically unwell chances are they were going to commit a violent act without a films influence. No one ever bothers to look at criminal’s surroundings. Did they ever think to look at the parents? When you see neglectful parents wondering why their kids are acting up or going astray why do they feel they need to blame society and the media? No one in entertainment should be a role model, because they aren’t. And no one should take a film seriously and act on it, because if they do, it proves they were mentally ill to begin with and have actually lost touch of reality.  Blaming entertainment for all societies wrong doings is a cop out, and people that do all the finger pointing are complacent humans with no real insight to anything that goes on outside their brain. So when a genre of film like horror and exploitation invades their mind they don’t know how to handle it or how to understand it, so what do they do? Try and destroy it.

For anyone who doesn’t know my film taste or passion, I shall give you an insight into my feelings on the video nasties. I was exposed to violent, gory and intense films very young, and they were not necessarily of the horror and exploitation genre, they were dramas. I saw films I shouldn’t but my parents were far stricter in other areas. I rented VHS weekly and sometimes I loved the trailers before and after the movies that were on the tapes, and through that I remember finding new films that way. But these films were more of the gory type. And as I got older I was able to cross off a video nasty off that list one by one.

With each viewing I became more and more desensitised to what I watched, and while as I have gotten older and become a little more shut off emotionally, when I watch these films, I become more alive. Does that sound sick? Maybe to people who don’t know me, but they made me feel alive because of the imagination, the creativity, the storylines and of course the practical FX. All those elements combined together create something so wonderful, which nothing could ever compare to. The video nasty films were made in a time, which needed them to be made, because they were relevant to our time. It’s the horror and exploitation genres, which dared to show what sometimes we think about deep down. You would be a liar if you hadn’t have wondered what it would feel like to hurt someone who hurt you. As I have gotten older and watched more of these kinds of films, I have noticed a lot of these films have hidden messages in them. Sure some are just revenge films with a tonne of blood and guts and depravity. But there are some that really sit with you and get you thinking.

I wrote an article on Cannibal Holocaust, and I stated how the message of the film are that we are the real savages. After doing a lot of intense research on the video nasties, I think that message applies. I read so many newspaper articles and was sickened by the lack of journalism, knowledge and lack of care that these people had on the issues. There was a quote from The Daily Mail, which stuck with me that stated this “How many more women will be savaged and defiled by youths weaned on a diet of rape videos”. – And to that I say, how many more women will be savaged and defiled in the armed forces by men in high ranks, and when it’s reported nothing is done?  And to that I also say how many more young women will be a victim to this new rape culture where everything is posted online, and there is no justice for the victim when the rape is blatant and there in black and white for the whole world to see?

Violence, gore and sexual depravity happened a long time before films were ever made. Does anyone remember hearing about Elizabeth Bathory? Pretty sure she was bathing in virgin’s blood before a similar tactic was used in Hostel Part II. Films are not to blame for every crime ever committed, history is; film takes from history and the time it is currently in. All the groups who had it in for the video nasties didn’t understand what those films were trying to do, so they tried to destroy them and make sure people would never remember them. They remind me of the documentary crew in Cannibal Holocaust; they were taking what wasn’t theirs and doing what they wanted with them. Never mind article headlines like ‘Raping our Children’s minds’, because the minds that were getting raped were that of the misinformed British public.

The Raid 2(2014)

I hadn’t felt this sudden change in my life for a long time. My whole body had just shifted, and altered in a way I hadn’t felt to this extent. Everything I had previously known about action and martial art films had been changed. The process in which films could be made was seen in a completely different light. A new benchmark had now officially been set in my mind after I saw The Raid 2, a benchmark which is going to be very hard to match or even beat. I saw all the trailers leading up to The Raid 2 and thought to myself “This is going to be all kinds of violent I cannot believe what I am seeing in the trailers”, but nothing prepared me for what I was about to encounter.

Rama played by Iko Uwais, is back and this time he is going undercover to bring down a corrupt Indonesian crime syndicate all the while maintaining his silence but letting his martial art skills do all the talking. The narrative is very easy to follow, and while all the characters in The Raid 2 are all connected one way or another, it flows perfectly. If you have only seen it the once and find that the there are too many sub plots within in the film, I recommend seeing it again and this time focusing more on the plot instead of the action. Every scene, character and every sub plot NEEDS to be in there, everything has to connect. This is a lot different to the previous film because while the first was also outstanding, and did have a strong plot, there really wasn’t much room for character development because everyone was getting killed off at a rapid pace and the narrative could only go so far in an apartment building. Whereas The Raid 2 gets to branch out in terms of setting, plot and emotion.

 As an audience member you really get to understand the frustration, anger and at times sadness that Rama has to bottle up inside himself to get the job done just so he can protect his family. This storyline has been done dozens of times but they have never made history like The Raid 2, and nor are they likely to. “Why”? you may ask? The emotion and depth that each character feels within themselves doesn’t just come out of their mouth with dialogue, it is in their body language, the tone of their voice, the intensity within their eyes; all their life experiences that make them who they are. When watching this film, you could look at every character and analyse them to great extent and just take an educated guess of what each of them are gone through. You may be reading this and think that is total bullshit because The Raid 2 would have to be longer than it’s 150 minute running time; but it doesn’t have to be. This is what great story telling is about, this is what a lot of action films lack, but that doesn’t make them any less enjoyable. But The Raid 2 is on a different level and I think to really appreciate it’s impact you really need to let this film infiltrate your mind and you need to be heavily interested in the action genre.

The main star of the film Iko Uwais is flawless. He has made a big leap since the first film and it made the viewing experience all the more enjoyable when the camera was letting us into his mind and soul. After going through what he thought was hell in the first film, he has now a new level of maturity and experience under his belt which helps him in the long run with taking down the crime syndicate. You can see in his eyes that at times he is very conflicted with how to feel about everything in his ‘new life’ because while he wants to hate these guys, you can see he at times may genuinely enjoy their company. He feels the struggle of emotions, of what is right and wrong, but he will then remember WHY he is doing this and then it becomes clear he has to get back on the task at hand and bring them down.

The Raid 2 also managed to bring back Yayan Ruhian, who played Mad Dog in the first installment, but this time he is playing the brutal yet heartfelt character of Prakoso.  Prakoso is essentially a hit man who only kills to pay child support to his straight laced ex-wife. What I loved about Prakoso is the duality of his role. At one point he is this fast, vicious killer, who will attack on sight, and then at the flick of a switch he is a man with a caring nature and his only wish is to see his son. It was refreshing to see Ruhian take on this role in the way he did, because it was unlike his previous role as Mad Dog. Mad Dog was just an evil son-of-a-bitch, and seemed to lack emotional depth if it didn't include anger and hate.

I'm just going to interject something personal here because my reaction to this film was so visceral. With each passing moment, I was clenching the cinema seat and just staring intently at the screen, and I just couldn't look away. And just when I thought I had seen everything, I experienced the fight sequences…they were unreal. As an action and martial art fanatic I had always tried to imagine the next level, something I had never seen, and then The Raid 2 happened. Each fight sequence held my attention, it kept me enthralled, I was in awe and it made me so happy; I was squealing inside and out. The end fight sequence was just something I had never imagined. I felt as though I was giving my heart and mind to the character of Rama hoping he would get through the next few minutes in one piece. Both of these tremendous fighters had bodies which flowed like water, each move was more than just a move, it was a purpose, it was emotion, it was their lives. I didn’t see this as just violence that was there for entertainment, I saw it as something so much more vital and important that needed to be expressed. 

While The Raid 2 had a lot more exposure than the original, it is still a film franchise which is partially unknown to a lot of people, even to fans of the genre. They are several factors to that, one them being that these films are low budget compared to a lot of other martial art and action films; the bigger the budget does not always mean the better the film. The upside of these being of a lesser budget means that the cast, crew and film makers had to come together and really focus on making this have an impact on the genre as well as cinema as a whole. They are raw films that don't have that 'Hollywood Gloss' slapped all over it and it's stripped bare of anything that could take away any authenticity to the film; that is what I respect about Gareth Evans and The Raid. 

The Raid 2 is definitely rewriting pages in the action and martial arts history book, and is going to be remembered as a timeless piece of a cinema which paved the way for the next generation of film makers, actors and martial artists to come. It is also going to change lives and alter the way an audience looks at a film. It left me speechless, excited, happy and most of all complete. 

I Spit on Your Grave(1978)

Our culture is very desensitized to a lot of things these days, whether it’s practical FX that they see on screen or whether it’s real life horror. There are films which convey the real life horror; it’s as if we are truly experiencing them. It’s the real horror, which can be something far more scary and confronting than any slasher with a dumb teenager who trips up in the woods and BANG knife to the face!

While those films are extremely enjoyable, there are other films that are made, that need to bring an audience to their knees, to make them question what they just saw on screen and more importantly make them think and feel something. An audience needs to feel a certain emotion, maybe it’s unfamiliar or maybe what they are seeing on screen is something that resonates a real life experience which then connects with them on a whole different level; and this is why I Spit on Your Grave is such an important piece of cinema.

In 1978 the world was exposed to brutality and honesty with the release of I Spit on Your Grave. While no company would distribute it, it did manage to reach an audience at local Drive-Ins. But what made this film have the notoriety it has today are several things; the extremely misinformed film reviews, and of course being on the Video Nasties list. Having such a negative aura surrounding the film has been a blessing and a curse. While the bad press has made a lot of people just make up their minds on the film without seeing it, there are a group of people out there that chose to watch it with an open mind; some understood the narrative, and some didn’t. A lot of people have said that this film is pure trash, and that all it is doing is exploiting a very serious subject and ‘making fun’ of it. But again these narrow minded views could not be more wrong.

Here we have a writer named Jennifer who is from New York and all she wants to do is get away and go somewhere quiet where she can be inspired to write. But as she enters this secluded town, she is acquainted with several men, who just see her as a sexy plaything; they don’t see her as someone who has feelings. A little while passes and her good looks and sexuality haven’t left their mind, so they try to force their mentally challenged friend Matthew to rape her; he refuses.  One by one, they rape her, violate her, make her feel less than human, punish her for being beautiful, for being confident in herself and they punish her for being a woman. After two weeks of putting herself back together physically and emotionally she gets her revenge, in the only way they can understand; through sexuality and violence. I Spit on Your Grave is far more than just a revenge film, this is a film about how women are perceived in the eyes of horny men with depraved fantasies and no limits.

Camille Keaton’s portrayal of Jennifer was astounding. You see her character go on a roller-coaster ride of emotions, and everything is played so naturally. You couldn’t have just had any actress with a decent pair of breasts and a pretty face to play the role of Jennifer. This film needed an emotionally strong woman who could delve inside her psyche and bring forth that honest emotion that the audience could connect with; and Camille Keaton did just that.

In a lot of exploitation films of the 70s and 80s, the musical score was a big part of the film that would bring out emotion in the audience. However in I Spit on Your Grave, there is little to no music. Even the opening title sequence is without a score, but having zero music adds to the reality, it isn’t a distraction. The film’s director Meir Zarchi didn’t hide the fact that this film was going to be brutal, and he made the potential viewers of this film aware of what they were getting themselves into; so why try and disguise the honesty with an elaborate musical score?

You cannot talk about I Spit on Your Grave without mentioning the extremely graphic rape scenes, so as a woman here is my interpretation of what I saw and how it made me feel. There have been many films which have had such sick acts incorporated into them, some make you think the film is pure trash, some make you not believe the actors portrayal and others make you connect with it in one way or another. As a woman there are times where you will have that moment of feeling used, hurt, betrayed and violated and those feelings stick with you, they never leave. And obviously seeing a film that heavily focuses on rape can touch a nerve inside you. 

I Spit on Your Grave touched a nerve within me, but I could never turn the off the film. You see the rapes for what they are; you see them with little to no musical score so there’s no distraction. You see camera angles that reflect Jennifer’s pain, as well as the depraved look on her rapists face. You see the moments leading up to it, during, and the aftermath. You see a natural progression of what happens to a woman physically and emotionally and how she deals with this pain. I Spit on Your Grave is relevant to film history, not because it was banned, and not because it was controversial; it’s relevant because it’s honest. 

Sure it’s a revenge film and she gives the men what they rightfully deserve, but this isn’t just an exploitation film that degrades women and gives a male viewer something to masturbate over. What really got to me more than just the rape scenes themselves are the aftermath of what has happened to her. Seeing her crawl away, covered in dirt, cuts, bruises and blood and looking into those dead eyes, hit my emotions to the core and I even cried. They bestowed a depraved act on her because they saw her as a tease, a whore, something that is just empty with nothing to offer besides what was in between her legs, and because of that act she really does feel dead inside. When watching I Spit on Your Grave I feel hurt, I feel upset, and I feel disgusted that something so despicable can be done to another human being. But feeling those emotions doesn’t make me automatically write off the film and see it as negative. I see this film as a reality, I see what she has gone through and how her experience resonates my past. I connect with this and I am not ashamed to admit it.

To all the women and men reading this and are not convinced that this a credible film which involves more truth than you know, think about this. Imagine you are a confident person, you have talents, you are positive but you see life for what it is. Imagine having that kind of outlook on life and then have it come burning down to the ground, because someone stole a part of you that you don’t just freely give. Imagine someone pinning you down, spreading your legs and violating you, using you, seeing you as nothing, seeing you as a pathetic plaything who’s weak, seeing your body as something that they own, that they can control. Imagine someone’s sweat, their spit, their odor on you and no matter how many times you clean yourself up you still feel vile. Try closing your eyes when you sleep, and all you can see is that person, and in the silence of the night all you can hear is their heavy breathing. Imagine feeling so much hate, sadness, and just feeling like everything inside you is now rotten. This person you have no become because of brutal act is something that sticks with you, you cannot change who you become, but you see life in a whole different perspective.  Rape scenes in films have always divided an audience; some see them relevant to the plot while others don’t. Some filmmakers add rape into their films because they want people talking about the film, which is the wrong attitude to have; they should want the audience to feel something about the film, there’s a difference.

Films like I Spit on Your Grave shouldn’t be banned because governments, religious groups and parents think this will influence kids and culture; films aren’t the root of all evil. Culture is already vile, because we have been feeding ourselves with toxic bullshit and with each day that passes we start to change our mind on all the things that are bad for us. And before you know it, it becomes more important to keep rapists out of jail rather than in jail, and the victims aren’t the victims anymore; they are just simply known as sluts. That is how society thinks. And now thanks to social media, and cameras on your mobile phone you can now HUMILIATE the victim and spread it online and you can get away with it, wow what a time to be a rapist! As a culture we have allowed this complacency and we have let it happen for so long, yet we act surprised by what is happening in the world, and since we are in denial we blame a notorious film for every single wrongdoing. If you want empty calories then by all means keep turning on your trash TV and become more and more soulless, but if you want truth then turn on a powerful film like I Spit on Your Grave, it might wake you up to your brain dead society.