Violent Femmes and More

Hook-up gone wrong? -- Picture courtesy of Lion's Gate

by blogSpotter
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On this historic eve, I feel like I should be blogging about the upcoming, historic inauguration of Barack Obama. The subject has been covered at some length, and by people who have it much closer to their hearts. One national magazine has depicted Obama as FDR; another has depicted him as Linclon. I also have great hopes for him, and maybe President Obama won't be so intimidated by all the hype; best wishes to the new President and may he help us out of the economic quagmire.

Hard Candy (2005)

I watched a movie today, 2005’s Hard Candy, which could only be described as a feminist revenge flick. Warning – spoilers follow. Patrick Wilson plays a pedophile photographer, Jeff, who arranges a hook-up with a precocious 14-year old, Haley, played by Ellen Page. It turns out that Haley is a psycho semi-genius girl who has deliberately entrapped Jeff – she wants to avenge the death of a girl friend. She has information that Jeff abetted the friend’s death.

What unfolds is a hideous torture scene in which Haley drugs Jeff, straps him to a table and threatens to castrate him. As the movie painfully inches along, Haley makes it clear that she’s “on” to Jeff and produces what she feels is conclusive evidence about his prior guilt. I guess the movie viewer is to assume that Haley has her ducks all in a row – she even convinces Jeff to hang himself at the movie’s end.

This movie implies that two wrongs make a right, and that every person wise to a crime is justified in committing acts of vigilantism and torture. Our popular culture has a misandrist streak, wide and deep. When Lorena Bobbit cut off her husband’s penis, she was lauded as a folk hero. When Andrea Yates drowned her seven children, she was simply a distraught housewife with post-partum depression.

I have news for “Violent Femmes” everywhere. You cannot avenge what was done to you by perpetrating similar acts of violence and even sadism. Shame on the producers of Hard Candy for (a) subjecting us to an uncomfortable torture scene (b) and daring to suggest that in any parallel universe Haley’s horrific behavior would be somehow justified.

The Wicker Man (1973)

This was my weekend for nail-biter movies. Where Hard Candy was a Trojan horse with a bizarre pro-female vigilante message, Wicker Man was merely terrifying. A Scottish police detective investigates the disappearance of a 12-year old girl in the Summer Isles. He stumbles upon a bizarre cult that practices paganism and human sacrifices. The movie has beautiful music and cinematography (and quite a bit of eroticism). It also has an ending that will shock you out of your seat – I won’t spoil this one for you. I’ve given it only a paragraph here, but it is much better for you than Hard Candy.

Such has been my movie-viewing weekend… stay tuned for more reviews (movies old and new) as well as coverage of our new President.

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