Is CAPTIVITY an exploitation of women or a feminist manifesto?
The answer depends on your political preferences —what political conditions you accept.
It's true the female victim in CAPTIVITY is a beautiful woman who's tied up or imprisoned, then sexually taken advantage of by one of her captors who poses as a victim himself and pretends to be her hero.
It's not EXACTLY rape; she consents to it but under false pretenses. She's decieved and taken advantage of.
Also true is the fact that she's the heroine and sympathetic character. She fights back and defeats her captors in the end; she gets revenge. The exploiters are portrayed as pure villains.
But I can't help but wonder whether CAPTIVITY and films like it aren't trying to indulge BOTH impulses: cathartic revenge against brutal villains PLUS cathartic "revenge rape" on stuck-up beauties.
The villains in CAPTIVITY aren't the only ones who learn a lesson:
Jennifer is singled out by the villains for her exceptional beauty AND her exceptional snottiness.
She badmouths less attractive people, men who are beneath her standards and she justifies all the extra privileges and mobility she gets in life just because of her looks.
These are all "crimes" the audience can find just as blameworthy as the villains.
Especially the audience for teen slashers — a bunch of outcast, disgruntled male nerds who are always scorned by the prettiest girls in school.
That's who watches horror films. For the most part. That's who takes pleasure in watching a stuck-up, hot bitch get taken down a peg.
Think back to all the slasher films you've seen since the 1970s — this whole genre has always taken revenge on the stuck-up, popular kids from high school or society on behalf of a nerdy, disgruntled male audience.
The stuck up cheerleader and the popular jock are always the first characters to die. It's usually just after they've had sex — which disgruntled male nerds don't get.
So yes, slashers enable the audience psychologically to get revenge on violent killers but also the privileged and gorgeous.
With movies like HOSTEL 2 and CAPTIVITY out there, it almost seems like the "feminist triumphs" are thrown in just to excuse the explotation — the glee of crucifying Paris Hilton.
Any characterization of CAPTIVITY or HOSTEL 2 is kind of weak or cheap, if you ask me.
A truly feminist slasher comedy coming up is this Sundance film I saw called TEETH.
TEETH was directed by a gay man and is certainly more deliberately feminist. It's about a teenage girl whose vagina grows teeth that can castrate men who rape or exploit her.
It was directed by a gay man and has an empowering theme.
Viewed through a feminist lens, there would be no mistaking TEETH for CAPTIVITY.
Still, I think the most important question we can ask about CAPTIVITY is,
"Wasn't CAPTIVITY the most predictable, derivative piece of shit you've seen in a long time?"
I saw the "twist" coming in the trailer!
Yes, I knew Jennifer's "savior" was going to be in on the crime from the trailer and I told my friends about it LOL.
P.S. My only reservation for impeaching Bush and Cheney right now is that no politician in Washington who could possibly replace them has a compelling or satisfying plan to resolve the Iraq mess. No politician is conscious of and willing do even the minimum of things our Iraq involvement needs, even though prominent think tanks are.
I'm very dissatisfied with all of the presidential candidates thus far ...
3 comments:
RONNIE,
I AM BECOMING SOOOO F**K'N INDICTED TO YOUR COMMENTARIES
KEEP'M COMING BABY!
YOU ARE STILL ABSOLUTELY HYSTERICAL!
PS: WHAT DID YOU THINK OF "CAPTIVITY"?
Is CAPTIVITY an exploitation of women or a feminist manifesto?
The answer depends on your political preferences —what political conditions you accept.
It's true the female victim in CAPTIVITY is a beautiful woman who's tied up or imprisoned, then sexually taken advantage of by one of her captors who poses as a victim himself and pretends to be her hero.
It's not EXACTLY rape; she consents to it but under false pretenses. She's decieved and taken advantage of.
Also true is the fact that she's the heroine and sympathetic character. She fights back and defeats her captors in the end; she gets revenge. The exploiters are portrayed as pure villains.
But I can't help but wonder whether CAPTIVITY and films like it aren't trying to indulge BOTH impulses: cathartic revenge against brutal villains PLUS cathartic "revenge rape" on stuck-up beauties.
The villains in CAPTIVITY aren't the only ones who learn a lesson:
Jennifer is singled out by the villains for her exceptional beauty AND her exceptional snottiness.
She badmouths less attractive people, men who are beneath her standards and she justifies all the extra privileges and mobility she gets in life just because of her looks.
These are all "crimes" the audience can find just as blameworthy as the villains.
Especially the audience for teen slashers — a bunch of outcast, disgruntled male nerds who are always scorned by the prettiest girls in school.
That's who watches horror films. For the most part. That's who takes pleasure in watching a stuck-up, hot bitch get taken down a peg.
Think back to all the slasher films you've seen since the 1970s — this whole genre has always taken revenge on the stuck-up, popular kids from high school or society on behalf of a nerdy, disgruntled male audience.
The stuck up cheerleader and the popular jock are always the first characters to die. It's usually just after they've had sex — which disgruntled male nerds don't get.
So yes, slashers enable the audience psychologically to get revenge on violent killers but also the privileged and gorgeous.
With movies like HOSTEL 2 and CAPTIVITY out there, it almost seems like the "feminist triumphs" are thrown in just to excuse the explotation — the glee of crucifying Paris Hilton.
Any characterization of CAPTIVITY or HOSTEL 2 is kind of weak or cheap, if you ask me.
A truly feminist slasher comedy coming up is this Sundance film I saw called TEETH.
TEETH was directed by a gay man and is certainly more deliberately feminist. It's about a teenage girl whose vagina grows teeth that can castrate men who rape or exploit her.
It was directed by a gay man and has an empowering theme.
Viewed through a feminist lens, there would be no mistaking TEETH for CAPTIVITY.
Still, I think the most important question we can ask about CAPTIVITY is,
"Wasn't CAPTIVITY the most predictable, derivative piece of shit you've seen in a long time?"
I saw the "twist" coming in the trailer!
Yes, I knew Jennifer's "savior" was going to be in on the crime from the trailer and I told my friends about it LOL.
P.S. My only reservation for impeaching Bush and Cheney right now is that no politician in Washington who could possibly replace them has a compelling or satisfying plan to resolve the Iraq mess. No politician is conscious of and willing do even the minimum of things our Iraq involvement needs, even though prominent think tanks are.
I'm very dissatisfied with all of the presidential candidates thus far ...
love the wife beater. you're so hot!
and yeah, i don't get involved with other people's problems for exactly that reason.
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