The Untold Story and Trigger Warnings
It's difficult to get back into thinking about this film, since I've spent most of this week watching Sex and the City with my sister, which obviously has a very different tone.
Most of my thoughts about The Untold Story are unpleasant, and honestly I was completely disturbed while I was watching it. However, I've always been kinda anti-censorship, especially since I think usually it focuses on morals and less on content. While I was watching The Untold Story, I thought about how maybe movies could have more specific content warnings. Especially with films with explicit triggers, like rape, I think the specific G, PG, PG-13, and
R ratings couldn't possibly give enough of a descriptor to provide context. This is probably unrealistic, but after watching a seven minute long rape scene, it felt like I could have used a warning.
It feels wrong to say that the scene, or similar scenes, shouldn't exist, but generally I felt disturbed by it. The humor that permeated the film didn't really help it sit well either.
I also found it interesting that Valenti's concerns were primarily with making sure that violent acts represented in films weren't reenacted. This seems like an appropriate concern, but I first thought about the viewer feeling disturbed, without a desire to recreate the events of the film.
My thoughts on this film are pretty disorganized, especially since I really didn't find that I gained anything meaningful from it (mostly since I lost my desire to watch it after 30 minutes).
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I'm now going back to add more to this post because I've seen I Spit on Your Grave and I want to briefly compare my feelings on them, since they both have similar subject matter that disturbed me at varying levels and for different reasons. At the time that I watched this, about a month ago, I remember feeling incredibly disturbed by the rape scene in a way that I didn't feel about I Spit on Your Grave, even though it was longer and more brutal. I found myself wondering why, and I believe the fourth chapter of Clover's book helped me come to some conclusions. She writes about the assaultive and reactive gaze of the viewer and camera (forgive me if this doesn't make sense, I kinda skimmed since it wasn't assigned). The Untold Story captures the murder and rape with an assaultive gaze and the viewer is aligned with the killer/rapist, looking down on the victim and more directly experiencing the pain. I Spit on Your Grave provides distance, and an association with Jennifer that is present even though we are bystanders. Clover's ideas about spectatorship and identification have an interesting meaning when applied to both films (which I'm sure I'll get into more later) but in The Untold Story her idea of the male experiencing female masochism didn't sit comfortably with me.
Most of my thoughts about The Untold Story are unpleasant, and honestly I was completely disturbed while I was watching it. However, I've always been kinda anti-censorship, especially since I think usually it focuses on morals and less on content. While I was watching The Untold Story, I thought about how maybe movies could have more specific content warnings. Especially with films with explicit triggers, like rape, I think the specific G, PG, PG-13, and
R ratings couldn't possibly give enough of a descriptor to provide context. This is probably unrealistic, but after watching a seven minute long rape scene, it felt like I could have used a warning.
It feels wrong to say that the scene, or similar scenes, shouldn't exist, but generally I felt disturbed by it. The humor that permeated the film didn't really help it sit well either.
My thoughts on this film are pretty disorganized, especially since I really didn't find that I gained anything meaningful from it (mostly since I lost my desire to watch it after 30 minutes).
--
I'm now going back to add more to this post because I've seen I Spit on Your Grave and I want to briefly compare my feelings on them, since they both have similar subject matter that disturbed me at varying levels and for different reasons. At the time that I watched this, about a month ago, I remember feeling incredibly disturbed by the rape scene in a way that I didn't feel about I Spit on Your Grave, even though it was longer and more brutal. I found myself wondering why, and I believe the fourth chapter of Clover's book helped me come to some conclusions. She writes about the assaultive and reactive gaze of the viewer and camera (forgive me if this doesn't make sense, I kinda skimmed since it wasn't assigned). The Untold Story captures the murder and rape with an assaultive gaze and the viewer is aligned with the killer/rapist, looking down on the victim and more directly experiencing the pain. I Spit on Your Grave provides distance, and an association with Jennifer that is present even though we are bystanders. Clover's ideas about spectatorship and identification have an interesting meaning when applied to both films (which I'm sure I'll get into more later) but in The Untold Story her idea of the male experiencing female masochism didn't sit comfortably with me.
Ok ok but what are your thoughts on Sex and the City??
ReplyDeleteA rape revenge sequel to Sex and the City would be awesome.
DeleteI think your comparison between this film and I Spit on Your Grave is really a productive one. Its interesting that people so many people on the zoom chat seemed to have found this film's scene so much more objectionable than the one in I Spit on Your Grave. I'm not sure if I agree but your reading suggests why that might be the case.
ReplyDelete