MovieChat Forums > Day of the Woman (1978) Discussion > Parallelisms between rape and revenge mo...

Parallelisms between rape and revenge movies and action movies.


Hi folks, this is what I kinda wondered about for a while.

Do you, as a viewer, personally, see any kind of parallels and similarities between rape and revenge films like this one "I Spit on Your Grave" AND many others of the ilk to the very many ACTION movies, yes, think Die Hard and its sequels, same for Lethal Weapon, any James Bond film and Arnold Schwarzenegger's "Commando" and any of its likes etc?

I mean technically speaking, in both types of films, we eventually are seeing evil men getting defeated for the deeds they done OR in self defense etc, and often, in both types of films, there is little to no possibility of the LAW helping in ALTERNATIVE ways, i.e. - by capturing, arresting and jailing the perpetrators or potential ones as such.

And both types of films in a way have "happy" endings, even if of course in a crime such as rape, it goes beyond harming someone physically, even if murder in and of itself ends one's life, although in action movies it is often just "its either them OR us".

Of course it goes with saying that despite (and many would say ENORMOUS) the many differences between the situations portrayed in either films, in REAL LIFE it is often VERY different, but the similarities for both movie scenarios may be represented by the fact that in REAL life, just like many rape victims don't recover from their ordeals and many perpetrators either get away with it or get light sentences (and in many parts of the world where laws are even LESS developed the situations there in such cases are even WORSE and sometimes mind-bogglingly horribly so that goes beyond description) and in real life many rape victims do NOT have an ability to exact violent acts of revenge in return, and on the "action movie-related" side of things, in REAL LIFE, people often are unable to defend themselves against potential acts of murder EITHER - and in real life, one cannot just shoot and defeat hundreds of bad guys and then become a hero, nor are there a lot of possibilities of someone coming out alive in potential terrorist acts etc and murder and violence in real life is often incredibly different, more harsh and tragic than what is being depicted in the movies, and good guys sadly often don't win.

(As a side note, I wonder sometimes what feminists think of action movies like Die Hard and all that portray simple good guys win and bad guys die scenarios and whether or not we can even REMOTELY speak of such terms and apply such scenarios in REAL life to any issues involving violence and conflict? Come to think of it, there definitely IS a place for feminism discussion if we involve such "action" movies as say Tarantino's "Kill Bill" series, right?)

Also, notice how with the original subject of this movie at hand, in a discussion of such issues, people do NOT merely talk about it all in a sense of "Oh, these are the good guys and those are the bad guys and why can't the good guys just defeat them so we can all be done with it" - no, it often gets laden with complex talks of feminism, societal problems including the patriarchy (that existed God knows for how long and is looking less likely to simply go away in the name of good and justice), objectifications, mysoginy etc etc etc, all of which proves just how flawed, fragile and vulnerable but in other aspects destructive, evil etc human nature in general is, and all of it is such a vicious cycle that there seems to be no beginning and sadly especially NO end to it at all.

And no angry internet talks, however useful AND logical at times, are likely to make it all settled down as long as we humans tend to exist, in other words, there is no overall solution to all of it in sight. (Although people often in discussions go backwards and forwards between peaceful forgiveness and harsher punishments for violent criminals, being optimistic or being constantly angry, everyone has their own different opinions and many people don't think in rational, egalitarian and logical terms, many have their OWN agendas etc, help the victims OR punish the offenders more, of course ignoring any sensitive issues do NOT make them go away either.)

Anyways, what do you think, thanks.

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