'The' Scene
Okay I want to see this movie but the whole nail penis scene, how is it? Does it show a close up/still images of it? I would literally pass out if I saw a nail go through!
shareYou see him hammer it into his penis. The worst part is when he pulls it out and it bleeds everywhere.
shareIt's very odd, but I've seen this film a couple of times, and remember parts of it quite vividly, but I don't remember the penis being nailed. It can't have made much of an impression on me, either that or I had my eyes shut :)
shareMaybe you blocked it out of your memory.
shareI find it really incredibly disturbing that people find the nail scene more disturbing than the fact that Bob Flannagan actually DIES ON FILM.
How is a nail through his penis more disturbing than watching a horrible disease kill someone? He is desperately gasping for air while Sheree completely looses her composure and begs him not to die.
Well...you don't see him actually die on film, but
you see him just before and after. I agree this scene was
more disturbing than the nailing scene.
We can't choose what, if any, diseases will claim us, not that it makes it any easier to endure. However, nailing one's penis to a board IS a choice, and one that can be hard to believe despite having seen an entire film based on the reasoning behind it. That's the best way I can explain it.
Also, since it's part of the film's title, I knew he was going to pass away at some point so I guess when it came down to it, I just got tense and upset. "Supermasochist" is also in the title but doesn't really spell out specific things that will happen, so when the nail scene finally shows up, it is quite shocking.
Maybe it's just easier for people to accept death in whatever way they can than accept harming oneself to such an extreme.
I don't think it's disturbing if folks concentrate on the nail scene more than the death scene. It's just more sensational. How often do you see something like that? It stays with you. If they said his death wasn't disturbing at all, then it might be weird, but otherwise I see nothing wrong.
ok, i have this on my netflix and the penis sounds disturbing yea blah blahblah but the whole dying on film and hist wife freaking out sounds a lot more sdisturbing to me. Like I think i would flat out cry if i saw this. Thanks for the heads up. I will watch with caution.
shareI agree with you. I had very little problem watching the nail through the penis bit, but I was extremely disturbed by the death at the end. My boyfriend's father died a year ago from lung cancer, and it hit way, WAY too close to home for me. To make it worse, my boyfriend came into the room right at that very scene, after not watching any of the movie, and only watched the death scene.
I lost it pretty hard for the death scene...not really because I was sad, but because I had become so emotionally invested in him during the movie that I was just emotionally spent by the time he actually died. The scenes of him being confused and not being accepting of his death were really, really agonizing to see. I'm crying again just thinking about them.
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I watched my grandma die from cancer that had spread to her lungs etc., and at the end she was gasping just like that. So, I guess if I had to pick the most "disturbing" part, for me atleast, it would be the end of the film. I'm glad I got to watch this though, because Bob Flanagan seemed like a great person, and it goes to show that just because a person does something that you might find controversial or disturbing, it doesn't necessarily make them a bad person. He seemed like a really sweet guy that was dealt a really bad hand.
share[deleted]
The penis part was disturbing to me. I understand why it bothered people, especially men. But I still hold that the death scene was far more disturbing.
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I agree. His suffering and death were more disturbing to me than any of the S&M stuff. Very hard for me to watch.
shareFor me, that was when his SO shoved those rubber balls up his rear end.
shareIt was in the DVD extras. It's even worse than I imagined it would be.
And I'm a woman.
But it wasn't as disturbing as the scene where Sheree stuck those pool balls up his butt.