Never been so infuriated by a film + it's director

I can understand how you feel, and I am surprised that the film did not get a more restricted rating in the U.S.

It's ironic though that you say Winterbottom would do the "Stoning of Sonrorya but the stoners will be portrayed as flawed but heroic" because that is EXACTLY what those people are. Do you think entire communities of these people are all paid up Satanists? A film showing the real lives of people who get together to have some fun stoning a woman would be absolute dynamite. I don't know who would touch it, maybe Oliver Stone.

I see things that never were and say WHAT THE..!.

I consider myself a open minded viewer, but this film might as well have been produced by the Taliban with it's ultra misogyny.

The film is not a misogynist film at all, sonofindiandelta; it's the main character (I hesitate to call him the protagonist) whom one might consider the misogynist which is not all that out of line with the period the film is set in and the part of the country in which it takes place.

Seriously, the next fulm Winterbottom will make will be about the Stoning of Sonrorya but the stoners will be portrayed as flawed but heroic.

Are you saying that Winterbottom portrayed Lou Ford as heroic but flawed? I would disagree. I don't think he's made to appear that way at all. Flawed yes but not heroic. He's cold, emotionally distant and sociopathic. (In the book he is schizophrenic but I don't think it's apparent in the film.)

What is wrong w/ in society when a Euro-art/porn film is rated NC-17 because of lovemaking but dangerous, vicous, deadly sexual violence is given the green light?

I kind of agree with you here, but it's not society that provides the ratings, it's the MPAA. Don't know what they were thinking giving this film an R rating. It certainly should have been NC-17.

Reaction time is a factor in this, so please pay attention.

It's quite frightening that you find the violence erotic, it was meant to be disgusting and off-putting and that's how the sane people saw it.

Somebody here has been drinking and I'm sad to say it ain't me - Allan Francis Doyle

I really don't get people complaining about the violence. The movie has a rating for a reason, by checking that rating and knowing it is R rated and still deciding to watch it you are agreeing to put yourself through whatever it may bring.

I think that being so explicit adds to the movie. it gives the movie some kind of character. it's part of it. but most of all it's what the director wanted to portray. You do not have the right to be infuriated or demand censorship that's just ridiculous.

and yes homosexual violence would be tolerated ofc as long as you have an appropriate rating on the movie. why would it not?

seriously if you cannot handle R rated don't watch them.

I have to admit that readng posts like this worries me and makes me angry ( something you don't usually admit on the internet) I am afraid that in some way people like you could influence movie making process, where directors start making their movies less explicit in order to get the approval of people like you.

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I don't even know how to respond to this. Except to say there are a lot of films like this. And yes, there are films with homosexual violence that were tolerated as well as this (if 'tolerated' means they were released).

A black pool opened up at my feet. I dived in. It had no bottom.

I have to agree with the OP on this. I watched this with friends and they kind of seemed like I was being oversensitive by stating the violence was a bit overboard. I understand Winterbottom & the producers of this film were aiming to make the audience uncomfortable or whatever, and that's fine. I just could've done without a lot of the excessive violence.

I just became frustrated because the story/premise of the murders/character's motivations weren't even that interesting. If the movie would have examined violence (or violence against women in general) with more depth or meaning -- I could have understood the importance of the graphic murder scenes. I just didn't feel invested in the movie from the get-go - so to have all of the cruel and twisted content shoved in my face just made me frustrated and annoyed. Not so much disturbed because I've seen worse, but it was bad enough to make me feel like it was exploitative on some level and it was just a stupid viewing experience overall.

People seem to rate this movie pretty highly and I think they must see something in it that I don't. But I have no desire to figure this movie out or understand it for whatever it may represent -- it just wasn't very good at all, plain and simple. Oh and the ending... like, really? Reaaallyy? THAT was supposed to be a plausible ending for this movie? Whatever, at least Michael Winterbottom has made a handful of great movies that are actually awesome and original. Total let down for me, though.