Product: Day of the Woman (1978)
Rating: 3.0
I have seen why "I Spit On Your Grave" ruffled some feathers back in it's day.
"I Spit on Your Grave" is a film that will never be accepted as a serious piece of film-making. This is thanks in part to the gratuitous rape and murder scenes, which don't exactly hold back the shocks; and it's also due to the time in which it was made. These days, as proved by the likes of "Irreversible," films tackling rape in a shocking and disgusting way are more readily accepted, and even gain a strong reaction from many critics."I Spit on Your Grave" has surprisingly good production values. While the acting often lets it down, the cinematography and even the script are more than decent and this helps the film in it's bid to get the praise it deserves. Three local twenty-some-thing's and the town idiot snatch her in the woods, take turns rapping and tormenting her, and in an obviously moronic move, put the dumb guy in charge of killing her. Well, he just can't do it and when she recovers she gets even.There is nothing sexual or provocative in this picture. The director wanted to show what it's like to be raped and the after effects of such a traumatizing event. He went through great lengths in research and from his own personnel experience. I found it to be a very different film than all of the others that deal with the same subject matter. The film-making (for a first time director) was very well done and for the most part the acting was up to par for that time frame.Other than that it's a genuine film under all the gore and fact that our protagonist spends nearly 80% of the film completely naked. Jennifer's emotions are as exposed as her body, her transformation from normality, to victim, through recovery and finally as executionerP.S. The subject matter is real graphic, but rape is not enjoyable. The director did an excellent job of portraying the true horror of it instead of hollywoodizing this dirty, degrading act.