Product: Day of the Woman (1978)
Rating: 5.0
Grind art haus
This 1978 sexploitation flick written and directed by Meir Zarchi offered a strong commentary on feminism and sexuality. Starring Camille Keaton, the granddaughter of my personal hero Buster Keaton, as a young writer who rents a country cottage for a summer to have the solitude necessary to finally make her stab at writing the great American novel. Unfortunately, she runs into a small group of small town redneck degenerates, who quite brutally beat and repeatedly rape and torture her. Left alone to deal with the trauma, and without any resources or allies, she has no choice but to take matters into her own hands in a series of shocking acts of vengeance.While the prolonged brutality of the rape scenes are indeed hard to watch, knowing that this movie has always garnered demeaning attentions is almost as vulgar. This is a damn good film, regardless of the realism of its violence and psychological turmoil. Keaton is very beautiful in a plain, easily identifiable way, thereby getting extra sympathy from pre-programmed Western audiences. And her bravery in undertaking such a performance where she is naked and bloody for much of her screen time is a statement to her credibility as an actress and an artist. While the victimization is painstakingly real, as I have seen myself through my own activities in the cause of Domestic Violence Awareness, the inadvertent heroine's responses are sadly unreal, although hopefully have and will serve as inspiration to any victims of assault lacking empowerment.I understand there has been a more recent remake, but being a traditionalist I always prefer the originals. I Spit On Your Grave is a true cult classic, and when viewed in mixed company will lead directly to some interesting debates and commentary. This is what art should do.