rskershaw

I thought the workmen did that. I need to see the film again

Don't you want us to dig him up?

pod1969

This discussion recalls for me a dispute I had with a guy who chose to post a compendium of clips from classic contemporary gangster flicks (The Godfather, Good Fellas, Casino, etc.) on YouTube. The clips he chose were of various characters being dispatched, violently, to their maker. I asked, "Why not upload a selection of your favourite rape scenes, while you're at it?" He suggested that that would be 'sick'. And there's the rub. How come it's ok to select 'favourite' murders but not 'favourite' rapes? Was he implying that rape is a more heinous crime than murder?

And this is the problem, I think, with much of the tortuous dissection of the infamous rape scene in Straw Dogs. I have a great deal of sympathy with feminist critiques of the film that highlight the way in which the scene is conveniently divided between the 'good rape' and the 'bad rape', and I agree with the more general points about how the complex shades of grey that make up sexuality should allow for Amy's ambivalence towards her former 'protector' to be represented in the way it is. But I'd also add that it is our very fetishisation of sex that turns sex into a weapon for some men intent on putting women 'in their place'. As Germaine Greer has said, why should physical assault with the aid of an erect penis be seen as qualitatively different than any other kind of physical assault? That is to say, the belief that rape is the worst possible thing that can happen to woman is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Depicting violence is part and parcel of the filmmaker's box of tools and devices. That rape tends to be treated as a discrete and especially dangerous theme or narrative device is rarely looked at in these terms.

pod1969

I've knocked up a wma file of the score (from the isolated track on the dvd), if you're interested.

716Jones

You can pick up copies of the book, take a look on Amazon.co.uk, some second hand copies there.

Steve Crook

Just ask the editors. A lot of the best ones are sweet little old ladies.

Thelma Schoonmaker saw all the bits the were cut out from Goodfellas, Casino, The Departed and many more of Scorsese's most violent pictures. But she takes pride in her ability to be able to put the various takes together in a way that makes them appear even more shocking and violent.

And Michael Powell's 1960 shocker Peeping Tom was edited by Noreen Ackland. Another sweet little old lady. If people were shocked by what they saw on screen, think of all the bits that she saw that didn't make it though the final cut.

But they are two lovely ladies

Steve

pod1969

Not quite the response I expected, but thanks. I think.