Rape in the Movies

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About: I am in love with the game of Hockey, when I am not read about, watching, or playing my beloved sport I am either writing, playing video games, with my girlfriend, or at work. I am always looking for ways to improve, whether it be my writing, or my health, I am always trying to better myself. I always try to hold a respectful manner and help people, although this code is usually broken when Hockey is involved.See Authors Posts (11)

What do the movies “Hollow Man”, “Deliverance”, and “An American Haunting”, “High Plains Drifter” all have in common? All of these movies feature, in one way or another, rape. Otherwise good movies, ruined for me with the inclusion of rape. In my opinion it has absolutely no place in film. In this article will go over some of these movies, and discuss my views on the subject.

A Sci-Fi thriller featuring great actor Kevin Bacon, “Hollow Man”, a story about Dr. Sebastian Caine (Kevin Bacon). Caine, a brilliant but megalomaniacal molecular biologist striving to create an invisibility serum for the U.S Military. Once he created the invisibility serum, his task was changed to try and make a reversing serum. After successfully turning a Gorilla invisible and returning it to its normal state, the team moves toward human trials. Dr. Sebastian Caine would be the first human to test out the serum. After he was turned invisible, they learned that the reversing serum was not viable for humans. After some time of being isolated in the lab Caine’s patience begins to wear thin, and his mind becomes clouded. Disobeying his colleague’s orders he returns to his apartment. While at his apartment he is shown spying on his female neighbor, seconds later he takes off his mask and strips naked so that he is fully invisible. Seconds later they show the neighbor’s apartment, and then she is attacked and raped by an invisible intruder. This is where I stop watching this horrible movie.

In the thriller “Deliverance”, four buddies take a vacation from the lives of businessmen and voyage to the Cahulawassee River in the remote Georgia wilderness. They decide they would rather go canoeing and take in the sights rather than their usual golf trip. Ed (played by Jon Voight) and Lewis (played by Burt Reynolds) are the most experienced in outdoors in the bunch of four, while Bobby (played by Ned Beatty) and Drew (played by Ronny Cox) are novices. The four make a stop in a small village, in the village, Drew and one of the villager boys connect through their talents with musical instruments. The two play a bluegrass number, and after the song was concluded, Drew said “God damn son, you sure can play that banjo” which offended the boy. After leaving the village the four would spend a day canoeing down the river. After an uneventful night the group would set out again, however this time the two canoes would become briefly separated. Bobby and Ed encounter a pair of unkempt and gun wielding locals. After Bobby offends the men with comments about moonshine, one of the gun wielding men begin to harass and ultimately rapes Bobby. Minutes later Lewis would arrive and rush in; shooting an arrow from his bow, killing the rapist while the other man would escape. Somehow this movie would be nominated for many awards.

The feature film “An American Haunting” would turn the great American ghost story of “Bell Witch Haunting” into a shabby, low down excuse of a movie. The biggest atrocity with this film would be the portrayal John Bell Sr. They would turn this man into an incestuous rapist, when there was not a shred of evidence or even a wild claim of such happened. The movie starts off strong, but soon falls flat on its belly. What starts off as what the family feels was a curse placed upon them by Katt Batts whom John Bell Sr. had offended, turns out to be something far more sinister. Later we find out that John Bell (who is played by Donald Sutherland) had molested Betsy Bell, his daughter. Along with the others watching this movie, I was disgusted, disgusted on many levels. While we were more disgusted with the rape, we were also upset with the slanderous claim that this film was based on true events. Yes, some of the story was based on true events, but when you deviate so far from the original story that you are portraying a never documented or alluded to rape, then you have gone too far.

One of my favorite actors is Clint Eastwood, who was famous for such roles as “Harry Callahan”, unfortunately Clint Eastwood also played in the movie “High Plains Drifter”. A western movie about a mysterious drifter who arrives in the town of Lago, a town of which is overrun by criminal scum. Three criminal gunmen taunt the stranger as he enters the local barbershop. While in the barbershop, one of the gunmen grabs the barber chair and spun him around while taunting, however when spun around , the drifter would shoot all three men dead. The stage was set for a great aloof action hero! Not exactly… Minutes later the drifter walks from the barbershop, outside of which the attractive Callie Travers would bump into him. Callie would then mock and insult the drifter. The drifter grabs her by her arm and takes her into the livery stable and raped her. One of the best actors, in a role with such great potential, and it was ruined for me with this despicable act. The drifter could have been a great action hero, he did not have to love everyone, but heroes and heroines do not commit such an atrocious crime. There is nothing this character could do to redeem himself. I really do not care about his past life alter ego that was beaten to death with whips in the same town by scum while the townsfolk watched on. Actually I am glad now they beat him in his past life to death! Any sympathy that the viewer could have had for this drifter was all lost in this one act of barbarism.

There are hundreds of movies that involve rape, and sexual assault, from slasher films like “The Hills have Eyes” to classic war movies such as “In Harm’s Way”. I am not comfortable with portrayals of rape. The act disgusts me, and I do not want to view it, even if it is just simulated. I would not have any problem if it was used an educational way, but still would prefer not to view any explicit scene. In conjunction with movies based on true stories, it is acceptable; however you do not need to be show a brutal scene. It is this ones opinion that showing the aftermath, the mental scares would make more of an impression.

Shows like “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit” portray some of the most heinous crimes, one crime this show has more than any other is rape. The show often shows the aftermath. I personally chose not to watch this, because the show is usually a little bit depressing, and I would rather live in my bubble of splendor. While I personally disagree with showing graphic rapes or assaults, from what I have seen the show depicts the aftermath quite well, and helps raise awareness.

What do I suggest? I struggle with this question, on one hand I am support artistic expression and freedom of speech; on the other hand I do not feel that rape is a form of art or protected as a form of speech. Censorship? I can see how this might enrage some, some may say “Do not like it, do not watch it!” While I can understand that, what about those who are not aware of the scene, or those whose children happen to view it by accident? A lot of children sometimes replicate what they see on television. It would be easy to say “The parent should not allow the child to watch such things”, and I would agree; however in a day and age like this it is not an easy task. Parents can set blocks on their TV and computer, but some parents do not have the necessary knowledge to do so. Rape, sexual assault, violence, and gore are common in films. You may say that it is accepted in today’s society to include these themes. I disagree, rape is not tolerated, and neither are some other practices in which are so aggrieves we do not show (for example, bestiality) on the wide screen, so why should we show and depict rape?

In concluding, yes rape occurs daily in this world, and education is the key to help solving this problem. Do you think we are hurting anti-rape education with all the graphic scenes of rape we see on TV? Do you disagree with me and feel that it is actually providing more awareness?