Okay, what is it...

[crisper]

...about filmmakers and torture these days? Is it a response to Gitmo, or is it that PASSION OF THE CHRIST turned torture into dollar signs, or is it just that film reviewers (and maybe goers) are so jaded now that regular old suspense and tension and violence just don't do it anymore

Comments

[moonandserpent]

What movie prompted this?

[crisper]

Pan's Labyrinth, which is NOT (as you may have been informed) a dark fantasy set against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War, but rather a war movie about the horrors of Spanish Facism set against the backdrop of a young girl's desperate fantasy-life need to escape what's going on around her.

Now, I'm not entirely opposed to unrelentingly grim, brutally violent, depressing tales of misery and death myself, but my wife could really do without. Sadly, the trailers looked intriguing and RottonTomatoes has it 96% fresh, and I tried to avoid spoilers when looking at reviews - so I didn't get past the first paragraphs, which rave about the film, down to, like, the third or fourth ones, where the reviewers start admitting that, yes, it's unceasingly, graphically violent but that's okay because it's all necessary to the theme of the film, which is that particularly Catholic obsession with the idea that suffering is what makes you worthy of salvation. Ug.

[pfarley]

I'm having a hard time deciding if I would recommend Pan's Labyrinth. It's like a beautifully prepared gourmet meal that was left out in the sun too long.

[crisper]

The more I think about it, the more I don't think it's particularly distinguishable, at its kernel, from PASSION OF THE CHRIST.

[crisper]

(and secondarily, we managed to get out to see Casino Royale last weekend, which is a terrifically fun film, but it's got its own little torture sequence as well.)