Fuck Politeness

Trigger warnings:

I watched the first…thirty minutes or so of Mad Max the other day.

I hated it immediately, though I tried to push through the idiot over-acting, the completely nonsensical characters and the piss poor script-writing, thinking their had to be SOMETHING that made this movie legendary in Aussie cinema history.

I got as far as the scene in which the bikie guys caught up with the car, and well…you knew that they were going to rape both occupants. The scene shut down, and then came back to the woman, naked and roped like cattle, having obviously just been raped by – what was it? Like fourteen men? That was that, and I was out. Gang rape and ritual humiliation aren’t my idea of cinematic hi-jinks.

I’m not stupid, I know what the scene was there for – to set up terror, to set the stage for revenge, to show that all bets were off, these were men with no rules, no mercy. Except cinema LOVES that man doesn’t it?

And what do we have in store for Max? Well my prediction was the gang go after his family, kill his wife and baby and Max goes…well *MAD* and hunts them down like dogs and kills them. To draw such an orginal and profound parable: ALL men, pushed far enough become lawless and stop at nothing to achieve what they want to achieve.

Eyeroll doesn’t express it strongly enough. Head-desk doesn’t get to it sufficiently.

I’d just like to say to all fans of these movies and to all directors and script writers: FUCK. YOU. Women are NOT your god-damned story aids. We’re not your props to be violated to set the scene for you macho show-downs. We’re not things to be raped for a titillating thrill of “OH MY GOOD GOD, THESE MAN ARE *BAD*”

So…does anyone have any good reason why I should finish watching this movie? Why I’m wrong in my assesment of it? How,even leaving the hideous violence of the gang rape of a woman tied to a rope to one side, it can POSSIBLY be considered a good movie?

ALSO: excuse me prudish people who put the warnings on films so my kids don’t hear swear-words or see a consenting adults bottom: WHERE ARE MY WARNINGS ABOUT RAPE SCENES??? HUH?

Why does EVERY MOVIE with a scene of sexual violence not carry and explicit and specific warning of such?

I’m going to be writing to ask for just such a warning, and when I take the time to figure out who I need to write to I’ll put the details up here so you can also write to them.

Tags: Mad Max, masculinity in cinema, rape scenes in movies, sorry but violence aside it was SHIT!