I just saw this movie... just in case anyone was thinking about going to see it, I just wanted to warn you, it is unspeakably brutal. I knew it was dark, obviously, and would be depressing, but it has to have been one of the most disturbing and violent movies I've ever seen. The fairy tale elements made up a lot less of the movie than I'd thought from the reviews, and the real-life scenes were uniformly horrifying. Which is not to say it wasn't a good movie, because I think it was, but brutal violence is not everyone's cup of tea and none of the reviews I have read seemed to find the brutality worth mentioning, so I thought I would.
But if you can stomach it, it's a really well-made movie.
I've been intrigued by the reviews I've read so far and have been thinking about going to see it. Thanks for your review - and the warning. I think I still want to see it, although I'm a bit apprehensive about the violence. I hope it's not worse than Kill Bill I watched on tv a few days ago...
part of what made it so awful was who the violence was directed at. I'm not generally upset by violence of the kind in Kill Bill, or Sin City (which I loved), or war epics like Gladiator or Braveheart... that doesn't bother me. I keep coming back to Schindler's List as my only point of comparison. It's cruel, cruel, heartbreaking violence.
I just got back from seeing it. I knew going it that it was going to be violent, so I was expecting that. However, torture scenes REALLY bother me, so that whole part of the movie was extremely disturbing for me.
I thought it was a really unique story and unlike any other movie I've ever seen. I really enjoyed it.
The only thing that didn't make sense to me was why didnt' Mercedes kill the Captain when she had the chance?
The other thing that was kind of troublesome was that there were kids in the audience! I can't believe people took their kids to that movie.
Kitty wrote: The only thing that didn't make sense to me was why didnt' Mercedes kill the Captain when she had the chance?
Yeah, that baffled me, too. She knows he's a mortal threat, and she's obviously capable of killing him and prepared to do it, so why on earth didn't she? However, I did get some good nasty giggles out of the scene where he's trying to drink the liquor and it keeps seeping through that gash in his cheek.
I thought overall this was a very good movie. Yes, it's dark, and violent....but not as violent as some other movies out there. It's definitely not a movie I'd take my children to, but as far as the torture, some tv shows out there can be pretty bad, and that's network tv! (24 comes to mind, and I love that show).
I watched that & Blood Diamond within a few days of one another, and that was much more violent in my opinion.
-- Edited by Vanessa at 17:33, 2007-01-16
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