01-02-2011, 10:51 AM
I disagree about the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I think that movie did have craft, and emerged from Hooper's need to tell the story. Whether or not you think it's any good, it had a purpose, and contained its own set of symbols and themes. Just because a film has craft doesn't make it arty farty; I can't stand pretentious European cinema and neo-surrealist/modernist crap, for instance, though I love movies like Donnie Darko, American Beauty, and the Hitchcock classics.
The thing that made I Spit on Your Grave a cult classic was its graphic depiction of rape and torture, and, call me a prude, but I find that reprehensible. When a film exists purely to titilate with images of extreme suffering, that's the worst kind of pornography. But then again I accept that not everyone takes the genre as seriously as I do, and are just looking for some cheap, brainless fun.
For the record, I like violent films too. Just not when the violence is all that's on offer. For me there has to be some sort of story to justify it. Though that's just me.
The thing that made I Spit on Your Grave a cult classic was its graphic depiction of rape and torture, and, call me a prude, but I find that reprehensible. When a film exists purely to titilate with images of extreme suffering, that's the worst kind of pornography. But then again I accept that not everyone takes the genre as seriously as I do, and are just looking for some cheap, brainless fun.
For the record, I like violent films too. Just not when the violence is all that's on offer. For me there has to be some sort of story to justify it. Though that's just me.
"We believe that we invent symbols. The truth is that they invent us; we are their creatures, shaped by their hard, defining edges." - Gene Wolfe