09-25-2009, 10:21 PM
<!--quoteo(post=64411:date=Sep 25 2009, 05:25 PM:name=Butcher)-->QUOTE (Butcher @ Sep 25 2009, 05:25 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->You may think my reaction to this film is somewhat "puritan"...and maybe it is, but I felt cheap and dirty after watching it and I sort of wish I didn't see it (not blaming you, rok). No offense to anyone else who liked it (including liner). It's just my personal opinion.
To sum up, I felt it was a cheap exploitation flick disguised as an intellectual art film.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Your thoughts are very close to how I felt when I first watched it. The extreme anti-feminism and the exploitative, almost japanimation-like, violence and the overt use of some of the animals and nature in general as symbols of chaos (the talking fox scene made me piss myself) had me scratching my head several times, but it truly was all intended to be allegorical. I don't believe it is a cop-out either. Notwithstanding, I still have mixed feelings about the movie overall.
All that said, and I know it's asking WAY too much from the viewer, but I started to appreciate the film more and more after I read up on some of the lost books of the Bible, stories about Lilith (the supposed first mate of Adam), and about early gnostic Christian thinking about the physical/spiritual world, human flesh, etc. From what I've read of him personally, it's clear that Von Trier's religious beliefs are quite unorthodox, extreme even in his affinity for Old Testament morality and storytelling, and it definitely shows. I can appreciate what he was trying to do, but I still wouldn't recommend the film to anyone. A film should stand on its own and shouldn't require a person to have a degree in ancient Christian literature and also be a fan of torture porn, so I definitely think this film is only accessible to a tiny % of the public.
To sum up, I felt it was a cheap exploitation flick disguised as an intellectual art film.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Your thoughts are very close to how I felt when I first watched it. The extreme anti-feminism and the exploitative, almost japanimation-like, violence and the overt use of some of the animals and nature in general as symbols of chaos (the talking fox scene made me piss myself) had me scratching my head several times, but it truly was all intended to be allegorical. I don't believe it is a cop-out either. Notwithstanding, I still have mixed feelings about the movie overall.
All that said, and I know it's asking WAY too much from the viewer, but I started to appreciate the film more and more after I read up on some of the lost books of the Bible, stories about Lilith (the supposed first mate of Adam), and about early gnostic Christian thinking about the physical/spiritual world, human flesh, etc. From what I've read of him personally, it's clear that Von Trier's religious beliefs are quite unorthodox, extreme even in his affinity for Old Testament morality and storytelling, and it definitely shows. I can appreciate what he was trying to do, but I still wouldn't recommend the film to anyone. A film should stand on its own and shouldn't require a person to have a degree in ancient Christian literature and also be a fan of torture porn, so I definitely think this film is only accessible to a tiny % of the public.