What DVD / Video did you watch last night? (pt3)

[butchersapron]

Finally got round to Nokas - excellent narrow focus on Norway's biggest ever robbery, felt they could have given us a bit about the planning before the job but they may have been a very different film from what they wanted to make (Greengrass manages to do this style with a wider focus though). If the actual robbery looked anything like the film then there's some very lucky people around.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

And that's precisely what the movie shows.

Yes, killing a slave would have been stupid. Systematically raping them, on the other hand, made good business sense--as long as you have no qualms about treating your own offspring as slaves, which antebellum southerners evidently didn't. Savagely beating them for the slightest infractions made sense too, since it was (reasonably enough) deemed necessary to constantly terrorize them in order to keep them subjugated.

And the entire system was predicated on the assumption that slaves were not fully human--were in fact animals, and to be treated as such--and that's the major point the movie is making.

I've heard many people minimize the evils of slavery: "oh, they'd have been slaves in Africa anyway, oh their descendendents are better off than modern-day Africans, oh they really weren't whipped all that much..." I'm sure you've heard similar. Well no-one will say such things after watching GUT. I reall think it's a work of genius.

No phil; no one has ever voiced the idea bolded above to my face.

I agree that slaveholders mostly viewed their slaves as animals.

Have you visited a dairy farm? The farmer's livelihood depends on those Holsteins. They are treated like animals, but abusing them a lot is counterproductive to good output. Of course there'd be exceptions.

G.U.T. is an exploitation film, made to give a Sixties audience a nice dose of pornography: slavemasters raping black women. Lots of black tit showing. Lots of violence.

I suspect that the makers were at least as racist as many whites in their day. You've said that GUT is some sort of amends-making for Mondo Cane. If so, why did they later make 'Africa Blood and Guts'?

 

[rekil]

Lost Battalion. Based on the WW1 story of a unit sent on a suicide mission near the end of the war by a lying wanker general. Much carnage and loads of cliches, sassy italian, sharphootin' countryboy, rockhard paddy etc. The main protaganist, apparently a socialist party member, killed himself in 1921.

Inception. Someone told me this was good. It looked like a car advert with some shooting. Dullest villains ever as well.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

You keep saying this but you don't explain why.

Here's a clue: on your fifth or umpteenth watching of this film, pay attention to the number of close-up shots of jiggling black tits, or heaving loins. How much time is spent focused on long rape scenes.

The fact that you've been able to sit through this piece of trash four times makes me shake my head.

There is lots of pornography out there involving blacks; or people of any race, for that matter. I suppose what's missing from the modern porn, is the derisive, mocking voiceovers from the narrators and Italian cast, playing the whites.

 

[phildwyer]

No phil; no one has ever voiced the idea bolded above to my face.

Actually that doesn't surprise me. But I'd bet that most white people have heard such ideas expressed, I certainly have.

Have you visited a dairy farm? The farmer's livelihood depends on those Holsteins. They are treated like animals, but abusing them a lot is counterproductive to good output.

One difference is that slaves have to work--as much as possible, often beyond endurance, and that necesarily involves physical abuse.

Are you aware that the life expectancy of an African imported as a slave to Jamaica was three years?

G.U.T. is an exploitation film, made to give a Sixties audience a nice dose of pornography: slavemasters raping black women. Lots of black tit showing. Lots of violence.

It's not erotic though is it? Quite the reverse--it's disgusting.

I suspect that the makers were at least as racist as many whites in their day. You've said that GUT is some sort of amends-making for Mondo Cane. If so, why did they later make 'Africa Blood and Guts'?

No, ABG came first. I said that GUT was an apology for ABG (aka Addio Africa).

 

[phildwyer]

Here's a clue: on your fifth or umpteenth watching of this film, pay attention to the number of close-up shots of jiggling black tits, or heaving loins. How much time is spent focused on long rape scenes.

Very little--there's only one rape scene I remember: the very last one before it shifts into modern time.

The fact that you've been able to sit through this piece of trash four times makes me shake my head.

It's one of the best films I've ever seen. Truly a work of genius.

I suppose what's missing from the modern porn, is the derisive, mocking voiceovers from the narrators and Italian cast, playing the whites.

There are no "derisive, mocking" voiceovers from the narrators. There are plenty from the actors--because they're actors, playing racists.

You are simply mis-remembering this film, perhaps making it fit your preconceptions about what you expected it to be based on its critical reception.

 

[Kidda]

Shirley Valentine.

 

[butchersapron]

Bullhead - really strong debut film from Belgium with an outstanding performance from Matthias Schoenaerts. Crime/thriller/psychological investigation/hormone mafia type thing. Few missteps with a couple of pointless comic characters but not enough to have a really damaging impact. Recommended.

 

[colbhoy]

I had great intentions this holiday period of watching some of the various DVD's that I have still to watch but that hasn't happened.

Finally managed to watch Das Boot - The Director's Cut which I got for Christmas. Absolutely superb, there were moments in the film where I was almost holding my breath along with the U-Boat crew as they waited for the inevitable depth charges to drop.

 

[imposs1904]

Up to episode 5 of The Killing. Loving it so far but bemused how they'll stretch it out for another 15 episodes.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Very little--there's only one rape scene I remember: the very last one before it shifts into modern time..

I didn't watch the whole thing again, but I recall one rape scene involving whites in a slave shack, in front of children; a black slave about to be 'used' by a white, offering him a whip to whip her first; naked black women on a ship being doused with water; a man, naked having something shoved up his ass, etc etc etc.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Are you aware that the life expectancy of an African imported as a slave to Jamaica was three years?).

At what point in history?

Those slaves had British masters: what was the life expectancy of a slave in the US South, which is what your film is about?

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

It's not erotic though is it? Quite the reverse--it's disgusting.

It's not erotic. I would have been tittilating to a Sixties or Seventies audience, though.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

There are no "derisive, mocking" voiceovers from the narrators. There are plenty from the actors--because they're actors, playing racists.

You are simply mis-remembering this film, perhaps making it fit your preconceptions about what you expected it to be based on its critical reception.

I scanned though it again, watching maybe an hour in total out of two, a couple of days ago, in order to reply to your comments.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

I scanned though it again, watching maybe an hour in total out of two, a couple of days ago, in order to reply to your comments.

Quite frankly, I'm sorry that I gave this piece of trash even that much of my time, again.

 

[The39thStep]

Cedar Rapids- better than the Hangover films ( with the exception of Tyson punching that bloke) but not up there with 40 year old virgin.

 

[phildwyer]

I didn't watch the whole thing again, but I recall one rape scene involving whites in a slave shack, in front of children; a black slave about to be 'used' by a white, offering him a whip to whip her first; naked black women on a ship being doused with water; a man, naked having something shoved up his ass, etc etc etc.

Which brings home the reality of slavery in an extremely powerful manner. Sexual abuse was inherent in the system: slaves were very frequently bought and sold for specifically sexual purposes.

Do you want those uncomfortable truths to be forgotten, or erased from history? Then you're better off watching Roots.

 

[phildwyer]

At what point in history?

Those slaves had British masters: what was the life expectancy of a slave in the US South, which is what your film is about?

Throughout history it was cheaper to import healthy slaves than to maintain slaves whose health has been broken by slavery. Conditions were worse in the Caribbean than in mainland America, but not by all that much.

It truly was a hideous system, and it is impossible to exagerrate how hideous it was.

If anything, GUT underestimates the horror of slavery by portraying the slaves as fit and healthy. That's not what they really looked like.

 

[phildwyer]

It's not erotic. I would have been tittilating to a Sixties or Seventies audience, though.

I very much doubt that. I think it would be horrifying in any decade.

 

[phildwyer]

Quite frankly, I'm sorry that I gave this piece of trash even that much of my time, again.

What is really causing your repulsion is slavery itself, not the cinematic representation thereof.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Which brings home the reality of slavery in an extremely powerful manner. Sexual abuse was inherent in the system: slaves were very frequently bought and sold for specifically sexual purposes.

Do you want those uncomfortable truths to be forgotten, or erased from history? Then you're better off watching Roots.

The truth and history of slavery is well-told in many better places and forms, that aren't so exploitive, that aren't designed by Italian schlock producers to tittilate a white racist audience.

A good place to start is here:

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/wpa/wpahome.html

A book that I own and would recommend is this:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/369801.The_Slave_s_Narrative

I prefer to gain an education about slavery from the mouths of those who lived under it; better even learning it from those who heard the stories sitting at their grandparents' knee, than relying on a couple of Italians looking to score some fast dollars.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

What is really causing your repulsion is slavery itself, not the cinematic representation thereof.

No you're wrong. I've spent many many hours reading about slavery and the South. I'm very interested in the topic.

Your movie? I find it repulsive.

 

[butchersapron]

A book that I own and would recommend is this:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/369801.The_Slave_s_Narrative

I prefer to gain an education about slavery from the mouths of those who lived under it; better even learning it from those who heard the stories sitting at their grandparents' knee, than relying on a couple of Italians looking to score some fast dollars.

Just out of passing interest, the blurb on that link says "These autobiographies of Afro-American ex-slaves comprise the largest body of literature produced by slaves in human history" - George Rawick produced a 40+ volume series of slave writings, histories etc that's rather larger.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Throughout history it was cheaper to import healthy slaves than to maintain slaves whose health has been broken by slavery. Conditions were worse in the Caribbean than in mainland America, but not by all that much.

You didn't answer the question: did american slaves have a life expectancy of three years?

It's estimated that of the12 million slaves transported across the Atlantic during the centuries of the slave trade, about 700,000 ended up in the US. Yet in 1860, the slave population in the US was 4 million. That would indicate that a fair number of that 700,000 didn't die after three years.

Phil, if you are truly interested in learning about slavery, leave trash like 'Goodbye Uncle Tom' for the racists and masturbators. Pick up a good book instead.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

I very much doubt that. I think it would be horrifying in any decade.

The values of other decades aren't the same as our own. I was fairly young when Mondo Cane came out: but I can remember that it caused quite a sensation, and it was one of those movies that we kids couldn't watch, but wanted to, based on the reactions of adults.

 

[radgiesteve]

The values of other decades aren't the same as our own. I was fairly young when Mondo Cane came out: but I can remember that it caused quite a sensation, and it was one of those movies that we kids couldn't watch, but wanted to, based on the reactions of adults.

its hardly 'Faces of Death' but you're right, this was early shockumentary cinema and was received as such.

 

[andy2002]

Sarah Palin: You Betcha!: Thought it was a bit weak compared to other Nick Broomfield documentaries I've seen. Didn't really tell me anything I didn't know already.

 

[TruXta]

Sarah Palin: You Betcha!: Thought it was a bit weak compared to other Nick Broomfield documentaries I've seen. Didn't really tell me anything I didn't know already.

Doesn't hold a candle to Nailin' Palin.

 

[TruXta]

Finally got round to Nokas - excellent narrow focus on Norway's biggest ever robbery, felt they could have given us a bit about the planning before the job but they may have been a very different film from what they wanted to make (Greengrass manages to do this style with a wider focus though). If the actual robbery looked anything like the film then there's some very lucky people around.

Right, I need to watch this then. AFAIK the robbery depiction is very true to life.

 

[andy2002]

Doesn't hold a candle to Nailin' Palin.

Oh, the humanity!