Comments on: Review: I Spit on Your Grave (1978)

By: Mickey ES BBeck

Mickey ES BBeck — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 18:04:46 +0000

I love the movie. The story wasn’t meant to be one with extreme detail. It’s a story of a woman wanting to go to the country to be free of the crazy city madness and have her mind free to write. What happens is crazy country guys who see this woman alone and away from their town so they want to get her. Cause no one will know. But she survives and like anyone who is pissed from suffering extreme abuse gets revenage. She is not a monster like you said. If a monster is someone who defends herself and makes sure they don’t do that to anyone else then you need help. I saw the same post on Freaks about killing the couple who tried to kill one of their own. They are not monsters for defending their friend and putting them in the same spot they are. I would do the same and if that makes me a monsters then maybe you want those type of people alive and healthy to hurt and kill.

By: Dave Stewart

Dave Stewart — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 13:18:20 +0000

I particularly like/agree with your last point, Glenn.

By: glenn

glenn — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 21:21:04 +0000

Dave,
I think the title Deliverance is ambiguous rather than literal or ironic. I think that the trauma involved is a kind of trial by nature. So you could argue that the fight with the mountain men is a deliverance from the conformity of a dull white collar existence and the escape is a disguised anti-climax. a sort of come down. Boorman, as was Dickie, is big on the primal forces of nature stuff and the noble savage idea.

Where as I think at the end of I Spit you’re supposed to assume Keaton is going to kick more misogynist butt. I think the disturbing thing is that to an extent its supposed to be like a drive-in Russ Meyer over-heated yokels kind of film crossed with Death Wish, but crosses so many lines it becomes something much nastier.

By: Dave Stewart

Dave Stewart — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 12:11:59 +0000

Truly interesting points, Glenn. The sense of deliverance I refer to in the Boorman flick is the three men literally coming off the river in a big ole metaphoric sense, and emerging from immediate danger. You’re right about the hobbled machismo and the broken friendships, but to me there is a sense of having made it through an ordeal despite what’s to come in its aftermath. There are, for sure, severe ramifications that the survivors are going to have to deal with, and when I say severe, I mean severe. But then there’s the movie’s title, which unless it’s intended to be ironic, I can’t help but take at face value. My read of Keaton at the end of I Spit on Your Grave is that she is almost an automaton, all traces of humanity and sanity gone. To me, she’s a catatonic zombie; a lost cause.

By: glenn

glenn — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 12:20:44 +0000

Not a huge fan of I Spit on Your Grave. I think it’s prurient. It’s says rape is bad (true), so let’s really linger on it and then throw in some sexy revenge bits at the end.
Also the acting is really weak so there’s no sense of realism, unlike the early scenes in Last House on the Left and no sense of drama like say Death Weekend.

Actually, I disagree about the comparison with Deliverance, which has no real sense deliverance. That film ends in split friendships. Those guys will never talk to each other again. Also it is imbued with the fear being found out. Reynolds’ machismo hobbled by a broken leg, Beatty unable to come to terms with what happened to him and Vought troubled by his ability to kill and living in fear of the bodies literally resurfacing.

In contrast I Spit ends with Keaton almost unaffected by her trauma and completely satisfied with her revenge. I do agree that it is pure exploitation and that this is what is troubling about it.

By: Dave Stewart

Dave Stewart — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 13:40:14 +0000

Hey thanks, Amanda. Whatever it is, it can be though provoking, although that’s most likely unintentional on the filmmakers’ part.

By: Amanda By Night

Amanda By Night — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 13:18:20 +0000

Fantastic review! I have to admit, I am not a fan of this film, and I hear wildly different opinions of it all the time. This review comes closest to the things I disliked about it (Keaton becomes the monster, lack of catharsis, etc.), but you also make points that say to me maybe one day I should re-examine this one. However, I have to say, I was utterly disgusted by it. I know some women find it powerful, but I thought it was condoning what it was condemning. Interesting if you compare it to Cannibal Holocaust which essentially does the same thing, yet I found far more effective.

At any rate, you’ve made me re-think certain parts. Thanks!