Review of Day of the Woman (1978) by Trevor C — 02 May 2010

(note prior to reading review: I did enjoy the film, despite what it may seem in the review following this notice. keep that in mind.).

I know that this is a cult classic and I can understand why, which is mainly because of its extremely disturbing violence and supposedly graphic rape scenes. when I first heard of this film, I was told that it was what Roger Ebert considered the worst, most disgusting film ever made and that there was a extremely gruesome and famously controversial 25 minute brutal rape scene. I just so happen to be a fan of extremely visually/psychologically disturbing films, such as various works of Haneke (for his psychologically messed up ideas) and Miike (for his boundary-less onscreen violence methods), and when I watched this film I expected to see something more screwed up than anything I had ever seen before. Instead I get a semi-well made film with a plot meant to make its audience question why they're watching it in the first place, and though I enjoyed the film, I was disappointed mainly by the fact that it wasn't anywhere near as unpleasant as other films I had seen in the past.

Though it was disappointingly no where near as disturbing as I thought/hoped it would be, it did still have a fantastic style to it that I can see as being an influence even today, however don't start watching it and expect to see the most screwed up film ever made (that award probably goes to Martyrs or a documentary (which's title escapes me) which is literally nothing but visuals of real acts of extreme violence (as well as its sequel)).