Review of Day of the Woman (1978) by William B — 26 Apr 2008

This movie may or may not deserve its bad reputation-- yeah, there's a thirty minute rape scene that's just unflinching and brutal; it's hard to deny that the movie used violence against women as a device to motivate its heroine's descent into bloodthirsty depravity.

But at the same time, the movie is clearly superior to Wes Craven's LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, which explored similar themes. Zarchi allows the victim in his movie to become her own agent of revenge, whereas Craven turns his victim's father into the film's "hero.

" Furthermore, Zarchi had the good sense to make it clear that rapists aren't weird, explosive caricatures that smart girls should know to stay away from (as they are in Craven's film); his villains are the good old boys who feel a sense of entitled anger when confronted with a strong, independent woman.

Real, ordinary people-- Zarchi seems to tell us-- can be capable of grotesque brutality. So the movie's more complicated than I think most tend to think.