I Spit on Your Grave
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| I Spit on Your Grave | |
|---|---|
 Re-release theatrical poster |
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| Directed by | Meir Zarchi |
| Produced by | Meir Zarchi Joseph Zbeda |
| Written by | Meir Zarchi |
| Starring | Camille Keaton Eron Tabor Richard Pace Anthony Nichols Gunter Kleemann |
| Cinematography | Yuri Haviv |
| Editing by | Meir Zarchi Spiro Carras (re-edited intl. version) |
| Distributed by | Cinemagic |
| Release date(s) | November 3, 1978 |
| Running time | 100 min. |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Day of the Woman, better known by its re-release title, I Spit on Your Grave, is a controversial rape-revenge film. Prominent film critics lashed out at the film for its lengthy depictions of gang rape, and the picture remains controversial to this day.
The film earned an R rating upon its original U.S. release in 1978. Camille Keaton won a Best Actress award for her role in this movie at the 1978 Catalonian International Film Festival in Spain.[1]
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[edit] Plot
Sophisticated New York magazine writer Jennifer Hills (played by Camille Keaton) is writing a book, and decides that the only way she can finish it is to go to a log cabin in the country, where she will not be disturbed.
Three local men, two ne'er do wells and a gas station manager are disturbed by Jennifer's independence. Late at night they hatch a plan to abduct her, apparently so their mildly-retarded friend Matthew can lose his virginity. The next day, while the young woman is relaxing in her boat, the men surprise her by tying a rope to the boat and towing her to shore. Jennifer fights but is chased by the men through the forest. They capture and brutally sodomize and rape her. After she crawls back to her house they attack her again. Matthew finally rapes her after drinking alcohol, but says that he can not climax with the other men watching. While she is being tortured, the other men ridicule her book and rip up the manuscript. As she passes out, the men order Matthew to stab her in the heart, and then leave. Matthew cannot bring himself to do this, and dabs the knife lightly in her blood so it looks as if he killed her.
In the following days, Jennifer is shown traumatized by the gang rape. Slowly, she pieces both herself and her manuscript back together. It becomes evident that she is intent on revenge, and she vows to kill the men who raped her.
First, she lures Matthew back to her cabin and entices him to have sex with her under a tree. As he becomes oblivious to the surroundings around him, she strings a noose around his neck and hangs him. She then cuts the rope and drops the body in the river.
She picks up one of the men at the gas station where he works. She stops halfway to her house and turns a gun on him. She orders him to take off all his clothes. He gets the gun from her and she takes him to her cabin for a hot bath. She manually stimulates him in her bathtub. As he nears orgasm, she picks up a knife she has hidden under the bathmat and cuts his genitals. Calmly, she leaves the room and locks him in from the outside. He dies due to blood loss and she disposes of him in her basement. She burns his blood-stained clothes in her fireplace.
The two remaining men take their motorized boat to Jennifer's cabin, with an axe in hand. As they attack her, she escapes with the boat and the axe. The two men swim after her, so she turns around and swings the axe into one man's back. The other man swims up, grabs hold of the motor, and asks Jennifer not to kill him and even apologizes for raping her and tries in vain to ask for forgiveness. She revs the motor, disemboweling him. As she speeds away, the credits roll.
[edit] Name changes
The movie was originally released under the title Day of the Woman (the title preferred by Zarchi), although it was also shown under the title I Hate Your Guts and The Rape and Revenge of Jennifer Hill. The title was changed to I Spit on Your Grave in a 1980 re-release.
[edit] Controversy and criticisms
As I Spit on Your Grave, the movie was censored and released in the United States in 1980. Many countries, such as Ireland, Norway, Iceland, and the former government of West Germany, banned the film altogether, claiming that the film glorifies violence against women. Canada had banned the movie for a long time; in the 1990s, the individual provinces were allowed to decide whether or not to allow a video release. Since 1998, many provinces (such as Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Quebec) have released the film, albeit with a high rating.
The film was originally released in Australia in 1982 with an R 18+ rating, albeit the censored US version, and survived a 1987 appeal to ban the film. It continued to be sold until 1997, with yet another reclassification seeing the film banned in Australia. Even though Australian Censorship law forbids the release of films that depict scenes of sexual violence as acceptable or justified, in 2004 the full uncut version was awarded an R 18+, lifting the 7 year ban. The Office of Film and Literature justified this decision by claiming that castration is not sexual violence.[2] In the United Kingdom the film was branded a "video nasty", and appeared on the Director of Public Prosecutions's list of prosecutable movies until 2001 when a heavily cut version of the film was released with an 18 certificate. This UK Cut version was released on DVD in New Zealand in 2001, with an R18 rating. Some defenders of the film believe the critics and MPAA contrived to "bury" this film. Film critic Roger Ebert considers this to be one of the worst films he has ever seen, referring to it as "a vile bag of garbage...without a shred of artistic distinction," adding that "Attending it was one of the most depressing experiences of my life." [3]
The initial criticism has recently given way to a second appraisal of the film among some viewers. Michael Kaminski's 2007 article for website Obsessed with Film titled "Is I Spit on Your Grave Really a Misunderstood Feminist Film?" unconventionally argues that, unnecessary though the film may be, when understood within the context which director Zarchi was inspired to make the film it may be equally appropriate to analyse it as "feminist wish-fulfillment" and a vehicle of personal expression reacting to violence against women.[4]
[edit] Zarchi's inspiration and responses to criticism
In the commentary for the Millennium Edition, Zarchi said that he was inspired to do the film after helping a young woman who had been raped in New York. He tells of how a friend of his and his daughter were driving by a park when they witnessed a young woman crawling out of the bushes bloodied and naked (he later found out the girl was taking a common shortcut to meet with her boyfriend when she was attacked). They took the girl with them, took his daughter back home, and talked with the friend on whether they should take her to the hospital or to the police. They decided to take her to the police first, which they soon afterwards discovered was a mistake — the officer, whom Zarchi described as "not fit to wear the uniform", delayed taking her to the hospital and instead insisted she answer questions about her assailants, even though her jaw had been broken and she could hardly talk. Finally, Zarchi insisted to the officer that they take her to the hospital right away. Zarchi said that soon afterwards the girl's father wrote him a letter of thanks for helping his daughter, and wanted to give him a reward, which he turned down.
In the same commentary, Zarchi denied that his film was exploitative, and that the violent nature of the film was necessary to tell the story. He described actress Camille Keaton as "brave" for taking on the role.
[edit] Trivia
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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- Camille Keaton, grand-niece of Buster Keaton.
- Actor Richard Pace (Matthew) unintentionally worried director Zarchi filming his death scene when he started to convulse while hanging. Zarchi initially thought he was just doing some really good acting, but realized that something was wrong. Pace wasn't choking, but was afraid of heights and was having a panic attack.
- The film that Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel based their negative ("sick, reprehensible and contemptible") reviews on what was the uncut version of the film that was released by the distribution company with the R rating without notifying Zarchi. After the Motion Picture Association of America talked with Zarchi and found he wasn't responsible, the distribution company was reprimanded.
- In an episode of The Simpsons (S07E05, Lisa the Vegetarian) the marquee of the Springfield drive-in advertises a double feature of I Spit On Your Grave and I Thumb Through Your Magazines.
[edit] References
- ^ Awards for Day of the Woman (1978). Internet Movie Database. Retrieved on 2007-03-20.
- ^ Details for I Spit On Your Grave. Refused Classification.com. Retrieved on 2007-03-20.
- ^ Roger Ebert (July 16, 1980). Review of I Spit on Your Grave. Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved on 2007-03-20.
- ^ Michael Kaminski (October 29, 2007). Is I Spit on Your Grave Really a Misunderstood Feminist Film?. Obsessed With Film.
