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Reader comments on Irreversible
Subject: Re: homophobia?
Date: Sep 13, 2008
I only just saw this movie the other week, it is still haunting my thoughts, creeping back in - very disturbing. Because it scared the shit out of me, it may me afraid. Could i ever protect myself or someone i cared about from a brutal attack?
As an actor and someone who has always enjoyed watching film, i thought it was brilliant.
If you didn't like it - fair enough, i can see why. But nobody has mentioned the brilliant acting. To recreate such emotion, so convincingly was incredible.
I can see why some people feel it is homophobic, i expected that before even reading the forums. I don't however feel it is. Firstly, i didn't identify the rapist as gay. He presented having homosexual tendencies but i didn't see him as a gay guy. I saw him as an individual who uses other people as a device for his sadistic pleasure. He raped Alex anally because he knew it would be the most painful for her and the most pleasurable for him. He obviously gains sexual gratification from inflicting pain and enjoys the power trip. The club is a convenient place for him to find participants, just because he goes there doesn't mean he is gay. The same could be said for several of the other guys in the club. Clubs like that do exist in the world, as do the customers represented in the film. They go there to hang out with likeminded people and indulge in their fantasies, some of which are extreme. While most of them are obviously gay, i didn't feel the film was suggesting all gays are like that. Just that, the people who choose to go to that club indulge in some very sado-masochistic behaviours.
I disagree with other comments that the main characters were paper thin. Subtly a great deal was revealed about each of them.
The most powerful message for me, there were many, was that ultimately revenge is unachievable. The lesson learned was 'Another violent act doesn't make up for the initial one'. Le Tenia when first threatening Alex in the tunnel expresses an attitude towards her 'rich' status - people who thought they were better than him. His raping her obviously didn't fix that issue, he didn't get satisfactory 'revenge'. He probably felt 'he showed her' etc, but his issue with the rich still exists - he will still resent them and ultimately his life is still empty - void of any emotional substance. For Marcus and Pierre, their quest for revenge failed miserably. Destined for jail for killing what turned out to be the wrong person (watch the scenes carefully - Marcus confronts two men, one in a light coloured shirt the other in black, because the man in black walks away Marcus assumes he is the one and attacks. The man who raped Alex had the same light coloured shirt and the same face if you look carefully at the features.) They have achieved nothing and only ruined their lives further, and taken the life of an innocent man who had the right to chose to be in that club.
Such attention to detail, and the masking of it - obscuring the obvious from the audience is what i enjoyed about the film. Afterwards it made me think, instead of just laying a neatly wrapped story out on a plate. Things were left unanswered, the future unclear, there was no resolution. Which is precisely what happens to many people who experience an extreme event.
I found the film's reverse sequence engaging, because almost every film ever made is presented in chronological order - this offered something different. That is something this film did well, present 'difference' as an acceptable form. For me, ultimately the film has made me think about living more in each day and caring more about the people close to me - because i have no control over what is around the corner.
For that reason the film is brilliant.
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Response to this comment:
Re: homophobia?
Of course, the rape (and the movie) has nothing to do with "reality". I think that it is not the film which is extremely homophobic, but that Noe behind the film has his specific point of view. Look at "I stand alone": the main character, the butcher, is a xenophobic and homophobic character. And now, the gay world is the sick and red one, the straight world is the bright and yellow one. This is so simple. Even sader is that no straight being on earth gets that notion, that this is the typical straight view, narrow minded. I mean, Joshua really said it: The man in the club says sth like "And now I fuck you in the ass" and the sick gays are standing around the place, yummi.
Nevertheless, I guess Noe is not homophobic, he simply knows how to sell a movie: he decided to shock the people out of their seats. That's it. I mean, when Pierre and Marcus are taken away from the dark club, all the people are shouting extreme gay violent things like "I hope the sodomize you to death" aso. Even the ones from the club, the ones at the door - does that make any sense, gays who hurt gays??? No, it's just about the provocation. (Hopefully)
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Comment index:
» Re: homophobia? « from Allan, Sep 13, 2008
Joshy... from monica belluci, May 24, 2003
» Re: homophobia? « from Allan, Sep 13, 2008
Joshy... from monica belluci, May 24, 2003
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