A terrific new thriller called Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen’s follow-up to 2005’s A History of Violence) enters wide release this weekend, and I, like a whole slew of critics, recommend you check it out. But beware: The R-rated film is filled with blood and guts and graphic scenes in which all sorts of red stuff spurts from poor souls’ necks and torsos and eyes. It’s a marvelous movie, but not for the weak of constitution, that’s for sure.
Then again, what film this fall isn’t? For the new issue of EW, my colleague Tim Stack wrote an article about the trend toward dark and dirty fare at the multiplex in the waning months of 2007 (which is in stark contrast to what appears to be a notably lighter, more whimsical new TV season). Evidently, dozens of upcoming releases — Rendition, Hitman, No Country for Old Men, and so on — share Eastern Promises‘ violent M.O. So what gives? Many fingers point to our current post-9/11, IED-filled world. "These are dark, disturbing times," Neil Jordan, who directed Jodie Foster’s revenge shoot-em-up, The Brave One, says in the story. "Movies have to reflect the times we live in. [The Brave One] is about violence, pure and simple. It struck me as an appropriate theme at the moment." But then one wonders: How does all of this realistic bloodshed affect movies’ marketing campaigns — both to consumers and Oscar voters? You’d think it might turn folks off to certain movies, but just look at, say, last year’s The Departed: It earned $132 million and won Best Picture. What does that say about us?
Anyway, check out Tim’s article and then let us know what do you think: What would you say is the most violent film of all time? What violent movie sequences do you remember squirming through?
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When Ving Rhames gets “man-handled” in Pulp Fiction and when Jennifer Jason Leigh “comes undone” in the Hitcher are 2 of the scenes I can not watch.
Not being really into violent movies, the one that comes to mind is “8mm”, which really bothered me. I’m sure there’s worse stuff out there…
I couldn’t watch violent movies for a few years after I saw Robocop.
The very violent elevator scene in “The Departed” always makes me squirm. And basically all of “The Exorcist” is difficult to watch, especially when Reagan stabs herself with the crucifix- so disturbing.
Hostel…the whole thing with the eye…I can barely type while thinking about it.
Natural Born Killers pretty much takes the cake.
“The Devil’s Rejects” bothered me immensely- I think because they treated these killers as the hero’s of the movie- I found that far too disturbing and had to turn it off half way thru.
I’ve seen all the movies listed below and find them tame when compared with the remade Hills Have Eyes. It disturbed me to see a pregnant woman get shot in the head in that movie. I love horror movies, but am no fan of over the top gore. This movie, like the rest of the torture porn genre, was sick for the sake of being sick.
And I’m sorry, but shooting a pregnant woman in the head? Even for a horror movie that goes too far.
Hostel, especially when the kid getting wheeled out on the cart of dead bodies is witnessing the tortures going on in the various rooms
As a teen who loved slasher flicks, “Henry: A Portrait of a Serial Killer” turned me off immediately. The film took all the “fun” out of slasher death scenes. I still remember the camera just learing at the gore and the killings. It would be years before I could appreciate a good slasher film.
The rape scene in the French film “Irreversible” made me truly wish I had never bought my ticket. I have never seen anything more disturbing in a movie theatre, before or since.
As for violence in general, though, I reject the idea that the world is more violent now than it ever was before 9/11. That’s patently ridiculous. Human nature remains the same as it ever was — we just go through cycles where certain aspects of it get more visibility.
I don’t like violent movies so much, and the only one I can think of is ‘Hostel’ and the eye part. After that I turned it off. I only saw parts of ‘Hills Have Eyes’ remake, and nothing I saw was too disturbing.
Robert Duvall dancing with a bloody deer carcass on his head in “The Scarlet Letter” really squicked me out. Even more than the anachronism of Demi Moore unleashing the beauty of 20th century feminism on the Puritans.
What really disturbs me is that there are people out there who actually pay money to go see movies like “Hostel”. That’s a far more unsettling aspect of the torture-porn genre than anything actually depicted in the films.
I never think anything is too violent but when I saw “Running Scared” (that movie that came out a few Februarys ago with Paul Walker) in theaters I thought it was just too much. Also, “Smokin Aces” bothered me.
I hate the violent trend in movies. I am really a wimp when it comes to those types of things and lots of times you can tell a good story without all the gore. Great story, horrific violence: A History of Violence.
Is there any way that you, Joshua, or somebody could tell me how it compares in bloodiness to “A History of Violence”? I loved that movie so much, though the gore was a bit extreme at times. I have a hard time handling blood and guts sometimes, but I’m dying to see “Eastern Promises”. “A History of Violence” was well worth it for me; is “Eastern Promises” worse?
kinda hard to watch a guys fingers get clipped off in Eastern Promises
Two movies really stick out in my mind. The first is “The Passion of the Christ”. Wow was that every bloody. I find it extremely difficult to watch a human being tortured, so naturally “Hostel” is on my list as well. And I turned it off within the first 30 minutes.
Depends on the context in which the violence portrayed. I recently watched a screening of “The Pineapple Express,” a pothead comedy produced by Judd Apatow, and I found the violence disturbing because I felt that it glorified it and was inappropriate because it is a comedy. The characters in the film seemed to be having fun killing people. This bothers me much more than violence in a movie like “Braveheart” or “Pulp Fiction.”
What film this fall isn’t not for the weak of constitution? Or do you mean what un-film this non-winter isn’t un-not for the opposite of strong of the Declaration of Independence?
There’s a scene in American History X where Edward Norton makes this guy put his mouth on the side of the sidewalk and bashes his head in with his foot. That’s the only violent movie scene that really disturbed.
The scene in Hostel with the eye and the scenes in Hostel part 2 where the girl is hung upside down and tortured and the part where the man shoots the little boy. The rape scene in the remake of Hills Have Eyes. The Texas Chainsaw: The Beginning where the girls boyfriend is tortured and killed while she is below him inside the table where he’s being killed and the blood is dripping all over her.
but the worst scene where I had to get up and leave the theater was when Jesus was being tortured with the club with the spikes and his skin is being ripped off in The Passion…that was truly disgusting and I don’t know why we have to see Jesus’s crucifixion in such graphic detail
Hey Matthew- I COMPLETELY agree with you that the French film Irreversible is by far the most disturbingly violent movie I have ever seen but not only for the 10-minute rape scene (which was horrific) but also for the scene where a man gets his face literally bashed in with a fire extinguisher for like 5 mins straight and the camera does not waver– it was brutal and I’ve never gotten the images from this movie out of my mind.
I swore off David Cronenberg films after “A History of Violence.” I can appreciate the movie now but after awhile I couldn’t bear to look at the screen for fear of what else might happen. I’ve seen several horror films and violent movies (though I steer clear of torture-horror movies), but that one by far stuck out as the most unbearable. I think it’s partly because the violence wasn’t remotely glamorous (which I consider a good thing), and didn’t even vaguely feel cool at all, and was also gory and unflinching. It was repulsive. “The Passion of the Christ” is second on my list for the amount of graphic violence. And some scenes in movies are notably shocking and gruesome, like in “Pan’s Labyrinth,” but I’m willing to watch them again (with my hands covering part of the screen, of course).
Lex and Matthew are right – “Irreversible” didn’t just make me squirm, it made me cry.
Quick severances and arterial spurts don’t really bother me that much, and that’s what you usually get in the more “realistic” flicks like “The Departed,” “True Romance” (my favorite movie ever) . . . stuff like that. That being said; “Audition.” Kiri kiri kiri . . . eyeballeyeballeyeballeyeballjibblyjibblyjibbly!!!
PC- to get the full meaning of the sacrifice and taking on the costs of the sin of mankind.The thing is you still didn’t see all the graphic horror because there’s no way that could get filmed. War movies are the same way.
‘Hills have eyes’ rape scene… in front of her family?? Revolting. With NO significant connection to the “story” (what there was of it). Just a chance for filmmaker to “push the envelope” by exploiting an inherently exploitative crime…
One scene in the remake of The Hills Have Eyes (a terrible terrible movie in it’s own right) was ridiculously over the top. It included rape and breastfeeding, ’nuff said. But again, that’s a case of a director confusing disturbing imagery for genuine scares, a real problem with 98% of horror films these days.