I Spit On Your Grave vs. Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

KingofPain

on 2/21/2011

These are two movies that some folks consider to be feminist films. Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! does have a tough female character in it (played by Tura Satana, who recently passed on), but she's a bit on the evil side. And, like every Russ Meyer flick, the movie emphasizes the physical assests of the actresses. I think maybe Russ Meyer exploited men and women equally in his films, but I don't know if he was a feminist-minded director. With I Spit On Your Grave, you got a woman taking brutal revenge on the men who raped her (some people point out that her acts of revenge are symbolic, or, actually, the whole movie is symbolic). I kind of look at I Spit On Your Grave as a moral calibrator, or something like that. I watch enough messed up movies where it's always good to come across one that still disturbs me. Sure, some people say that I Spit On Your Grave is just an exploitation movie, so its moral significance is irrevelant. But, I can watch it and know it's just a movie yet still think "That's pretty f**ked up." So I can still say that I am not completely desensitized to cinematic violence. I don't know if I think I Spit On Your Grave is a feminist movie, but the rape scenes make me feel bad and the revenge makes me feel good (though, slightly queasy). I Spit On Your Grave is the only one out of these two films that has a female hero in some typical sense. I like Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! more as entertainment, though.