Graphic Interpretation of Rape

For this entry I would like to relate this particular french movie starred by Monica Bellucci and Vincent Cassel.

Last Thursday session with Dr. lourdes Veneracion-Rallona, she passionately explained the word rape and the violence attached to it. I agree with her that rape is not encouraged because of the way a woman would dress or the way she would act sluttily. Even though in some circumstances it may be the woman who will encourage the act but when she said no or to stop whatever they were doing for whatever reason, it must be respected. The partner shall not force the woman to do or continue the act, when he will force himself on the woman it is rape.

Plenty of times we hear rape on the news, or read it on newspapers but it really doesn't register on the on our minds on how violent it is. Hearing a faceless person who got raped doesn't bring out sincere sympathy because we don't have clear idea on what is being done, and just hearing the word rape does not evoke the sheer terror or realization of how horrible it really is. Sometimes we got a glimpse from movies but it was really short because mostly it is not well received by the viewers, probably in my opinion a denial in accepting the horrors of it or they would rather not get the visuals of the violence of the act and choosing to be blind about the issue. Because of these, we didn't get to see the whole thing, to witness the horrors of it for it to evoke rightful emotions and realizations from us. In this film, Irreversible, however, we get to see the whole thing.

The movie was considered by many critics as one of the most brutal film in the history. Irreversible was told backwards starting from two guys, Marcus and Pierre (Vincent Cassel & Albert Dupontel) looking for a bar named "Rectum", because it where they could find Alex's (Monica Bellucci) assailant. Irreversible had realistically showed the horrors and violence of revenge and RAPE. Focusing on the rape scene, it was showed for at least 10 minutes, giving the viewers the exact picture of rape. Yes it was hard to watch but if the movie shortened the rape scene it would lose its power and its impact to the audience. We need to see this kind of scenes, yes it would would make us turn away from too much violence, but it is the only way to witness the horrors of rape, a chance that only this film can provide us, a chance to wake up and connect emotionally with all rape victims. It is the most loud and clear wake-up call we could ever get about the true violence behind rape.

I would not have the movie in any other way. In my opinion it was well written, including the most graphic illustration of rape and the capacity of one man, even a very peaceful one, to violence. The backward plot is I think another way to hold the viewers attention and focus to get to know the characters more and why the need of violence in the first scene, to hold their attention in the gruesome rape scene depicted in this film. I believe if the story would be said straight forward, it would not have the same strong impact than having it in reversed. The story ended with a scene of a happy normal couple, Alex and Marcus, as if life is actually perfect to them. This last scene (supposedly the first one) is trying to say that rape or any kind of dangers can happen to anyone, anytime and anywhere. Horrors like this does not pick a person, horrors like this is part of our sick reality. And because of this film, the said horrors were witnessed by everybody. And lastly because of this film, people are now exposed to the real horror of rape, and could now then sincerely understand rape victims on what they had been through.