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1. I Spit on Your Grave (Millennium
$21.24 list($29.95)
2. I Spit on Your Grave
$22.46 $6.51 list($24.95)
3. Don't Mess with My Sister!
$26.96 $20.46 list($29.95)
4. The Ultimate Revenge 2-Pack (I

1. I Spit on Your Grave (Millennium Edition)
Director: Meir Zarchi
list price: $24.95
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: B00006JDS4
Catlog: DVD
Sales Rank: 22539
Average Customer Review: 3.09 out of 5 stars
US | Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan

Amazon.com

Writer-director Meir Zarchi's controversial story of rape and revenge has lost none of its ability to shock viewers since it first gained notoriety in the late '70s. Camille Keaton (grand-niece of Buster Keaton and, later, Zarchi's wife) stars as a young woman who is terrorized and then brutally assaulted by four men while on vacation. After slowly pulling herself together, she methodically tracks down and butchers each of the perpetrators. Zarchi's film has been consistently accused of celebrating violence against women, and while the rape scenes are graphic, they also lack the voyeuristic qualities that earmark other similarly plotted exploitation films. If anything, Zarchi is guilty of awkward scripting; the dialogue is leaden, and Keaton's transformation from victim to avenger is too swift. But to label him a pornographer is wrong, and while the film is challenging--perhaps more than most audiences can bear--its depiction of the psychology of violence is undeniably powerful. --Paul Gaita ... Read more

Reviews (158)

4-0 out of 5 stars At last Meir Zarchi explains himself
Well, now all the folks who wish writer/director Meir Zarchi would explain his controversial, infamous, and disturbing rape and revenge film can get their wish for the price of this Millennium edition DVD, which includes a feature-length commentary by Zarchi. In this commentary, Zarchi confirms what this film's defenders (including me) have been claiming all along -- that his intention was definitely not to promote rape to his male viewers, but rather to expose the true ugliness of the crime. He talks at length about the real-life encounter with a rape victim that inspired the film, and about the people he worked with in making it. He also discusses the technical aspects in enough detail to prove this is not the shoddy, haphazard production some folks want to claim it is. I also learned a few interesting facts about the film business in general. For example, when you submit a movie to the MPAA, they'll tell you it has to be cut to get an R rating, but they won't tell you WHAT to cut.

Besides answering your questions about the film, Zarchi's commentary also provides a clue as to what sort of person he is. Overall, he comes across as intelligent, articulate, and even compassionate.

However, he also comes across as a bit egotistical, which is why the second feature-length commentary by Joe Bob Briggs is useful for its more balanced perspective. Although Briggs defends the movie, pointing out specific scenes that exemplify its anti-rape viewpoint, he's objective enough to point out flaws where he sees them. For example, why on earth did Johnny send the mentally-challenged Matthew back to the house to kill Jennifer, when Matthew was almost certain to bungle the job? Briggs also addresses two ethical questions that have always bothered me. The first is whether Matthew deserves to die, and the second is whether Johnny's wife and children deserve to have their husband/father respectively taken away from them.

This DVD also includes various trailers, TV spots, and posters, including some promoting the movie under its original title, DAY OF THE WOMAN. There are also posted from a wide assortment of countries, in a wide assortment of languages. I wish the extras had also included the original version of the opening, with the title DAY OF THE WOMAN in the credits, but maybe there are no prints in existence.

So, if you want to own this movie on DVD, this is the edition to buy. If you own an earlier edition, you might consider selling it to raise part of the price of this one.

4-0 out of 5 stars Wow..........oh yeah did i mention Wow
Let me first start off by saying that i am horror fan thru and thru but this was somthin i wasn't really expecting in a movie.
I heard about this movie from people, about how shocking it was and how just plain raw it was. Now i have seen all The Faces of Death and alot of gore in my day, but this was different.This movie made my stomach turn with its vivid depiction of rape.I mean the rape sequences in this movie are unparallel to anything i have ever seen or want to see for that matter. I gave it four stars just because of how powerful of a movie it really is.
The revenge plot to the movie is sweet the kills kinda like friday the 13th... the film it self is low budget but i think thats why its good, gives it a sense of realism. Let me warn you if you think this is another Halloween or Texas Chainsaw Massacre your dead wrong.

5-0 out of 5 stars Nice and simple
I dig this movie. I remember seeing it for the first time back around 1979. It is perhaps the oldest movie I ever vividly remember seeing. Watching it nowadays is not as shocking as the movie was when I was pre-teen, wathing it on HBO after hours. The story is pretty simple. A girl gets abused by 3 dudes and she goes back and kills them all. Just the way it should be in real life. Even to this day, some of the scenes would be considered graphic so don't let the kids watch it....the way I did I guess. Definately worth the time to watch it. Even to this day I found myself pinned to the screen watching it.

2-0 out of 5 stars There should be more to it....
I was intrigued by the synopsis of "I Spit on Your Grave", because I love movies about women getting revenge, like "Kill Bill", and "Sleepaway Camp 2". I had been contemplating on weather renting this or not, beucase it's soppousedly soppoused to be so shocking and graphic, that you can't bare to watch it. Well, I was able to watch the whole thing with my eyes open. And it's only sort of shocking. The death scenes are no gorier or violent than those in the "Friday the 13th" movies. Now, even tho I love films with women getting revenge, I did not love this. I only sort of liked it. The problem is is that it just didn't have enough to it. It felt like there was something missing. And it's shown in such a monotonous slide-show way. Like, okay, lets see her get raped. Now she cleans herself. Now she kills this guy. Now this guy. Now this guy. Now this guy. It makes the film feel so much shorter, and uncomplete. Now, Camille Keaton; I real liked her acting in this movie. She says everything in a really cool way, but at the same time somehow makes everything she says funny, mostly when she's talking to the guys before she kills them. Overall, I don't reccomend this unless you have to see every horror film on the shelves.

4-0 out of 5 stars Woman's Day
A pretty young novelist rents a secluded cabin in the woods in order to have a nice, quiet place in which to hunker down and start writing the great American novel. But instead of peace and serenity, she ends up as the victim of brutal rape and torture at the hands of a band of semi-literate rednecks. She somehow survives the ordeal, though, and after regaining her physical and emotional bearing, she finds the inner strength to return to the scene of the crime and confront her attackers.... Thusly winds the plot of 1978's infamous and controversial revenge flick I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE (originally titled DAY OF THE WOMAN).

In the uncut version of this soupçon-budget flick--which is the version offered on the DVD from Elite--the gang-rape and torture sequence consumes an inordinate amount of screen time. Though this sequence has sometimes been compared to the sodomy scene in Boorman's DELIVERANCE (1972), it is more often criticized as being merely gratuitous and subliminally misogynistic. Unlike Boorman, who only slyly and skillfully SUGGESTS the sodomy and torture in his famous film, the director of I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE, Meir Zarchi, is unflinchingly graphic in his depiction of rape. He doesn't want to do anything that might candy-coat this bitter pill, because he wants the audience to see just how abhorring such personal violation actually is.

Lauded by loyal fans as a simple film that makes an important and abstruse point, I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE is admittedly neither complex nor deep. Yes, the plotting is rudimentary and subtext is virtually nonexistent. Yes, the film lacks a musical score. And, yeah, a few of the characters are trite, shallow, and one-dimensional, and some of the dialogue is hokey. To certain aesthete filmgoers, this raw simplicity may come across as banal, sophomoric cinema. But aesthetics is only a secondary concern with this film. The primary purpose is to declare a particular message or two and to declare them as in-your-face as possible. The film DOES indeed have a couple of staunch points to make regarding the repugnance of rape and misogyny, an individual's rights regarding their body, and the justification for exacting eye-for-an-eye revenge. And it proclaims these points in a graphically straightforward manner that, if nothing else, certainly grabs the audience's attention.

The Elite DVD version of I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE offers a surprisingly clear, clean anamorphic transfer of the film in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The sound, while not as impressive as the digital video, is available in Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS Surround Sound 5.1, or the original mono. The disc's extras include a feature commentary by the director, as well as a hilarious commentary track by cult-film aficionado and critic Joe Bob Briggs, the stage persona of actor/writer John Bloom. (Joe Bob's articulate, knowledgeable, and extremely humorous commentary is itself worth the disc's purchase price.) Also included are the theatrical trailers--some of which promote the film under its original title--various interviews, and press-coverage items that include the merciless repudiation of the film by some famous critics. For a film that has generated such negative publicity over the years, this is quite meritorious bonus material.

True, I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE is an exploitative splatter film with a plot that is often dismissed by critics as a tale of one city girl and handful of sadistic hayseeds traipsing through a series of grisly scenes. It's definitely not for the squeamish, but anybody who views the film is certain to walk away with a firm pathos for rape victims and a strong disdain for rapists. And since that is what the filmmakers were aiming for, I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE must be regarded as a highly successful film. ... Read more


2. I Spit on Your Grave
Director: Meir Zarchi
list price: $29.95
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: B000009O8A
Catlog: DVD
Sales Rank: 27554
Average Customer Review: 3.09 out of 5 stars
US | Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan

Reviews (158)

4-0 out of 5 stars At last Meir Zarchi explains himself
Well, now all the folks who wish writer/director Meir Zarchi would explain his controversial, infamous, and disturbing rape and revenge film can get their wish for the price of this Millennium edition DVD, which includes a feature-length commentary by Zarchi. In this commentary, Zarchi confirms what this film's defenders (including me) have been claiming all along -- that his intention was definitely not to promote rape to his male viewers, but rather to expose the true ugliness of the crime. He talks at length about the real-life encounter with a rape victim that inspired the film, and about the people he worked with in making it. He also discusses the technical aspects in enough detail to prove this is not the shoddy, haphazard production some folks want to claim it is. I also learned a few interesting facts about the film business in general. For example, when you submit a movie to the MPAA, they'll tell you it has to be cut to get an R rating, but they won't tell you WHAT to cut.

Besides answering your questions about the film, Zarchi's commentary also provides a clue as to what sort of person he is. Overall, he comes across as intelligent, articulate, and even compassionate.

However, he also comes across as a bit egotistical, which is why the second feature-length commentary by Joe Bob Briggs is useful for its more balanced perspective. Although Briggs defends the movie, pointing out specific scenes that exemplify its anti-rape viewpoint, he's objective enough to point out flaws where he sees them. For example, why on earth did Johnny send the mentally-challenged Matthew back to the house to kill Jennifer, when Matthew was almost certain to bungle the job? Briggs also addresses two ethical questions that have always bothered me. The first is whether Matthew deserves to die, and the second is whether Johnny's wife and children deserve to have their husband/father respectively taken away from them.

This DVD also includes various trailers, TV spots, and posters, including some promoting the movie under its original title, DAY OF THE WOMAN. There are also posted from a wide assortment of countries, in a wide assortment of languages. I wish the extras had also included the original version of the opening, with the title DAY OF THE WOMAN in the credits, but maybe there are no prints in existence.

So, if you want to own this movie on DVD, this is the edition to buy. If you own an earlier edition, you might consider selling it to raise part of the price of this one.

4-0 out of 5 stars Wow..........oh yeah did i mention Wow
Let me first start off by saying that i am horror fan thru and thru but this was somthin i wasn't really expecting in a movie.
I heard about this movie from people, about how shocking it was and how just plain raw it was. Now i have seen all The Faces of Death and alot of gore in my day, but this was different.This movie made my stomach turn with its vivid depiction of rape.I mean the rape sequences in this movie are unparallel to anything i have ever seen or want to see for that matter. I gave it four stars just because of how powerful of a movie it really is.
The revenge plot to the movie is sweet the kills kinda like friday the 13th... the film it self is low budget but i think thats why its good, gives it a sense of realism. Let me warn you if you think this is another Halloween or Texas Chainsaw Massacre your dead wrong.

5-0 out of 5 stars Nice and simple
I dig this movie. I remember seeing it for the first time back around 1979. It is perhaps the oldest movie I ever vividly remember seeing. Watching it nowadays is not as shocking as the movie was when I was pre-teen, wathing it on HBO after hours. The story is pretty simple. A girl gets abused by 3 dudes and she goes back and kills them all. Just the way it should be in real life. Even to this day, some of the scenes would be considered graphic so don't let the kids watch it....the way I did I guess. Definately worth the time to watch it. Even to this day I found myself pinned to the screen watching it.

2-0 out of 5 stars There should be more to it....
I was intrigued by the synopsis of "I Spit on Your Grave", because I love movies about women getting revenge, like "Kill Bill", and "Sleepaway Camp 2". I had been contemplating on weather renting this or not, beucase it's soppousedly soppoused to be so shocking and graphic, that you can't bare to watch it. Well, I was able to watch the whole thing with my eyes open. And it's only sort of shocking. The death scenes are no gorier or violent than those in the "Friday the 13th" movies. Now, even tho I love films with women getting revenge, I did not love this. I only sort of liked it. The problem is is that it just didn't have enough to it. It felt like there was something missing. And it's shown in such a monotonous slide-show way. Like, okay, lets see her get raped. Now she cleans herself. Now she kills this guy. Now this guy. Now this guy. Now this guy. It makes the film feel so much shorter, and uncomplete. Now, Camille Keaton; I real liked her acting in this movie. She says everything in a really cool way, but at the same time somehow makes everything she says funny, mostly when she's talking to the guys before she kills them. Overall, I don't reccomend this unless you have to see every horror film on the shelves.

4-0 out of 5 stars Woman's Day
A pretty young novelist rents a secluded cabin in the woods in order to have a nice, quiet place in which to hunker down and start writing the great American novel. But instead of peace and serenity, she ends up as the victim of brutal rape and torture at the hands of a band of semi-literate rednecks. She somehow survives the ordeal, though, and after regaining her physical and emotional bearing, she finds the inner strength to return to the scene of the crime and confront her attackers.... Thusly winds the plot of 1978's infamous and controversial revenge flick I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE (originally titled DAY OF THE WOMAN).

In the uncut version of this soupçon-budget flick--which is the version offered on the DVD from Elite--the gang-rape and torture sequence consumes an inordinate amount of screen time. Though this sequence has sometimes been compared to the sodomy scene in Boorman's DELIVERANCE (1972), it is more often criticized as being merely gratuitous and subliminally misogynistic. Unlike Boorman, who only slyly and skillfully SUGGESTS the sodomy and torture in his famous film, the director of I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE, Meir Zarchi, is unflinchingly graphic in his depiction of rape. He doesn't want to do anything that might candy-coat this bitter pill, because he wants the audience to see just how abhorring such personal violation actually is.

Lauded by loyal fans as a simple film that makes an important and abstruse point, I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE is admittedly neither complex nor deep. Yes, the plotting is rudimentary and subtext is virtually nonexistent. Yes, the film lacks a musical score. And, yeah, a few of the characters are trite, shallow, and one-dimensional, and some of the dialogue is hokey. To certain aesthete filmgoers, this raw simplicity may come across as banal, sophomoric cinema. But aesthetics is only a secondary concern with this film. The primary purpose is to declare a particular message or two and to declare them as in-your-face as possible. The film DOES indeed have a couple of staunch points to make regarding the repugnance of rape and misogyny, an individual's rights regarding their body, and the justification for exacting eye-for-an-eye revenge. And it proclaims these points in a graphically straightforward manner that, if nothing else, certainly grabs the audience's attention.

The Elite DVD version of I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE offers a surprisingly clear, clean anamorphic transfer of the film in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The sound, while not as impressive as the digital video, is available in Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS Surround Sound 5.1, or the original mono. The disc's extras include a feature commentary by the director, as well as a hilarious commentary track by cult-film aficionado and critic Joe Bob Briggs, the stage persona of actor/writer John Bloom. (Joe Bob's articulate, knowledgeable, and extremely humorous commentary is itself worth the disc's purchase price.) Also included are the theatrical trailers--some of which promote the film under its original title--various interviews, and press-coverage items that include the merciless repudiation of the film by some famous critics. For a film that has generated such negative publicity over the years, this is quite meritorious bonus material.

True, I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE is an exploitative splatter film with a plot that is often dismissed by critics as a tale of one city girl and handful of sadistic hayseeds traipsing through a series of grisly scenes. It's definitely not for the squeamish, but anybody who views the film is certain to walk away with a firm pathos for rape victims and a strong disdain for rapists. And since that is what the filmmakers were aiming for, I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE must be regarded as a highly successful film. ... Read more


3. Don't Mess with My Sister!
Director: Meir Zarchi
list price: $24.95
our price: $22.46
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: B00004RE2A
Catlog: DVD
Sales Rank: 39776
Average Customer Review: 2.33 out of 5 stars
US | Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan

Reviews (3)

1-0 out of 5 stars somebody stop the pain...
Irritating accents, implausible character motivation, and a script that is constantly pulling itself in opposite directions makes the viewer question how Meir Zarchi keeps a clear thought, let alone direct a 90-minute film... That's the feeling I got with "Don't Mess With My Sister!", a low-budget stinker that's riddled with bad writing, acting, direction, and just about everything else... Okay, Zarchi's previous (and only other) effort, "I Spit on Your Grave," was just as confused but more well-done on a technical level than this piece of junk. The exploitation elements are sadly missing (a single nude scene, and action so poorly directed it's laughable) and the film's self-important 'message' (forced marriages will make men snap and sleep with belly dancers!) will leave you groaning.

2-0 out of 5 stars Lightning does not strike twice for director Meir Zarchi
Seven years after his notorious success with "I Spit on Your Grave," writer-director Meir Zarchi made his second and final (to date) film, "Don't Mess with My Sister!" However, this sordid little tale of violence and revenge is just a pale imitation of the controversial exploitation classic. Steven (Joe Perce) meets up with Clara (Jeannine Lemay) and is forced by her bizarre family to get married. Of course, Steven wants to get out of this arrangement and that is when the bloody mayhem begins. But there is nothing here to get worked up about. Everything that made "I Spit on Your Grave" an effective example of raw cinema whose social value was at least debatable on several key levels is missing in "Don't Mess with My Sister!" No wonder it put the final nail in the coffin of Zarchi's film career. You have to admit the guy has achieved a sort of cinematic immortality with his other film, but only those with an intensely morbid sense of curiosity are going to want to check this one out (assuming they can even find it in the first place).

4-0 out of 5 stars ANOTHER ONE FROM THE DIRECTOR OF "I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE"
This is a very strange little film that will have glued to the television screen. Some may find it to be a little too off-beat for their tastes, but those folks who loved "I Spit on Your Grave" by the same director will become instant fans of this film. Now I don't believe in giving away too much of the story in a film review so all I'm going to tell you is that this movie is about a very disturbing forced marriage. ... Read more


4. The Ultimate Revenge 2-Pack (I Spit on Your Grave / Don't Mess with My Sister)
Director: Meir Zarchi
list price: $29.95
our price: $26.96
(price subject to change: see help)
Asin: B00006IUH9
Catlog: DVD
Sales Rank: 21425
Average Customer Review: 3.09 out of 5 stars
US | Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan

Reviews (158)

4-0 out of 5 stars At last Meir Zarchi explains himself
Well, now all the folks who wish writer/director Meir Zarchi would explain his controversial, infamous, and disturbing rape and revenge film can get their wish for the price of this Millennium edition DVD, which includes a feature-length commentary by Zarchi. In this commentary, Zarchi confirms what this film's defenders (including me) have been claiming all along -- that his intention was definitely not to promote rape to his male viewers, but rather to expose the true ugliness of the crime. He talks at length about the real-life encounter with a rape victim that inspired the film, and about the people he worked with in making it. He also discusses the technical aspects in enough detail to prove this is not the shoddy, haphazard production some folks want to claim it is. I also learned a few interesting facts about the film business in general. For example, when you submit a movie to the MPAA, they'll tell you it has to be cut to get an R rating, but they won't tell you WHAT to cut.

Besides answering your questions about the film, Zarchi's commentary also provides a clue as to what sort of person he is. Overall, he comes across as intelligent, articulate, and even compassionate.

However, he also comes across as a bit egotistical, which is why the second feature-length commentary by Joe Bob Briggs is useful for its more balanced perspective. Although Briggs defends the movie, pointing out specific scenes that exemplify its anti-rape viewpoint, he's objective enough to point out flaws where he sees them. For example, why on earth did Johnny send the mentally-challenged Matthew back to the house to kill Jennifer, when Matthew was almost certain to bungle the job? Briggs also addresses two ethical questions that have always bothered me. The first is whether Matthew deserves to die, and the second is whether Johnny's wife and children deserve to have their husband/father respectively taken away from them.

This DVD also includes various trailers, TV spots, and posters, including some promoting the movie under its original title, DAY OF THE WOMAN. There are also posted from a wide assortment of countries, in a wide assortment of languages. I wish the extras had also included the original version of the opening, with the title DAY OF THE WOMAN in the credits, but maybe there are no prints in existence.

So, if you want to own this movie on DVD, this is the edition to buy. If you own an earlier edition, you might consider selling it to raise part of the price of this one.

4-0 out of 5 stars Wow..........oh yeah did i mention Wow
Let me first start off by saying that i am horror fan thru and thru but this was somthin i wasn't really expecting in a movie.
I heard about this movie from people, about how shocking it was and how just plain raw it was. Now i have seen all The Faces of Death and alot of gore in my day, but this was different.This movie made my stomach turn with its vivid depiction of rape.I mean the rape sequences in this movie are unparallel to anything i have ever seen or want to see for that matter. I gave it four stars just because of how powerful of a movie it really is.
The revenge plot to the movie is sweet the kills kinda like friday the 13th... the film it self is low budget but i think thats why its good, gives it a sense of realism. Let me warn you if you think this is another Halloween or Texas Chainsaw Massacre your dead wrong.

5-0 out of 5 stars Nice and simple
I dig this movie. I remember seeing it for the first time back around 1979. It is perhaps the oldest movie I ever vividly remember seeing. Watching it nowadays is not as shocking as the movie was when I was pre-teen, wathing it on HBO after hours. The story is pretty simple. A girl gets abused by 3 dudes and she goes back and kills them all. Just the way it should be in real life. Even to this day, some of the scenes would be considered graphic so don't let the kids watch it....the way I did I guess. Definately worth the time to watch it. Even to this day I found myself pinned to the screen watching it.

2-0 out of 5 stars There should be more to it....
I was intrigued by the synopsis of "I Spit on Your Grave", because I love movies about women getting revenge, like "Kill Bill", and "Sleepaway Camp 2". I had been contemplating on weather renting this or not, beucase it's soppousedly soppoused to be so shocking and graphic, that you can't bare to watch it. Well, I was able to watch the whole thing with my eyes open. And it's only sort of shocking. The death scenes are no gorier or violent than those in the "Friday the 13th" movies. Now, even tho I love films with women getting revenge, I did not love this. I only sort of liked it. The problem is is that it just didn't have enough to it. It felt like there was something missing. And it's shown in such a monotonous slide-show way. Like, okay, lets see her get raped. Now she cleans herself. Now she kills this guy. Now this guy. Now this guy. Now this guy. It makes the film feel so much shorter, and uncomplete. Now, Camille Keaton; I real liked her acting in this movie. She says everything in a really cool way, but at the same time somehow makes everything she says funny, mostly when she's talking to the guys before she kills them. Overall, I don't reccomend this unless you have to see every horror film on the shelves.

4-0 out of 5 stars Woman's Day
A pretty young novelist rents a secluded cabin in the woods in order to have a nice, quiet place in which to hunker down and start writing the great American novel. But instead of peace and serenity, she ends up as the victim of brutal rape and torture at the hands of a band of semi-literate rednecks. She somehow survives the ordeal, though, and after regaining her physical and emotional bearing, she finds the inner strength to return to the scene of the crime and confront her attackers.... Thusly winds the plot of 1978's infamous and controversial revenge flick I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE (originally titled DAY OF THE WOMAN).

In the uncut version of this soupçon-budget flick--which is the version offered on the DVD from Elite--the gang-rape and torture sequence consumes an inordinate amount of screen time. Though this sequence has sometimes been compared to the sodomy scene in Boorman's DELIVERANCE (1972), it is more often criticized as being merely gratuitous and subliminally misogynistic. Unlike Boorman, who only slyly and skillfully SUGGESTS the sodomy and torture in his famous film, the director of I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE, Meir Zarchi, is unflinchingly graphic in his depiction of rape. He doesn't want to do anything that might candy-coat this bitter pill, because he wants the audience to see just how abhorring such personal violation actually is.

Lauded by loyal fans as a simple film that makes an important and abstruse point, I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE is admittedly neither complex nor deep. Yes, the plotting is rudimentary and subtext is virtually nonexistent. Yes, the film lacks a musical score. And, yeah, a few of the characters are trite, shallow, and one-dimensional, and some of the dialogue is hokey. To certain aesthete filmgoers, this raw simplicity may come across as banal, sophomoric cinema. But aesthetics is only a secondary concern with this film. The primary purpose is to declare a particular message or two and to declare them as in-your-face as possible. The film DOES indeed have a couple of staunch points to make regarding the repugnance of rape and misogyny, an individual's rights regarding their body, and the justification for exacting eye-for-an-eye revenge. And it proclaims these points in a graphically straightforward manner that, if nothing else, certainly grabs the audience's attention.

The Elite DVD version of I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE offers a surprisingly clear, clean anamorphic transfer of the film in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The sound, while not as impressive as the digital video, is available in Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS Surround Sound 5.1, or the original mono. The disc's extras include a feature commentary by the director, as well as a hilarious commentary track by cult-film aficionado and critic Joe Bob Briggs, the stage persona of actor/writer John Bloom. (Joe Bob's articulate, knowledgeable, and extremely humorous commentary is itself worth the disc's purchase price.) Also included are the theatrical trailers--some of which promote the film under its original title--various interviews, and press-coverage items that include the merciless repudiation of the film by some famous critics. For a film that has generated such negative publicity over the years, this is quite meritorious bonus material.

True, I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE is an exploitative splatter film with a plot that is often dismissed by critics as a tale of one city girl and handful of sadistic hayseeds traipsing through a series of grisly scenes. It's definitely not for the squeamish, but anybody who views the film is certain to walk away with a firm pathos for rape victims and a strong disdain for rapists. And since that is what the filmmakers were aiming for, I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE must be regarded as a highly successful film. ... Read more


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