“…the violence did ultimately make me uneasy. It was not the nature of the violence itself (which was horrific and made me flinch several times) but rather what I felt to be its misplacement in the film.”
Haha. Great quote. All too true for many of us.
Perhaps, the movie is a metaphor for the United States’ mistreatment of and violence toward Mexico and its incoming citizens? No, kidding. Sorry, I’ve not watched the film. You hope to do an essay on just this film, or others as well? I saw critics are quite divided on Rotten Tomatoes.
that’s a really great topic. for your essay I would suggest reading laura mulvey’s essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” as a great starting point for the depiction of women in film. if you can read more of her stuff, it’s quite fantastic. “Visual Pleasure” was essentially the catalyst for feminist psychoanalytic film theory. In addition to that, and more on point with your thesis, would be gaylyn studlar’s “In the Realm of Pleasure”. In short, both are about the patriarchal way in which women are used in film simply as a means of pleasure and how the viewer is affected/affects that. Studlar deals more with the masochistic viewer and sadism/masochism in film (which is more pervasive than you would think), which seems perfectly applied to The Killer Inside Me. I was sad to have missed this one when I was at Sundance, though it’s coming here in a few weeks.
I hope my review of the film helps you understand why I’m on the side that believe the film is misogynistic because it’s a character piece and the main character is the misogynist.
I think most people are confusing Michael Winterbottom’s intentions with the film.
Is a film necessary misogynistic if the protagonist is misogynistic?
Daniel McCarthy
I’ve finally got round to watching this today after months of arguing back and forth in the media over its depiction of violence towards women. I really wanted to like to film yet the violence did ultimately make me uneasy. It was not the nature of the violence itself (which was horrific and made me flinch several times) but rather what I felt to be its misplacement in the film. Jazzy opening credits, a nostalgic tint through the camera lens and playful use of soundtrack only served to be mislayed amongst scenes of stomach churning violence. I also felt despite good performences from Alba and Hudson, their characters were flimsy and nowhere near as complex as the violent male lead. I know that this is a topic that has divided a lot of people and it would seem quite rightly. I am aiming to write an essay on the films depiction of violence against women and would like to get the opinions of users of this site. I am including the links to two articles that stoked my interest over the films case.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/jun/03/women-violence-killer-inside-me-feminism
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/jun/13/killer-inside-me-winterbottom-violence