Friday, January 20, 2012

Girl With The Dragon Tattoo: Movie Review

ATTENTION!: If you have not already seen this movie, and don't want it ruined for you, I advise you to not read any further. This not only contains my personal opinions and feelings on this movie (which me making a review should tell you all something, since I NEVER review things) but of course it contains a plethora of spoilers and such. Now that I have warned my readers, to those of you who read past this, be prepared for an onslaught of brought up emotions because of this movie that I will (hopefully) never have to speak of or feel ever again.


*Breathes* Here we go.


Before I go into details and such of this movie, I first want to state that all in all this was an entertaining movie, and I enjoyed it as well as one could enjoy this movie. It's rated R, but to those of you reading this that have teenage kids right about now, and maybe you let them see an R rated movie every now and then because it's "not that bad", I am begging you to please make them wait till they are at least 18 to see this movie. Really, I can not stress this enough. Also, the books, I hear, are far more graphic. (I'll be finding out soon enough because I now own all three books of this series, thanks to my mother, and I will be taking the time to read them). This movie is a powerful one, in my opinion, and brought out some of the worst emotions I think I have ever felt in my life.


The movie starts off with an old man who receives a package in the mail. It is a picture of a plant. The movie opens up into intro credits, and I've got to admit, I was hooked right then. The music is nuts and the graphics are just outrageously artistic and somewhat erotic. I will spare the biggest portion of details, because I really don't want to ruin the entire freaking movie, in case some of you just can't help but read, even though you haven't seen it yet.


The main reason I am writing this entry is because of certain events that took place within this movie that struck such a nerve within me, I literally nearly jumped out of my seat and left the theater. What I am about to talk about next, may not be a huge deal to some of you, but to me it is something that has almost always plagued my thoughts at some point or another because of my own past experiences.


One of the main characters of this movie, who I feel is quite the heroine, is Elizabeth. She is a young girl who has nothing short of a troubled life. Tattoos and various piercings decorated her body, and she bore a strange haircut unlike anything I've ever seen. I was immediately drawn to her the moment I saw her. Something about her intrigued me, and I wanted to know more. Needless to say, I did learn more, and even though this girl was technically a fictional character, she reminded me of something of my not so distant past. 


A man (Bjurman) was later introduced, who she went to for financial help. When he is first on screen, you kind of get the feeling this guy isn't such a good man, but that he is more of a protagonist in such a way because he taunts Elizabeth for the way she looks and the things she has done in her past. From first appearance, you wouldn't think he was more than an asshole at best. But not too long after his first entrance (actually in the same scene if I recall correctly) his true colors show nearly instantly, and he is truly a hideous man. 


Elizabeth asks for money, because she needs it. He then basically tells her that if she does a "favor" for him, he'll hand the money over to her. Okay, so what? Is he going to have her get the dirty scoop on someone he doesn't like? Nope.. Instead, he orders her to unzip his pants, then pretty much forces her to suck him off. The next scene follows in which she is washing her mouth out in the sink, followed by puking up what one can only assume is the semen she was forced to swallow.


That alone, kind of pissed me off, but I figured that was the worst of it, and continued to watch the movie in peace. Later on, though, you see Elizabeth calling him, saying she needs more money, and he invites her to his house. She agree's to come over and the immediate thought is "Yes! Payback time! She's going to stick it to him."


Wrong again.


She enter's his place and offers her to his bed room. She makes some joke asking if she has to give him a blow job every time she asks for money so she may get food. She sets her bag down in a chair, and I really don't think much of it. He then grabs her by the hand and latches a hand cuff around her wrist in a fast motion. This... this is where shit goes down hill for her, and you can tell immediately. She tries to scramble away, but being the fat huge guy he is, he wrestles her down, and she gets knocked unconscious. 


You then see her wake back up, to realize just as she is taking notice as well, that she is strapped down to the bed on her stomach. Wrists and ankles both bound with chains and heavy duty restraints. You also see this pathetic excuse for a man forcing her shirt up, and ripping her pants down and panties off. He then proceeds to undo his own pants, mind you she is screaming the entire time and writhing violently trying to break the bonds that are holding her down. Obviously not succeeding... He of course climbs on top of her and (get this shit) puts a condom on before raping her in possibly on of the most graphic rape scenes I think I have ever witnessed on the big screen.


He ends up bruising her and after he is done with her, hands her a check for ten thousand dollars and she takes her leave.


This.. brings me to my main point of this entry. The entire time I watched that scene unfurl, I felt sick to my stomach, and I felt a rage build inside me that made me want scream louder than I've ever screamed before, hit something harder than I've ever hit before, and most of all, I wanted get up, leave the theater and cry my eyes out.


Don't get me wrong, I've never been raped before, but I have friends who have, and I myself (as I've mentioned before) have been molested, which is getting too close for comfort as it is. I think the main reason this particular scene enraged me nearly as bad as it did, is because of how realistic it was, and how horrifyingly close it got to my worst fear of a rape scenario... ever.... Plus, I've never really been able to handle a rape scene in movies before. And this is probably why.


Also the author of this trilogy wrote this series in order to portray violence against women because it was a way to cope with the fact that he had witnessed a woman name Lisbeth get raped and he didn't to anything about it. That was something that haunted him his entire life, thus the reason he made these books. He was trying to show us in the best way how awful rape can truly be, and it is meant to bring out such emotions I felt tonight. I am kind of sickened, but impressed by this.


At any rate, Elizabeth gets her revenge later on, and tazes him in his own place on the throat, and when he comes to, his room is torn apart and he is strapped to the floor on his back and his mouth gagged. Elizabeth is of course dressed in black, like she is 97% of the movie, and she turns on the tv in front of them to show that she video taped the whole thing. Him raping her. She played it for him as she interrogated him, and shoved a thick metal rod up his ass. She then tazed the rod, shooting electricity into his body. I literally cheered with joy and anger. She also brought a needle gun, like artists use when giving a person a tattoo, and carved into his chest and stomach "I AM A RAPIST PIG". Not going to lie. I was thrilled when this happen. I do think she should have killed him though, but for the rest of the movie, she threatens him and keeps him scared and he never tries touching her again.


Thank. Fucking. God.


Anyways, the rest of the movie had a few sex scenes, not rape, thankfully. Rape was mentioned a LOT in the movie and justice was brought down like a sweet blanket of warmth. The movie was great when I don't think about what really sparked these awful thoughts and emotions I've had for the last couple of hours. Honestly, I'm glad I blogged about this, because it was seriously bothering me. Really... really bothering.


Anyways, hope I didn't piss some of you off. If you watch the movie, you have been warned. If you feel like striking up a conversation with me here in the comment section, or sending me an email, please feel free. Hope everyone has a great weekend.


~*~Anastassia~*

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