French director Casper Noe's "Irreversible" may be one of the most unsettling rape revenge films ever made. The story is told backwards like the film "Momento". The film may cause viewers to get motion sickness from the crazy non stop movement of the camera. The main characters Alex, Marcus and Pierre are 3 friends whose story is told over the period of one day. Her ex boyfriend Pierre is sort of the voice of reason, although violent if put in the right situation. The brutal revenge takes place at a gay S&M club. After Marcus is in danger, shy Pierre steps in beating the wrong man to death with a fire extinguisher. This scene is disgusting and realistic showing every detail of the skull crush. Before this happened 2 gang members offer Marcus a chance for revenge, saying they can track down the guy who raped his girlfriend Alex. Then the film continues to work its way back to the beginning. The most unsettling part of "Irreversible" is when Alex (Monica Belluci) gets brutally anal raped. This seen goes on for about 8 minutes. She goes out alone after a party wearing a sexy outfit, not knowing what fate awaits her. During the rape scene the camera stays in one place and focuses mostly on Alex's face and screams. It's sad, brutal and hard to watch. You want to look away, but you can't. It seems Casper Noe wanted the viewer to feel the Traumatic pain that Belluici's character felt. After that, the film becomes normal going back in time to the beginning of a peaceful day. The only other 2 films that I can think of with rape scenes as horrific are the cult classics "I Spit on your Grave" and the Hong Kong film "Red to Kill". The only problem is that these 2 films are too exploitative so the message is lost in the execution. What I like about "Irreversible" is it shows how ugly violence and rape are. It doesn't exploit women or glamorize brutality. If the film were to be told in a regular order, it might of made revenge a justifiable act. But by Noe showing the revenge first, it shows the animal like rage of the human condition. If put in the right situation who knows what horrible things we're capable of? "Irreversible" is very graphic in its sexual and violent content. It is very challenging to get through the whole film. It's very sad and devastating as it grabs your emotions and beats you relentlessly in the back of the skull.
Review of Irreversible
