Okay, Carolyn & I just started doing Netflix again, so we’re watching a movie a night again.
We’re finally through the many months of watching all 280 episodes of Frasiers… And we tore through both seasons of Tripping The Rift in 1 or 2 weeks. Frasier is underrated (though when it first aired, I thought it was overrated), and Tripping The Rift is relatively unknown, but completely hilarious… And I think “Six” has beat out the mom from Game Over as “hottest computer-animated character ever”.
But anyway, we started watching movies again… The first two we watched were:
They were both very disturbing!!!!!!! And being disturbed is a GOOD thing. It wakes one out of their coma of complicity and lets them see the true underbelly of the world, if just for a moment.
First, Gummo. Tagline: Prepare to visit a town you’d never want to call home.
I originally decided to watch Gummo when some random person on the internet said it was by the same director as Kids. Of course, in checking IMDB, that does not seem to be the case. Gummo started off as disturbing, within the first 5 seconds. A kid with a crackly voice describes his experience living through a tornado. Seeing up a girl’s skirt for the first time as a girl flies overhead in the wind, her skull crushed. Seeing body parts fly around.
But wait, there’s not really a tight plot in Gummo. You could argue there was no plot at all. In truth, it was a slight plot. Some people have said Napoleon Dynamite had no plot. But N.D. had a lot more plot than Gummo.
The director basically cast the entire movie in 45 minutes by going to Burger Kings and factories and such. The movie is about Ohio redneck racist glue-sniffing cat-killing-for-fun white trash. There is a decent amount of violence against cats. Think, Amores Perros, but with cats instead of dogs. This movie actually had separate characters and stories much like Amores Perros. It very obviously had the qualities of an indepdent film. The pacing is, for lack of a better word, psychedelic. It jumps between scenes that have no relation to each other.
The movie is very real. He filmed real white trash. He let the camera roll. He also said when he finished filming, he threw up in a yellow bucket, and fall unconcious for 2 days, and woke up to find a pocket-knife stabbed into his leg. Who knows.
Anybody who watches this movie should actually watch the dvd-extra first. It would more properly set your expecations up. This movie is polarizing, being one of the few movies where Carolyn & I had drastically different opinions. She hated it. I loved it. It was like a dark, evil, nihilistic King Of The Hill.
My favorite scene was “man vs chair”. This guy really kicked this chair’s ass. It was insane. The actor had just gotten out of prison the previous day. It probably felt really good to get drunk and be free. I can see how the director could characterize it as “beautiful”. (And no, I wouldn’t want him in or near my house!)
Anyway, I would recommend it as a dark portrait of america’s underbelly done in a semi-reality, artistic manner.
The other movie was Hostel. What can I say about this? Torture, torture, torture. It starts off like a party movie. 30 minutes into it, I say to Carolyn, “I’m not seeing the horror yet.” And yet here I am, the next day, and thoughts of the movie still haunt me.
I loved Saw and Saw II. A lot. They are almost my favorite horror movies ever. Hostel makes Saw look tame in some aspects. Saw put a lot more thought into each person’s suffering. Saw emphasized quality over quantity. Hostel, however, is on a much grander scale. I don’t necessarily think it to be a better movie then Saw or Saw II, but let me just say this: If I had to pick one of the two movies to be a true story, I’d pick Saw.
Hostel was messed up. They could have been a bit more graphic and traumatizing. Some of the torture scenes could have gone on longer, to make the point more. (Think: Six Feet Under carjacking scene, or Phone Booth, which is basically one 2-hour scene that completely exhausts the main character as well as the viewer.) But they still made their point. They didn’t need to show everything for the viewer to realize that THIS IS SOME F’ED UP SHIT. I hope to God no place like Hostel exists in real life, but I wouldn’t be surprised if one did. Eastern Europe does indeed sound like the likely resting place for such a horrible place.
Either way, CNN had an article today on how American hostels suck compared to Europe… but after seeing Hostel the movie, I don’t feel as bad.
I’d recommend both movies as excellent ways to disturb oneself. Gummo is realer. Hostel is more intense. Gummo is more disorienting. Hostel is more formulaic. Gummo is depressing. Hostel just makes your heart sink thinking about it. Gummo is a town I would never want to live in, but I would gladly exile myself to Gummo-land (redneck Ohio outskirts) for the rest of my life than live one night in that Hostel.
And the people who “worked” the hostel in the movie Hostel? They all need to be tortured and killed, slowly. Were the movie a true story I would have no problem doing it myself, because death is really too good for those (actually ficticious) assholes. They created a hell. A pure hell. At least in Gummo, they had the white trash thing going for them — I can understand why they are the way they are. But there is absolutely no excuse for any human being to do anything I saw in Hostel, ever.
Very interesting movies, though.
July 12, 2006 at 6:35 PM
“The other movie was Gummo.” You mean “Hostel”
“This movie is polarizing, being one of the few movies where Carolyn & I had drastically different opinions. She hated it. I loved it. ”
I probably would have liked it better if I had watched the extra first and knew what I was getting into. I didn’t like it because I didn’t like the disturbing drawn out scenes that just went on and on… and the cat-killing didn’t help either.
I didn’t hate the whole thing… Just parts of it..
July 21, 2006 at 3:47 PM
Hostel is a great movie. I esp. liked the scene where the guy slices that dude’s achilles. that part made me squirm just a little bit.
January 10, 2007 at 10:13 AM
So, I just stumbled onto this blog, and if you liked Gummo, as did I, then you should definately check out Julien Donkey Boy, also another film by Harmony Korine. The guy’s an insane genius, Gummo is amazing.
January 10, 2007 at 4:01 PM
@CelticFrostedFlakes:
My co-worker Nancy has a bone spur or something which messes with her Achilles tendon.. Anyway, everytime she mentions it: I think of Hostel.
@Amanda:
Yes, that guy is insane. His story of shooting for 3 days, then passing out, waking up in a puddle of vomit(?), with a knife stuck in his leg — WHILE FILMING THE MOVIE — makes me think he is either full of shit, or one of the most insane directors around.
Gummo still disturbs me, even 6 months later!
I’ll check Julien Donkey Boy out next time I’m on Netflix, thanks!
February 12, 2007 at 5:40 PM
the torturers in hostel were very likely psychopaths, which means they are not really human. In america approx 1 in 100 are psychopaths, so they are all around you….sleep well
August 31, 2007 at 8:39 PM
We were just tring to watch Gummo. Halfway through, disk read error. ARGHH! Now I need to wait for a replacement disk from Netflix. I’ll post my opinion when we finish watching it.
September 1, 2007 at 2:16 PM
That’s why I don’t watch movies on dvd players. It’s not worth the movie-ruining odds. Decrypt to harddrive first, so you know of any disc read errors in advance of actually watching it… ):
September 24, 2007 at 2:56 PM
The thing I took from Gummo was that unbelievable workout that kid created in his basement using forks and spoons to Madonna’s “Like a Prayer”. Now, I have that very same song on my iPod when I workout.
http://www.offeroftheday.com/post/gummo/
September 24, 2007 at 3:00 PM
Thanks, OfferOfTheDay. I don’t remember that part and wish I did! Good stuff.
September 24, 2007 at 3:11 PM
[…] Here’s a review of Gummo: Click Here […]
September 24, 2007 at 5:13 PM
Hey Clint, check out our post again…I added the workout scene. After watching this, go ahead and cancel your gym membership, because you won’t need it anymore.
http://www.offeroftheday.com/post/gummo/
September 24, 2007 at 6:55 PM
Thanks for the YouTube link OfferOfTheDay!
September 24, 2007 at 7:08 PM
I would say the ABSOLUTELY MOST IMPORTANT thing to do when watching Gummo is to WATCH THE 10-MINUTE DVD EXTRA *FIRST*.
It kind of sets things up so that you know what to expect. These aren’t actors. These are people who work at Burger King and the meat factory.
My favorite scene is the guy fighting the chair. My wife Carolyn was disturbed at the level of violence — and the victim was a CHAIR, for chrissakes! The intensity of hate and rage in the “chair attack” was a beautiful, dark thing.
The fact that the “actor” had just gotten out of prison the day before only lent his “role” more credibility. His rage was real, and he was finally free to do what he wants — fuck shit up. Finally, he got his chance, and took it out on a poor, defenseless chair.
I guess he’s reformed, now that his only “victims” are furniture?
September 25, 2007 at 8:06 AM
Furniture has a long history of victimization. Hoping for a better life, furniture will often get caught up in the deceptive glamour of the porn industry, only to discover its harsh realities.
http://www.furnitureporn.com/
September 25, 2007 at 8:17 AM
hahaha.. chair bondage
February 15, 2008 at 5:09 PM
Lol.
You say you would torture and kill creators od Hostel?
You guys enslaved and tortured black people for centuries.
So eat it.
February 15, 2008 at 5:17 PM
This must really be “Troll Week” on the internet…
February 16, 2008 at 11:55 AM
So…I guess my question is, the director of “Gummo” just stood by and watched with his camera while he watched some people torture and kill a cat? It seems pretty fucked up if he just stood by and watched cruelty to that degree happen and just kept filming. He could have at least called the cops or something, if he HAD to keep filming…
February 16, 2008 at 12:04 PM
I don’t remember the specifics of the movie enough anymore…. But wikipedia says the characters hunted feral cats, not house cats — there’s a scene where one kid keeps the other from shooting a cat, noting that it’s a house cat. I don’t think there’s any law protecting feral cats from destruction, as the authorities themselves will generally destroy them unless they have a taxpayer-funded plan to pick them up, spay/neuter them, and drop them back off. But there’s not that kind of tax money in redneckville.. I don’t remember the specific cruelty, but drowning is one of the main methods for killing excess animals. I don’t know that it’s necessarily a situation where the cops would even do anything. I also don’t know if it’s actually REAL or not…
February 16, 2008 at 12:53 PM
I guess I’m really confused–I was basing my knowledge of the movie based on your review of it…you emphasized that there was a lot of cruelty done to cats in the movie, right? Which to me implied that the director just stood by and watched people kill/torture cats. Did I misunderstand?
I don’t know all the laws regarding feral animals, unfortunately–however, I’m 100% certain there are laws (national laws) against cruelty to animals, and I’m pretty sure a guy could get at least FINED if he was caught being brutally cruel to a wild cat or dog. Of course, if all the cops look the other way in podunk-ville, then I guess that’s that..
I was also going off of what you said where you said, “The director wasn’t filming actors–he was filming real people.” So I assumed he was just filming people doing something inhumane and cruel while doing nothing to stop them. I mean, illegal or not, no one should be allowed to just torture an animal.
February 16, 2008 at 1:03 PM
And I really don’t know. I don’t remember what the specifically did. If all they did is shoot and drown, I don’t think that’s necessarily cruelty… Cruelty would be if you shot it 5 times in the foot but not the head, then let it languish and bleed to death slowly. Generally “kill” does not equal cruelty. Slamming a cat’s head against a bookshelf 12 times? Cruelty. Clubbing it to death once? Just animal murder, which is usually legal if it’s wild / on your property / your animal.
So I really have no idea.
Neither the wikipedia page, nor the wiki discussion page, at all even talks about this topic.
Probably some googling could reveal something..
February 16, 2008 at 1:03 PM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmony_Korine
February 16, 2008 at 1:06 PM
Hmmm…ok. Up above, in the review, you said “violence to cats”, so I didn’t know if that meant simple death or whether it meant torture/drawn-out cruelty. I guess “violence” is sort of a broad term… :P
It would suck if drowning an animal, legally, wouldn’t constitute cruelty, however. I do think shooting something would be more humane.
February 16, 2008 at 1:08 PM
Some other Gummo reviews:
http://filmfreakcentral.net/dvdreviews/gummo.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/review/film/s60861.htm
http://www.filmvault.com/filmvault/nash/g/gummo1.html
http://www.independentcritics.com/reviews/gummo.htm
I gotta say I disagree with the scathing reviews and found it entertaining… It just did not have a coherent plot. It was told in a non-linear fashion.
But to answer your question Parthena, I finally found the answer:
http://www.bbfc.co.uk/news/press/19971114.html
“The BBFC has received a number of queries about the animal sequences in the feature film GUMMO, in which animals appear to suffer a level of cruelty which would be against British law if it were real. The Board has sought confirmation of the assurance in the final captions that ‘no animal was injured in the making of this film’.
In fact, all the animal action was monitored by the American Humane Association, counterpart to the British RSPCA, who have explained to us that each of the worrying scenes was shot using a fake or stuffed cat, and in one case a stuffed dog. They bear witness to the fact that no animal was harmed in any way during the making of the film.”
Sounds like standard process for any and all movies, actually.
February 16, 2008 at 1:33 PM
He also didn’t just set up the camera and let it film. For some scenes, yes, but according to IMDB, about 75% of the movie was scripted.
May 7, 2008 at 5:30 AM
your review sounds like a teenagers and if saw 1 and 2 are your favorite horror movies ever, you should probably kill yourself.
May 7, 2008 at 6:55 AM
And your comment sounds like a retard’s. But I’d rather you remain alive so as to entertain me. Dance, my puppets.. dance!
March 17, 2009 at 2:50 PM
[…] Julien Donkey-Boy – Another Harmony Korine movie, very much in the same vein as Gummo. Retards, incest, mean fathers on robotussin binges, handicapable bowlers, preaching, pregnancy, […]
April 11, 2009 at 2:24 PM
It’s ironic that I came upon a review featuring three of my favorite films. I have an On Demand feature on my cable, and my Sunday ritual is to go to the Free Movies/Independent page and expand my “brain placicity.” I have taped Hostel, Saw I and most recently “Gummo,” which I watched again the next day. I agree that being disturbed is a good thing. My cousin comes over to do laundry and see what I have taped lately. One day he said “Do you ever watch anything that doesn’t warn Viewer Discretion is Advised?” Good point! Those warnings excite me, giving me hope that what’s coming on is something worth watching.
April 12, 2009 at 12:45 PM
Yea really. If people have a problem with intense stuff, they can go back to their fake fairy land and watch Barney the dinosaur love everybody. Intensity is the most beautiful thing. Bland entertainment sucks the life out of you and makes you uninteresting. But it’s too late for most people :)
April 12, 2009 at 5:54 PM
Yeah, We want to make us interesting, anyway hostel is a good film.
July 6, 2009 at 12:25 PM
[…] gore. The scenes are quite disturbing. Not quite to the level of Hostel or Saw, but close. This isn’t a light-hearted horror, as much as one that creeps you […]
September 7, 2009 at 6:32 PM
Just saw “Gummo”, kinda disturbing yet sssssooo right on. I didn’t know the writer/director was a dude, how many other movies? I loved “Kids” He have anything else I need to see?
September 7, 2009 at 6:39 PM
@Amy: Yes — Julien Donkey-Boy. A movie shot in a way to make you feel like the character, who is schizophrenic. It is to mental illness what Gummo is to redneck ignorance.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmony_Korine#Films
I haven’t seen his later stuff, and would love to know if it holds up to Kids, Gummo, and Julien Donkey-Boy.
September 13, 2011 at 4:24 PM
I know that this hasn’t been commented on in a while and probably isn’t checked anymore but I just wanted to say that the meaning of Gummo has nothing to do with redneck ignorance. That is only the surface, the film is really about how humanity contains so much horrible violence yet also has mercy and compassion. This is illustrated by the opening scene with the tornado, the way he describes it means a lot. It shows up much more in the film, the main scene coming to mind is the Solomon dancing and his mother putting a gun up to his head and joking to ‘smile’ and the scene with the mentally handicapped wife who is also a prostitute. It is also in some ways about the hierarchy of money, ie buisnessman scene.
I am not trying to say you didn’t know this I just want to point out some of the awesome meanings of the film.
September 13, 2011 at 4:34 PM
We’re still here :) Thanks for your thoughts.
January 2, 2010 at 6:47 PM
i hated everybody in the GUMMO film except
the dark haired 10 year old girl
but i guess she hasnt quite grown into the cat killing glue sniffing human piece of shit that her peers have.
yet……
May 5, 2010 at 7:09 AM
[…] dude!), Katie Cassidy (who will be in the new Melrose Place), Jay Hernandez (Quarantine (2008), Hostel 1, Hostel 2), Eric Lively (24: Redemption, The L Word), Monet Mazur (Blow, Addams Family Values), […]
October 14, 2010 at 7:51 PM
I am a 13 year old and I’ve heard of this fil and I REALLY want to see it because I am into odd films like this.But I dont know if I should.Like I like the thought of it becasue its disturbing,life like and makes you think but I dont know if I could handle it.
October 31, 2011 at 4:24 PM
[…] like feeling that uncomfortable. This is a different kind of adrenaline. Different from Saw or Hostel or even Jackass. This is more psychological. It deducts a point for freaking me out and making me […]