The movie Day of the Woman (1978) is more widely
known by its 1980 re-release title –I Spit
on Your Grave. To say that it is an infamous movie is a bit
of an understatement. It is listed among Time
magazine’s Top Ten Ridiculously Violent Movies[i]
and was described by film critic Roger Ebert as “one of the most depressing
experiences” of his life.[ii] It is a relatively simple story and it is
simply told – with minimal dialogue, music, or fancy camera work or special
effects. But that simplicity only
underscores the intense brutality of the story.
And it is brutal; from start to finish it is scandalously brutal.
The movie follows
Jennifer, young woman from New York who has rented a cabin by a lake in the
countryside for the summer, where she intends to get away from city life and to
focus on her writing. Jennifer’s
arrival is noticed by several men who begin to taunt and torment her. And then they isolate and rape her. Repeatedly.
It may be that I Spit on Your
Grave has the longest rape sequence in film history – nearly 25
minutes. We watch (if we can keep from turning away
from the screen) as Jennifer is violated over and over again in every
conceivable fashion. And then her
attackers leave her for dead.
The second half of the
film describes Jennifer’s revenge on her attackers. She isolates them and kills them – by strangulation,
by castration, with an axe, and with an outboard motor. These sequences are as
brutal as the first.
Now, I know that many
of my friends and co-workers and co-religionists would object that this kind of
film is wholly inappropriate for a Christian, for a pastor… but if they are
correct then we need to take a pair of scissors to our sacred book of
scripture. As I watched I Spit on Your
Grave I was reminded of the extravagantly violent story in Judges 19 in
which an unnamed concubine is betrayed, gang-raped, tortured, murdered, and
dismembered. And all this in the book that churches routinely give to young
children and encourage them to read.
The story of the unnamed
concubine in Judges 19, like the story of Jennifer in I Spit on Your Grave is a story that we'd perhaps just forget. But we cannot. “To hear this story is to
inhabit a world of unrelenting terror that refuses to let us pass by on the
other side.”[iii] As long as we have leaders making statements
about “legitimate rape” and the victims of rape are blamed (she was
asking for it, look at the way she was dressed…) and rapists are unprosecuted,
we need to continue to tell these stories.
I Spit on Your Grave was written and directed by Meir Zarchi who
has said that his inspiration for the film came from his own interaction with a
rape victim. While driving one evening
he saw a traumatized young woman wandering along the side of the road. When he
stopped to help she told him that she had been raped by two men. Zarchi took
the terrified woman to the nearest police station but rather than treating the
woman with compassion and understanding, they tied her up in police red tape,
forcing her to file a report, asking her to tell them her name and to repeatedly spell it even though her jaw was broken and she was in desperate need of medical attention.
This is the reality. It
is unsatisfying. And that is part of why
we tell stories…
In Zarchi’s film Jennifer doesn't seek help from the police, but instead returns to take her own revenge. The unnamed concubine in Judges 19 doesn’t get either – help from the police or her own measure of revenge. She is murdered and dismembered. But her story is followed by a revenge story that leaves twenty-five thousand dead and leads to the rape (abduction by force) of many of the young women of Shiloh (Judges 20 – 21).
In Zarchi’s film Jennifer doesn't seek help from the police, but instead returns to take her own revenge. The unnamed concubine in Judges 19 doesn’t get either – help from the police or her own measure of revenge. She is murdered and dismembered. But her story is followed by a revenge story that leaves twenty-five thousand dead and leads to the rape (abduction by force) of many of the young women of Shiloh (Judges 20 – 21).
Rape is followed by
Revenge – or at least, the desire for revenge.
And this, I think, horrifies us almost as much as the original
offense. Christians, after all, should
forgive and forget, right? Revenge is
wrong.
“Most people assume
that revenge is bad, that the desire for revenge is a base, primitive emotion
that has no place in Christian society…Unfortunately, we are all apt to dress
the concept of forgiveness in garments
that are too refined and delicate to handle the battle of life… Many Christians
view the desire for revenge as incompatible with love and forgiveness. Revenge seems to come from an ugly, bitter
heart. But is that the case?”[iv]
The desire for revenge
is, underneath all the darkness and pain, a desire for justice – to see the
wrong made right. The problem with revenge is that, like all our desires, it
can run unchecked and become a destructive force. But to ignore the desire for revenge is as
harmful as denying the original offense. I do not believe that victims of rape (or
other forms of abuse or violence) should take up arms against their abusers in violent,
unrestrained quests for revenge. But I
do believe that we should take their stories and their fears and their desires seriously.
We must tell their stories.
[iii]
Trible, Phyllis Texts of Terror: Literary-Feminist Readings of Biblical
Narratives
Fortress Press, Philadelphia PA,
1984. Page 65
[iv]
Allender, Dan B., Lampman, Lisa Barnes, ed.
God and the Victim: Theological Reflections on Evil, Victimization,
Justice and Forgiveness,
William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Grand Rapids MI, 1999. Page 205
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