“Injustice and filth cast they at the lonesome one: but, my brother, if thou wouldst be a star, thou must shine for them none the less on that account! And be on thy guard against the good and just! They would fain crucify those who devise their own virtue—they hate the lonesome ones.” Thus Spake Zarathustra; page 67 of the Thomas Commons Version.
What can there be said about such a film? The open-ending allows for each of us to form our own perspective and allows us to form our own biases about each of the characters.
To certain people, the wife must’ve lied about being raped by the bartender because she spends her time trying to be happy in the horrible situation that she’s in. She tries to be uplifting and because it is inferred by some that she isn’t acting like a rape victim is suppose to act that she must then be lying about the entire event.
She isn’t being a “good wife” either because apparently going to parties on her own and wearing what she wants instead of conservative attire means that it’s her fault that the rape happened or she’s somehow cheating on her husband. Somehow, nobody questions just how idiotic it is that men are implied to just rape women after viewing them in skimpy clothing because of some implied uncontrollable sexual urge.
Fortunately, modernity has rendered such myths untenable. If it were indeed true, then men simply can’t be trusted, ever; We would need legal restrictions imposed upon all men to protect women – both young and old – from this supposed uncontrollable urge. Furthermore, the very notion is just unbelievably disgusting to begin with. Obviously, the majority of men are capable of knowing the difference between right and wrong. Lastly, this notion only reinforces the concept of women being sex objects that need to cover up because of the men viewing them as property.
Personally, I think the Abrahamic faiths and certain other ancient religious norms are wholly to blame for this pitiful belief system. The fact the Catholic Church continues to hide child rape cases and India’s rape sprees may have began after Christian education institutions taught “gender differences” only reinforces this bias. I see that modern journalists still don’t delve deeply into the utterly disgusting amounts of crimes against women in South Carolina – in which certain poverty stricken towns allow the most despicable treatment of women within the household under the belief that men are heads of households as prescribed by the Bible. This isn’t in a third world country; it’s here in the U.S.A.; Oh, but this is all “politics” because apparently religion is more important than the lives of innocent women being brought up in the most depraved situations. I apologize if this paragraph sounds more crass than usual but it is imperative that we stop giving religion a smokescreen to guard itself from violence. I suspect the current focus on scientology is to downplay the violence in other older religions.
Moving on, we observe the emphasis in this film on religion when the rape victim is directly asked about her faith and how good she keeps to it. Because being a “good woman” means holding to a mystical set of rules that are disproportionately discriminatory towards women for the sake of some afterlife in happy land. Even when the crime is rape, apparently the victim wearing skimpy outfits is a factor and she must appear in court conservatively or she’s somehow a “slut” for not adhering to unspoken laws of how she’s suppose to behave. The reality that she has to live with is requiring to be quiet, depressed about her husband, wearing conservative attire, and she’s suppose to act in the manner that people require her to be so that they believe her testimony about being a rape victim – otherwise she mustbe lying because she’s not acting how she’s suppose to act.
This is only further worsened by the utter stupidity of the younger conservatively dressed girl automatically believing the defense lawyer about her own father and automatically doing the “right” thing because she’s suppose to behave that way. Apparently, all the defense lawyer has to do is ask the young girl for honesty and suddenly she’s at his beck and call despite the fact that he’s accusing her father of having raped someone. Kind, innocent, sweet, and oh so stereotypical of the archetype of her time period.
Lastly, the accused soldier. None too bright, oh but he apparently gets a pass at hitting his wife, treating her like property he owns (similar to a dog), and his violent outbursts towards other men who look at his wife are just normal because . . . oh yes, they’re prescribed as good moral character because of certain antiquated moral teachings from a book that has done nothing but make people hate human progress. How shocking.
Source:
http://www.postandcourier.com/assets/till-death/partone.html