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Article by E.C. McMullen Jr. |
There are times when more people talk about a movie than actually see it, and in 1978, Director and Writer Meir Zarchi's most renown movie was the hardcore Horror that people weren't talking about: DAY OF THE WOMAN. Due to its controversial nature and content, no established distributors or studios would touch it, theaters were wary of playing it, and it garnered plenty of advance talk before it was finally released to a few skittish "Arthouse" theaters on November 22, 1978, where it quietly sank.
By 1980, exploitation distributor Jerry Gross convinced Meir to change the title to I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE and the exact same movie - without addditional edits - became a box office smash.
Why?
Because then people were talking about rape, discussing it: it finally sank into the identity of Western culture that rape isn't an act of love. People can be raped even if they're in a consensual relationship, like marriage. Rape isn't a joke: the era's stereotypical cartoons of the boss chasing his clearly frightened assistant or secretary around the desk to sexually force her against her will, were slowly washed away as the tide turned against them.
This was important to the culture because it was still in the thick of another conversation America was having over the 1977 case of quasi-popular director (who was already famous for a directing a few movies that focused on rape and rapists who got away with it: CHINATOWN, ROSEMARY'S BABY), Roman Polanski. He was arrested for drugging and raping a child, and as if that wasn't bad enough mentally and emotionally, Roman intentionally made it physically painful for the girl. He not only wanted to humiliate her, but physically hurt her as well.
Hollywood openly embraced Polanski and condemned the child and her Mother.
Pedophiles and rape aficionados fell over each other crawling out from beneath their dumpsters to defend Roman. The larger population of non-Hollywood people felt differently. To Roman's utter surprise, he was going to be arrested. Polanski fled to France, where he had citizenship, and began a media campaign for sympathetic, enthusiastic French interviewers who wished to hear him gloat about raping a child in the U.S., painting himself as the victim, and getting away with it. Which Roman was more than happy to do.
Way to sock it to the Yanks!
Further, Roman made it clear that he had raped children before, he enjoyed it, and would do it again (which would later be verified by some of his victims, former stars who suddenly found themselves without a career after they came forward). Why? Because according to Roman in these interviews, everybody wants to have sex with children, even those who wanted him in prison.
By 1979, America's re-assessment of Rape as a serious crime fueled a struggling daytime soap opera called General Hospital. They scripted and shot a scene where their popular teen idol of the show, Laura (played by Genie Francis when she was 17), is raped by a drunken lout, Luke: A creep who was there (according to the story arc) to destroy Laura's life and wreck her relationship with her husband, Scotty.
That's when the weird got weirder.
While DAY OF THE WOMAN was having its re-titled re-release, underage teen girls, young women, and women into their middle ages were responding favorably to the rapist character and were unhappy with Laura's husband, Scotty, fighting to defend his wife and bring Luke to justice.
General Hospital became the #1 daytime hit and women by their millions were eagerly tuning in, including new fan, Academy Award winning actor, Elizabeth Taylor, who was suddenly eager to have a role on a soap opera. They were all enthusiastic about Laura being raped by a sinister guy, played by an actor who was cast, dressed, made-up, and written to play a slimy creep, out to commit a disgusting crime, and look the part.
The hell? Our female audience actually loves this asshole?!?
What to do?
Well, let's give our audience more!
Let's keep running that rape clip!
Let's put it in soft focus!
Let's have Laura go from being traumatized by rape to sexually fantasizing about being raped!
The showrunners changed Luke's character arc so that he was like, really, really sorry he did it, y'know? His sister put him up to it. Yeah, that's the ticket. Luke is a troubled but innocent victim of circumstance, see? It's the woman's fault!
Oy, the remorse!
Laura's rape trauma story arc was changed to where she secretly really dug getting raped by Luke and can't stop having sexual fantasies over it. So Laura forgives Luke, they have a romantic Luke and Laura "Love Story of the Century" (Ugh! The 20th Century!), she dumps her husband Scotty for like, being so judgemental of Luke and not being cool with her affair, and the Scotty character arc turns him into a villain for hating Luke, feeling betrayed by Laura, and standing in the way of True Rape Love.
I mean, okay, soap operas are notoriously F'd in the head, but GodDAMN!
Daytime soap opera audience members were calling the Luke and Laura saga the "Love Story of the Century!" and Luke and Laura were daytime Television's first "Supercouple!"
The background music that played during the rape shot to #1 on the Billboard charts.
The hour long special of their fictional marriage (where they trashed the fictional Scotty some more for not being a man enough to give a woman what she needs - being raped by a drug addicted creep) remains the highest rated Daytime television show episode to this day.
Elizabeth Taylor appeared for the "wedding", as herself. Real life Princess Diana sent champagne to the set.
The wedding of Luke and Laura made TV Guide's "100 Most Memorable Moments in TV History" (issue June 29 - July 5, 1996, pg. 54)
Rape became fodder for Daytime TV Dramas wanting their own power couples and talk shows of the era and the whole issue remained a confused mess for well over a decade to come.
| I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE MOVIE REVIEW |
All except for Writer and Director Meir Zarchi, who was having none of it and would never stop pushing against such a notion.
He was frequently criticized for his anti-rape stance (and saw his career damaged) but refused to back down from the statement I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE makes to this day.
By making rape look ugly, Zarchi was critisized by the media for being the one who is really "Exploiting women" and "Assaulting the audience" with his movie's negative, ugly imagery.
A nobody independent filmmaker like Meir was up against Hollywood favorites like Roman Polanski, Elizabeth Tayloor, and Princess Diana.
Meir zarchi's unwavering stance on rape made true cinema artists like Roman Polanski and Elizabeth Taylor look bad to the general audience. And that affects the bottom line.
This article copyright 2020 E.C.McMullen Jr.
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