Tag Archives: film

Movies

First Blood

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Every single movie fan has probably seen First Blood (1982) aka Rambo at least once in their life. Personally speaking, First Blood is one of these films which has been on my to-watch list for ages and which, either because of lack of time or because of lack of interest, I saw now for the first time at the age of 28.

As there is not much to say about the movie this review will be a rather short one. Basically, the film is about an ex-green beret, physically and psychologically marked by Vietnam war, who goes on a GTA-like rampage in and around a small American town after he was mobbed and maltreated by the local police.

The movie is fantastic. I even claim that it is the best 80’s action movie I have seen until now but, to be honest, I had one problem with the movie, or let’s rather say with the main character. I am not sure if it was on purpose or not but I never really felt any sympathy for the reticent anti-hero, John Rambo.

There may be some people who claim that First Blood is an (attempt at an) anti-war movie about an American hero who gets completely lost in the real world after the atrocities he experienced during war. That the traumatized John Rambo actually is the real victim (of the brutalized American war-past) and that his excessive brutality is actually his personal form of dealing with problems, just as he learnt it from war. First Blood then can be seen as a film about a mentally broken hero prisoner of war whose mind is still confined in it and who is not able to handle his traumatizing experiences.

I am not sure if I can agree with the above or if the movie simply is nothing more than a perfect example of a well-staged, brutal and thrilling action movie with great dialogues, lots of explosions, guns and gore. In the end I really don’t give a damn because Rambo is entertaining, a classic which set new standards and if you, just like me, are one of the few people who haven’t seen it, you should do it. Rambo is without question one of the best popcorn movies I have ever seen. A must!

Movies

Dværgen (The Sinful Dwarf)

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I discovered The Sinful Dwarf (1973) in one of these “top 10 most shocking, weird, disturbing, nasty movies of all-time” YouTube videos. As I had never heard of this movie title, let alone of the film genre “dwarfsploitation” itself, I decided to give it a try.

To be honest, I am not even sure if there has ever been a sub-genre called “dwarfsploitation” or if some clever people just invented the term in order to build a cult around some crappy movies. Just in case there are other ones, please tell me in the comment section below.

The premise of The Sinful Dwarf is crystal clear from the beginning and there is not much to reveal. To sum it up, it’s all about a mentally retarded, physically disabled and vertically challenged “Jack Black” (thank God he isn’t an African-American Jew too) who, together with his alcoholic and ex-showgirl mother, runs a slavery junkie brothel concealed as a cheap pension.

The movie is a perverse, sleazy, dark and grim exploitation flick, composed of the same repetitious, monotonic patterns which always eventuate in graphic ’70s softporn scenes. This doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing, but I have to admit that the main character, Olaf the dwarf (Torben Bille) doesn’t work for me and consequently renders the primitive movie structure ineffective. Director Vidal Raski’s aim was to portray a sadistic and depraved, giggling little man who treats women like mere objects and who should prompt loathing and hatred but in the end he only manages to grate on my nerves extremely fast. Nonetheless, there is something about the movie which made me feel a bit mal à l’aise. Not that I was “shocked” by the movie’s outstanding level of perversity, but the grungy setting and filthy ambiance combined with the sex-slaves’ (Anne Sparrow, Jeanette Marsden, Lisbeth Olsen, and Jane Cutter) rape scenes achieve their effect, and the latter ones almost couldn’t have been more humiliating towards women.

All in all, I don’t recommend this movie because of the failure of the main character. I am pretty sure though that a lot of viewers won’t agree with me and will get the full exploitation dose by watching Torben Bille as the sinful dwarf. Personally, I think that if you are interested in what these drug addicted sex-slave exploitation movies are all about,  you should watch the Swedish rape and revenge movie Thriller-En grim film as it is the better evil. Decide for yourself!