The first Hollywood movie to describe the crime of sexual assault, the world was indifferent after a woman was sexually assaulted

In 2018, University of Kansas in the United States and Molenbeek in Belgium successively held an exhibition called "What you wearing?".

The content of this exhibition is the clothes that 18 women wore when they were sexually assaulted.

Unlike many people's guesses, the vast majority of these clothes are not exposed, or even conservative.

T-shirts, over-the-knee dresses, sportswear...and workwear.

and children's clothing.

Yes, children's clothing.

"We also received a children's shirt with a pony printed on it, which looks heart-wrenching."

And the purpose of this exhibition is to remind people that it is not what these innocent victims were on What to wear, revealing or not, no makeup, flirtatious or not.

These are not reasons for them to be violated or hurt.

But the irony is that nowadays, the victim, not the rapist, is often the target of nit-picking.

"Wear this to go to the company today, and are asked if you are not afraid of being raped?"

When the rape case happened, it was always the female victim that was exposed first:

"The 18-year-old girl was raped and then burned to death "

"A certain girl was tricked and raped by her neighbors for two years"...

As soon as the news came out, the eye-catching words like "girl" and "girl" were all over the place, followed by pictures of women forever. I finally saw a photo of a rapist with a code on it.We are still making these mistakes

, and as early as the 1980s, an movie already gave answers to the above questions.

"The Robbery of Pear Blossoms"

The film was adapted from real events and was released in the United States in 1988. It was the first film in Hollywood history to directly describe the crime of sexual assault.

The film, directed by Jonathan Kaplan and starring Jodie Foster , won Best Actress at the 61st Academy Awards , with a Douban score of 7.9. The

movie has an engaging opening.

In the fixed long shot, a bar under the bridge stands, the credits appear, and the picture goes from day to night.

In the middle of the night, the presence of a man on the screen broke the calm, and he stumbled into the phone booth.

We know from his intermittent statements that there has just been a gang rape in this bar where three or four men gang raped a woman.

Then, a disheveled woman rushed out, shouted on the side of the road, and stopped a car for help.

She is the heroine of the film, Sarah. The scene of

is very impactful to the audience , and has a feeling of shocking thunder. director seems to be telling the audience that rape occurs without warning, and each of us may suffer from this inhuman violence and violation.

Next, is the hospital scene.

We watched Sarah being scrutinized, examined, photographed.

"What contraceptive do you usually use?"

"When was the last menstrual period?"

"When was intercourse before the accident?"

"Have you had a sexually transmitted disease?" Cold, routine.

But fortunately, whether it is police , doctors, psychological counselors, or lawyers, all of them are women.

However, even in many places today, when our victims of sexual assault go to the police station to report to the police, it is often a group of male police officers who interrogate them over and over again, what posture did they use when they were raped, did they wear condoms, and did Several times, with fingers or with genitals, the process is described in detail.

This process is often repeated many times, and each repetition is a great psychological trampling and harm to the victim.

In the 2019 American drama "Unbelievable," there were two rape cases three years apart.

In 2008, Mary was raped. After calling the police, male detectives questioned her recklessly.

In 2011, after a woman was violated, police detective Karen arrived at the scene, first to soothe the victim's emotions, and then took her to a private car, and after asking her permission, she began to be careful. Asking about the details of the case...

All of these are reminding us to rapidly increase the number of female police officers and doctors, and to conduct certain training for the police, and do our best to reduce the secondary harm to the victims.

In "The Robbery of Pear Blossoms", we found that Sarah is relatively calm and strong, she is very cooperative with the questions and requests raised by doctors, police and lawyers, and every step is well completed.

This includes reporting the crime, doing inspections, returning to the bar to identify criminals, etc.

The last step, which looks simple, is actually very difficult.

When you are controlled and violated by someone, and you cannot escape with great difficulty, at this time, you will immediately go back to that place and look at that person. This is a very scary thing for the victim.

But Sarah did it, and did it well.

Throughout the whole process, Sarah's voice was hoarse, her body only responded mechanically, and her eyes were sluggish. All of these physical manifestations conveyed a kind of sadness and a dead heart after a huge trauma, which made us feel ashamed. into that helplessness.

Up until this time, Sarah's image, , in front of the audience, is completely the image of an innocent victim.

And below, the film begins to gradually challenge the audience's moral code.

As the film progresses, we learn that Sarah is not a good girl, she wears makeup, acts frivolous, flirts with men, drinks alcohol, smokes marijuana, and even has a license plate that says "sexy lady". girl).

To put it bluntly, Sarah is not a "perfect victim".

Even on the night she was raped, she was trying her best to flirt, kissing the rapist, drinking a lot of alcohol, taking drugs, and playing pinball with them.

At this time, many people will say, doesn't this woman deserve it? Isn't it self-inflicted?

Yes, many people thought so at the time.

So when Sarah was gang-raped, there was a group of people applauding because they didn't think it was rape at all, but just a "show".

Against this background of public opinion, the men who gang-raped were only sentenced to two years in prison. The crime was not rape, but violence.

This means that as long as they behave well, they will be out of jail and happy in nine months.

And what about Sarah?

She broke up with her boyfriend and called her mother wanted to seek comfort, but was asked several times by her mother if she was here to ask for money, and she was also regarded as a prostitute with all her might...

Sarah She shaved her hair, never approached any men, and stayed in her little room all day.

When her emotions were broken down, she rushed to the lawyer Catherine's house and asked her if it was because she was not a college student and her background was not noble, so she finally got this result?

If she behaved more gracefully, behaved more prudently, and had a tougher background, would the consequences be different?

As Katherine watched the tiny girl in front of her wither rapidly in a short period of time, as a woman, she also began to question her previous decision.

After seeing Sarah in the hospital after hitting a man who mocked her with her car, Kathleen decided to sue the bystanders who were booing and applauding in the bar.

Because they are not innocent, they contributed to the rape.

Under everyone's incomprehension, Sarah and Catherine truly realized "Girls Help Girls", and they encouraged and supported each other until they won the final victory.

I still remember that in court, the defendant's lawyer asked Sarah if she had expressed her unwillingness when she was raped, and if she had said words such as "go away" and "stop".

Sarah said no, she kept saying "NO".

When the defendant's lawyer tried to quibble that "no rejection means acquiescence", "a woman said no means disagreement", etc., Catherine's answer was: "No means no."

It means no, it means rejection , can't, can't mean.

There is no hard-to-play, it is simply impossible, I disagree.

"Robbery Pear Blossom" almost gave a textbook-like answer on this point.

Yes, women can be flirtatious, revealingly dressed, or frivolous, as long as women say "no", that's not OK. Even during sex, as long as the woman doesn't want it, it's rape.

This is why there is the term " marital rape ".

Any sexual act performed against the will of a woman is considered rape.

And any act that directly contributes to rape is also a crime. You can do nothing, but you must not coax, encourage, or harass, or you will be punished by the law.

Since the 1960s and 1970s, the second climax of the feminist movement has arisen in Europe and the United States.Through the unremitting efforts of feminists, women's rights and interests have been greatly protected, but there is still the problem of sexism in the social concept at that time, and women are still "the other" who are "stared" . The value of

"Robbery Pear Blossom" is that it challenges the traditional concept of women through the image of Sarah, and conveys the advanced and correct feminist concept.

You know, this movie was released in the 1980s, and our current society has not been able to do that. Decades have passed, have we really progressed?

In addition to being ahead of its theme, Judy's acting skills also supported the entire movie. In

, she uses her eyes, body movements, facial muscles and other details to interpret the characters.

Sarah's eyes were dull after she was raped, and when she slowly reacted later, she started blinking more frequently.

When the police asked her to identify the culprit, Sarah first subconsciously showed her escape from the painful memory, her eyebrows tightened, and then she made up her mind to follow the police into the bar.

When she was being unfairly treated, Sarah's gaze turned in disbelief, then into anger, then into pain. This kind of subtle performance is very layered, and it is also a very test of acting skills.

There are many more nuanced interpretations like this in the film.

What Judy shows us is a real person with flesh and blood, and only when the character of Sarah stands, the deep theme of the film can come out and the work can stand up.

In addition to Sarah, Judy has created many unforgettable classic roles in her forty years of acting career.

Jodie Foster is a Hollywood genius.

As an actress, she has won two Oscars for Best Actress (the second time for "Silence of the Lambs") and two Best Supporting Actress nominations.

From the teenage genius textbook-like performance of the young prostitute Iris in "Taxi Driver" to the starring of the controversial girl Sarah in "The Pear Blossom"; Clarice, and then to the mad girl Nell in "The Earth's Daughter".

After Judy herself became a mother of two children, she began to portray one after another "strong mother" in the film, such as Anna in "Anna and the King", "Thriller Space" in Anna Single mother Meg Altman and Kyler Platt in Air Crisis .

In 1991, Judy made her directorial debut, My Genius Baby, which continues to examine multiple issues of human nature, family and society through a female perspective.

Whether in acting or directing, Judy pays great attention to details and tries to impress the audience with truth, which is particularly evident in "The Robbery".

But aside from that, The Robbery Pear Blossom is not without its flaws.

Its biggest disadvantage is that Catherine is too symbolic as a lawyer, like a tool person, with almost no emotions and character arcs.

The lawyer played by Shi Ke in "Carnival" starring Wen Qi's sister also had this problem.

These two women are too majestic, too righteous and kind, which makes the film's credibility not very high, which makes the success of the ending seem too much like a fantasy.

This is also what we should pay attention to when shooting female-themed films in the future, that is, growth and change should not only exist in the protagonist, but also in supporting roles, otherwise this kind of feminism will be incomplete.

Overall, "The Pear Blossom" is an excellent work that is hard to beat even today. This transcendence includes not only film technology, but also feminist concepts.

Text/Pippi Movie Editorial Department: Tong Yunxi

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