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Thriller:
A Cruel Picture
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Review
by
Brian Lindsey
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4
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7 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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How's
that old Judas Priest song go?
Screamin'... Screamin' for vengeance!
Well, the heroine
of Thriller:
A Cruel Picture can't
exactly scream she's mute but she's certainly hell-bent
on destroying those who've wronged her. And boy howdy, has she
been wronged! Poor Frigga (Christina Lindberg),
traumatized into speechlessness by a childhood rape, is dealt
one bad card after another in the Game of Life. Her doting parents
spend all their money sending her to specialists, to no avail.
Fate takes a particularly malevolent turn when she misses the
bus one day on her way to see another doctor. Accepting a ride
from a charming stranger named Tony (Heinz Hopf), the naοve
farm girl finds herself in the big city being wined and dined
at a fancy restaurant; later her newfound friend escorts her
to his apartment for a little nightcap, where he slips her a
knockout drug. Turns out Tony is a pimp, and a particularly
ruthless one at that. He holds Frigga captive over a period
of weeks, injecting her with high-grade heroin to get her totally
hooked. He also forges mean-spirited letters to the girl's distraught
parents in her name, telling them that she's never coming home.
Trapped by her desperate need for a fix, Frigga is forced to
turn tricks in exchange for a daily supply of smack. During
her very first session with a customer she savagely scratches
the man's face rather than submit. To teach her a lesson she'll
never forget, Tony in a particularly harrowing scene gouges
out her left eye with a scalpel. (This gruesome 'ocular damage'
sequence looks so real that rumors persist about an actual corpse
being used rather than a dummy. Who knows? Either way, you'll
be cringing.) Cowed by this brutal maiming, an eyepatch-wearing
Frigga now cooperates for a succession of sleazy clients, including
a photography freak and a lipstick lesbian (Despina Tomazani)
who enjoys slapping her around. Then she learns that her grief-stricken
parents, in despair over the daughter who rejected them, have
both committed suicide.
Unknown to Tony,
"One Eye" starts offering her customers extra special services
for a little bonus money on the side, which she stashes in a
strongbox under her bed. She has a plan for this little nest
egg. On the one day off she's permitted each week Frigga hires
instructors in martial arts, professional driving and firearms
to teach her a new set of skills. Upon mastering these disciplines
she makes her own drug connection, bypassing Tony for her daily
fix; she also procures a sawed-off shotgun, a pistol, and a
car in the process. Methodically she begins to hunt down and
slaughter all those who've ruined her life...
If Thriller
plays a bit like a violent sexploitation/porn film by Ingmar
Bergman
had the esteemed Swedish auteur ever stooped to make such
a flick it's because writer/producer/director Bo Arne Vibenius
had previously worked under Bergman as assistant director on
Persona (1966) and unit manager
on Hour of the Wolf (1968). And
he's Swedish, too. Grim, bleak and glacially paced, this "cruel
picture" is colder than the Gulf of Bothnia in January.
A gray feeling of ennui seems to hang over everything, when
what a really good revenge film needs is a visceral sense
of injustices done, righteously avenged. Perhaps that was the
reasoning behind Vibenius' rather crude insertion of explicit
vaginal/anal penetration footage, using an obvious body double
for Christina Lindberg. Yet the ploy succeeds only in backfiring,
cheapening Lindberg's compelling performance (the film's strongest
asset) and instantly taking us out of the movie suddenly it's
a hardcore porno!
Ultimately, the film's existential art-house
approach to exploitation material is undermined by a serious
lapse in logic and botched action scenes. It's simply unbelievable
that Frigga, on her day off, doesn't just go to the nearest
police station and spill the beans on Tony's drug/prostitution
ring in exchange for some Methadone treatment. (Isn't Sweden
known for its excellent social service programs?) The scene
in which she tears off down the highway in a stolen cop car,
forcing a number of motorists off the road, is laughably stupid...
I didn't realize Swedish-made autos have a tendency to explode
into flames so easily! (One car blows up for no discernible
reason other than leaving the asphalt. Frigga
the movie's heroine, remember
kills at least four innocent people
this way.) Indeed, most of Thriller's
action sequences are poorly staged. To give the shootouts and
fights an avant-garde twist Vibenius filmed them in super-slow
motion; they're sooooooo slow, in fact, that the violent
ballets of Sam Peckinpah looks like quick-cut MTV videos in
comparison. In the most egregious example, it takes 25 seconds
for Frigga to complete a single judo throw... 25 seconds!
Thriller:
A Cruel Picture has gained considerable
cachet in the cult film world due to its acknowledged influence
on Quentin Tarantino, who appropriated its revenge theme and
color-coordinated eyepatch motif for his popular Kill
Bill saga. I very much wanted to see it for that reason.
But despite Lindberg's performance as the innocent waif turned
vigilante terminator and Vibenius' very different approach to
the most basic of melodramas, I came away less than thrilled.
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While
I may have been disappointed in the film the opposite can
be said of Synapse's limited edition DVD. The company reportedly
had to deal with some irritating legal issues just to release
it, and they've done a standup job. The disc represents the first
time the complete, uncut version of Thriller
(jism and all) has ever been seen in North America. (When it was
picked up for theatrical distribution in the States during the
Seventies, it was retitled They Call Her One Eye [later
Hooker's Revenge for a double bill] and heavily cut.) The
anamorphic (1.66:1) transfer displays constant grain
unavoidable given the source materials
but good color balance. Two mono audio options are provided: the
original Swedish language track (in which Frigga is called "Madeleine")
and the English dubbed version. Of these, the English dub is the
more robust and aurally satisfying. (Excellent, easy-to-read subtitles
are available should you wish to go native.)
For
such an obscure title Synapse provides a notable slate of bonus
materials. You get U.S. theatrical trailers, TV spots and lobby
cards (using the They Call Her One Eye and Hooker's
Revenge titles), outtakes, production stills, a selection
of nude Lindberg photos (in character, with eyepatch), a lengthy
"Movie in Stills" gallery, filmographies of Vibenius
and Lindberg, and a liner notes essay by Robert Marcucci, who
argues in favor of the porn inserts. (I respectfully disagree.)
Most unusual of all is the inclusion of a 5½ minute 'alternate'
cut of the warehouse shootout, assembled using discarded footage
by Synapse honcho Don May, Jr.
1/06/05 |
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