Sexual harassment and even sexual assault have increasingly become an important social issue in the United States, causing widespread concern among Americans. This film analyzes such a case in detail to explore the social causes of this phenomenon.
The film cuts in from the victim fleeing the scene after the rape was aborted. The audience only saw Sarah rushing out of the mill bar, not knowing it. The director cleverly narrated the scene with the concept of Ken reporting, which not only highlighted the main suspense of the whole film, made the audience eager to learn the details of the incident, but also left a foreshadowing for Ken's subsequent testimony in court. The hospital examined a scene that showed the victimized woman's physical injuries and provided evidence of her alcohol and minor drug abuse. The ensuing investigation gave Sarah a frivolous image: She was naked, slutty, provocative, had sex with many people, and had a criminal record. The performance in the "mill" is suspected of seducing men, so it is difficult to distinguish whether the nature of the mill incident is rape or flirting. In addition, many insiders are unwilling to testify and have to prosecute for insufficient evidence. Catherine was very resolute in advocating justice for her at first, but she was deeply troubled by this complicated situation, and finally obeyed the instructions of her boss and traded with the defendant behind the scenes, which was done publicly and privately. Sarah was furious when she learned about it, but what can she do if she is a weak woman who has no money and no power? As she yelled to Catherine: "I take drugs, alcohol, and coquettish! I am not raped, I am a slut! I have no right to sue unless I have money and status!" Sarah, who lives in disorder on weekdays After this change, be prepared for bitter fruit. At last she repented and decided to be a person again (cutting her hair and changing her makeup, and driving Larry away would mean her break with the past).
Because the rape case was unfairly closed, it was not possible to bring all the criminals to justice, so soon a new incident occurred: once the Scorpion Cliff recognized Sarah, he would tease in every way, and his performance was the same as in the mill. You can imagine him in the future. The harassment of Sarah will be endless. Sarah was burnt physically and mentally, and finally drove into her without recklessness. This collision deeply shocked Catherine's heart. Although her previous compromise was also a helpless element, she still complained in her heart, so she didn't try her best. Sarah’s re-admission to the hospital made her feel the seriousness of the situation and the helplessness of the victim. Her indifference caused her sequelae, which made her feel guilty. Do not hesitate. Scorpion's vicious words and his repeated harassment of Sarah made Catherine think deeply about the role of the coaxers, but how easy is it to prosecute bystanders who did not participate in the rape? This is tantamount to a challenge to tradition. Not only does the boss oppose it, but no one supports it. Catherine repeatedly checked the laws and regulations, and finally figured out the difference between watching and booing. Rushing means instigating and inciting, and means adding to the flames, and can be prosecuted for the crime of "inducing crime". However, in order to prosecute, there must be witnesses who are willing to appear in court. She managed to dispel Sally's doubts and made her identify the coaxer. However, Sally's further testimony is not good for Sarah, although Sarah's remarks about Bob are only revenge for Larry's angry words, and did not take action.
Catherine had to find another witness, and she dug up Ken from the clues in the mill recreation room. Ken is Bob's classmate friend, and he went to the mill to play a game console with him for the first time that night and witnessed the whole process of the incident. His conscience was not clear, and he was deeply shocked by the reckless conduct that occurred in front of him, but he had no courage to stop the development of the atrocities, especially close friends were also involved. In order to get a psychological balance, he reported the case, but since then he sometimes feels guilty for his failure to stand up, and sometimes masturbates with "nothing to do with himself", always in an ambivalent state of mind. When Catherine found him, he prevaricated and deceived himself at first, and only reluctantly agreed to testify after being called to the police. He thought that this time he was telling the booger rather than his friend, but if he didn't say hello, he wouldn't be enough friends, so he went to visit Bob again. Bob told him that he was not committing rape. If he was willing to commit a crime, he would be reconvicted of rape and his sentence would be extended from 9 months to 5 years. He hesitated again when he heard it. Bob took the opportunity to ask him to be drunk. Qing refused to resign. In the absence of physical witness evidence, it is difficult to convict the onlookers based on the victim’s testimony, especially Sarah drank alcohol, smoked marijuana, struggled with the deafening noise, and sometimes closed her eyes. Dare to look at this terrible reality, how can she have the energy to carefully identify the coaxers she didn't know, so she was forced to agree with the defense lawyer's conclusion: she could not recognize the coaxers. In this case, Ken’s circumstantial evidence plays a decisive role, becoming the key to the success or failure of the case, and Ken’s withdrawal means losing the case. Sarah was so sad and angry that Ken had to tell her that she couldn't bear to send her friend to jail for 5 years. Sarah bitterly rebuked: "Could it be that he is a prominent figure and I can only be regarded as a prostitute? He should rape me in front of you? In fact, you are more despicable than them!" The victim's face-to-face rebuke deeply touched Ken's conscience. Driven by what Kant called the "absolute command" of morality, he finally abandoned all his worries and strengthened his determination to help him redress grievances. The director here does not simply make Ken's face, but uses a certain length to portray his psychological transformation, so as to make his image more authentic and credible.
The specific process of the rape is the core of the film. The tension of the incident and the actual performance of the person involved, whether it is rape or a sexual performance, whether the Scorpion and other three are bystanders or instigators can only be confirmed through the display of the specific process. The presentation of this process has also become the climax of the whole film. The first few shots at the beginning of the film set up the suspense of the rape master with pictures and narration, but the details are not easy to see. Later, through other people's dictation, Sarah was suspected of misbehaving and used the theory of "sex performance" to question the theory of "rape", which complicated the case. After the behind-the-scenes transaction, the audience has no doubts about rape, but they are still not satisfied with the light sentence and the inability to justify their names. At the same time, they are more interested in Sarah's "misbehaving". The scorpion's recurring troubles mixed the issue of incitement into the rape case. Sally's testimony reinforces the doubts about sex games, so far the whole case is confusing. The film's suspenseful atmosphere has become more and more serious after the choreography of the director. Sarah went to the court to detail the incident, and faced the audience for the first time to put the incident together completely, solving some of the doubts in the audience's mind, but the key issue of inciting booze was unclear. At the same time, her subjective narration as a victim is inevitably sentimental and her words cannot be trusted (not to mention that she has just been drinking and taking drugs, so she can hardly avoid being delirious). Under this circumstance, Ken’s objective testimony was in a nutshell, enough to determine the universe (because he has no conflict of interest with this case, there is no need to fabricate and favor one side). After the multiple foreshadowing and giving Ken’s testimony such an important task, the director finally used his pretext to show the specific process of the incident. The previous expressions were all verbal and lacked a sense of image. At this time, the director used a living picture. , Reproduce intuitively and completely, give full play to the film's specialties, create a shocking visual impact, and quickly push the film to a climax. In the process, all doubts in the audience's mind were resolved. The biggest difference between sexual assault and sexual games lies in whether the person involved is coerced and whether the intercourse is voluntary. During the recurrence of the incident, the audience heard Sarah's intention to go home just as Danny had just made an unreasonable act, and witnessed how he pressed Sarah on the pinball machine and "stuck in!" Rape started under the clamor. The audience also saw that even though Bob liked Sarah, he didn't dare to make a mistake. He lost his reason only under the instigation and push of Scorpion and others. As for Curt, he reprimanded Scorpion for nonsense at first, but he became a rapist and became a rapist with evil thoughts and courage under the naming of the mobster. Even some small doubts of the audience were answered in the screen. For example, after Sarah changed her appearance, Scorpion recognized her based on the car key dropped on the ground. In the flashback screen of the event, the audience saw that when Sarah was struggling
This film provides a brilliant analysis of a rape case, but if it is considered as an ordinary rape case only in terms of facts, it obviously has the good intentions of the negative director. Choreographer dissecting this sparrow intends to inform people: There are thousands of similar sparrows around you. After the end of the film, the subtitles were printed on the screen: "There is a rape case every 6 minutes in the United States, and a quarter of the victims are raped by two or more people." (Catherine's actor Kelly Maggie Liss herself It is a victim. The director once preferred her to play Sara, but she refused because she could not bear to look back, but she was happy to play the prosecutor who declared war on the rapists.) There are many reasons for the high rate of rape. This film The editor is heartbroken and screams to the society through such a typical case, it is people's indifference and connivance of this phenomenon. The United States advertises democracy and freedom, especially since the 1960s, it has been severely impacted by all kinds of fashionable thoughts. People's values and ways of thinking have undergone earth-shaking changes compared to the past (the United States was once a society dominated by Christian canons and paid attention to ethics). . Coupled with the romantic and open nature of Americans, sexual liberation has prevailed in recent decades, and unmarried cohabitation, extramarital affair, and homosexuality have become common phenomena. In other words, as long as the parties involved in sexual intercourse voluntarily (not even between men and women), there are almost no social and legal taboos (except for incest). People choose sexual partners at will, and others do not interfere, and even promiscuity among many people in social situations is not illegal. In the latter case, the cheers from the onlookers may also be seen as cheering. People's very casual sexual attitudes complicate social issues. Crime and non-crime only depend on whether the person involved is willing, and voluntary itself is an arbitrary and highly flexible concept. In some cases, it is difficult to judge the wishes of the parties (for example, Sarah was provocative in her words and deeds before being brought down by Danny in this film). Due to the above-mentioned circumstances, over time, many people develop the habit of "not interfering with the freedom of others." Not only does it not interfere with unlawful sexual intercourse, but it also does not interfere with blatant sexual violence (the victims are naturally delicate women). This atmosphere of indulgence and indulgence fuels the arrogance of lawbreakers. They may infringe on the freedom of others to satisfy their own sexual freedom; or they may help abuse or even instigate and instigate and watch sexual rape as a pleasure. And they often plausibly say that the victims voluntarily after the violence. The rape of Miss Washington by the former heavyweight boxing champion Tyson is a very typical example in this regard. Let us say that the proliferation of rape is the evil result of sexual liberation and a tumor disease of the modernization of a "free society".
The directors of this film are heartbroken by this deformity in American society. The motivation for creating this film is to awaken people's conscience in numbness, and prompt people to think seriously. In this film, what the director wields is actually a four-sided knife. Everyone involved in this case has to be taken a bit more or less, because they are more or less responsible. First of all, the editor was saddened by the "misbehaving" of some victims and taught others to handle it. Sarah suffers from the typical aforementioned "disease of the times". She has a casual sexual attitude, cohabits unmarried together, and is also drunk and drug-addicted, which provokes her body. The editor made her regret rebirth after suffering from her own bitterness, and finally asked her to bravely tell her story in court (this is very realistic, because most of the victims did not even have the courage to report the crime, which made the rape case worse) . Second, the choreographer kindly blamed those who had never stepped forward in the first place but were able to help in the end. For example, Catherine, although she is a hateful prosecutor, she is unwilling to do her best when there is resistance to the victim in the face of a victim with a defect. It is only when she is unfair to handle the case and the victim is victimized again that she feels that she has neglected her duty. So as to do everything possible to get justice for the victim. Another example is Ken. He witnessed the rape and did not stop it. He only reported the crime to get a psychological balance, but in the end he defeated himself and stood up to defend the victim. It is the people who condone criminals that the director wants to lash out. First of all, Rudolph, the District Attorney, is the official representative of justice for the people. He has no sympathy for the victims. He always thinks about the ups and downs of the eunuch and behind-the-scenes transactions, and even blocks the conscientious Catherine. He is actually a representative of the current system. The crime of rape is banned, and they bear an inescapable responsibility. Then there are people like Sally, who, as Sarah's friend, hurried away when Sarah was in trouble, she didn't even want to call the police, and even evasive when Catherine was investigating her. Her sadness is that she wants to protect herself wisely, but the consequence of blindly condoning criminals is that sooner or later she has to get in. The editors hate most criminals with human faces and animal hearts. The director here divides them into two categories, namely rapists and instigators. The former is a direct criminal, easy to identify; the director's sharpness lies mainly in the latter. As this film reveals, they play an extremely bad role in the crime process (rape becomes gang rape, the scale of the crime increases, and the consequences increase, all at their command). However, under normal circumstances, they are just bystanders and do not bear the guilt. The idea of this film is to put them on the trial stand (this is indeed the "first precedent" trial as the TV reporter in the film said). In fact, what the director wants people to think deeply about in this film is precisely the responsibilities of all other people involved in the rape case, except the rapist. Title (It is very meaningful for the director to put rape in full view). If rape cases can lead to a situation where everyone is screaming and beating rats across the street, and if there are no more sloppy sentences and light sentences, can rape cases be "once every 6 minutes" in the United States? The director named the film "The Defendant". Except for those who were sent to the criminal court in the film, those who watched the lively, did not know, or judged the gourd case, should they also be sent to the moral court?
We can also change the angle of view and analyze the film from the perspective of feminism. Sarah, a weak woman, was sexually persecuted by male chauvinists (rape, booing, and sexual humiliation by scorpions), and many men ignored it (including the district attorney who symbolized the current system), even women like Sally Being persecuted by male-centered thoughts, he dare not give a helping hand to the same sex. The feminist Catherine also echoed the dominant ideas of male society at the beginning, but she soon realized that her siblings' rights to be humans had been taken away, and she was determined to stand up to protect the legal rights of women. Sally awakened at her command, but she was helpless. Ken represents a man who is sympathetic to the discrimination against women. Through Catherine's work, he became a comrade in arms with feminists. The women's liberation movement is in the ascendant in the United States today, and this perspective is still very meaningful.
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