MovieChat Forums > Crank: High Voltage (2009) Discussion > Morally wrong?

Morally wrong?

posted 16 years ago by Xanderinio
34 replies | jump to latest

I actually enjoyed this film, but there was one scene that didn't sit well with me. When Chev uses a lubricated shotgun to extract information from a 'bad guy'.
The film worked away from sexual context here, by the situation and character choice, the victim was a massively obese gangster type, but although superficially this may seem funny, how ISN'T it...rape.

Whether the directors like it or not, anal penetration is a sexual act, and Chev forcefully shoving a shotgun up there against the guys will IS rape. Now, I'm not saying there shouldn't be horrific acts like rape in films, as long as the rapist is shown to be, in hopefully a more complex form, "bad". Yet Chev, who effectively raped someone is displayed as the films undying, uncompromising hero, who although is ruff and aggressive ISN'T shown to be a bad person.

I don't want to get into the existential argument of whether art should be moral or 'art for arts sake' is a more attractive ideal. Just, it IS rape, and i wouldn't have minded if after that Chev's psychology had been more analyzed and he was shown as not 'The Good Guy'.

but overall, this film was ok...

Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room

[–] Opopanax-1 16 years ago

So you don't see anything morally wrong with all the killing he does?

[–] Xanderinio 16 years ago

No, because he doesn't kill anyone who is innocent. Yes he's overly violent, but at least in his killings has a moral motive. He doesn't go round killing innocents.

Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room

[–] Opopanax-1 16 years ago

Well, the guy he "raped" wasn't innocent either.

[–] Xanderinio 16 years ago

Yes, but you must realize that in the cinematic world, death is simply a metaphor for punishment - a devise used in drama since medieval times. RAPE, however, can't possibly used as a metaphor for a much deserved punishment, and if it was meant as one, the directors are incredibly morally wrong.

My point was mainly that most people don't really consider it rape, and that a film that shows a rapist in a good light is disgusting. Some right-wing conservative people do believe that people should be killed for their actions -though you'd have to be pretty twisted to think that raping them is OK.

Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room

[–] gilbert_gumphrey 16 years ago

i really don't understand how anyone could possibly think it's worse to rape a person than to kill a person. sure, rape is a horrible, awful thing, but for the most part, the person is alive in the end. that automatically makes it "better" than to outright kill another human being.
anyways, there are a couple points i want to make.
1) the scene is for comic effect. try not to overanaylze it.
2) Chris Chelios is never seen as a hero, at all. like the other poster said, he kills a bunch of people and does horrible things in this movie. no one watches the Crank films and identifies with Chris Chelios as the "hero" - we simply notice he's the main character, and move on.
3) in many other movies, people are often tortured in order to get information. consider this the same thing. were you morally offended by Liam Neeson electrocuting a man to get info in Taken? no? then why is it any different if the torture is inside the dude's anus as opposed to on his kneecaps? torture is torture.
4) the entire movie, from beginning to end, is TRYING to offend you. the film is a litmus test for audiences - can you sit through the whole thing and not be offended by any scene, at all? i found it hilariously offensive, and a scene where a man is tortured/raped by a shotgun is just one of many such scenes. again, don't take it too seriously.
cheers
KZ

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] rubycalaberXX 15 years ago

you're forgetting the fact that when men are the ones being raped it's always hilarious, like in movies such as Let's Go To Prison, Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay and Deliverance

[–] TubenBlakk 15 years ago

you're forgetting the fact that when men are the ones being raped it's always hilarious, like in movies such as Let's Go To Prison, Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay and Deliverance

It's something wrong with you if you find the rape scene in Deliverance funny.

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Cocainefarm 15 years ago

HA! America and sex, what a combination.

[–] alpeaston 15 years ago

So you don't see anything morally wrong with all the killing he does?

LOL figure... kill 60 people - fine, but shove one shotgun up the butt of an Asian and the moral squad cums alive!

[–] mikeyfatboy 16 years ago

Oh, shut up. This is hardly meant to be a 'moral' film what with all the killings and junk.

That was textbook.

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] alan-000 15 years ago

This is Crank, no-one was "raped", one guy had a shotgun shoved up his arse. It's funny, end of.

[–] NuggetsVSCavs 15 years ago

Wow you ppl actually think the OP is serious? He's just making a really bad joke that nobody's getting apparently.

I have to return some video tapes

[–] reservoir_cats_1989 15 years ago

> I actually enjoyed this film, but there was one scene that didn't sit well
> with me. When Chev uses a lubricated shotgun to extract information from
> a 'bad guy'.

You actually enjoyed this film? That is so courageous to admit.

But I have no problem whatsoever in expressing my own opinion, that majority of adult movies make more sense and have better plots, and don't ruin public respect of actors playing (or "playing") in them.

If M*ckey Mouse played Chev's character and D*nald the Duck played David Carradine's part, I bet the movie would be so much more fun (and yet still tasteless).

[–] acemcgaffrey 15 years ago

The OP is confusing cinema and reality, like he claims the responses to his post are. In the film, the shotgun act is NEVER meant to be percieved as rape. In the real world it could be construed as so, but we know it isn't.

[–] kitm_1000 15 years ago

Hey, at least he didn't pull the trigger, huh? I was just waiting and so sure he was gonna still kill the guy even after getting the info out of him that I was anticipating the vomited anal tract and guts to come flying outta the guys mouth at any given second

[–] mttyflynn 15 years ago

You know what was really "Morally Wrong"?:

Scrambling Amy Smart's crotch shots during the sex scenes!

Why, oh god why?

I am Mick Finn, and I approve of this message.

[–] Strazdamonas 15 years ago

morality is what we all perceive differently. defining what is morally right for movie is autocracy and is equal to censorship, which as we know from history is never a good thing.

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In this universe, there's only one absolute... everything freezes!

[–] freakytall 15 years ago

I agree although Denzel Washington played a better Batman, we still must have respect for the older ones. His superiors almost offended me when they chose the blue pill instead of the red pill, but I don't bring this with me. At the end of the movie there is one other scene that is morally wrong, when the martians heads' are exploding due to the loud music. What kind of people are we if we condone behavior such as this?

[–] Im_Housin_Yankee 14 years ago

this just made me laugh so hard. thank you

[–] rndhyd 15 years ago

When I saw that gun up his ass, I was hoping that I could have that done to me. That would have been morally great.

Hmmm Hmmm Hmmmm, just like Obama is doing to this country.

[–] pyrexia_of_u_o 15 years ago

It was not morally wrong because it never happened. It was a movie scene, nobody was raped. It may have looked like that to you but in reality that was an actor and he didn't have a shotgun in his rear end. If it happened in real life it would probably be assault and rape and if the cops could catch Chelios he would be tried in a court of law.