[SoloAJ]

Barca, nice post, of course. I have very little experience with that type of stuff you're talking about but my sister was subject to some trauma of the other kind. Bleh.

Anyhow, I didn't think that it was trying to show it as any single "excuse" or "reason" for her being the way she was. Clearly there was just more to it than that. I just thought that it was a nice touch, and I found it to be subtle.

For me, it didn't equate to the action hero quip (though I can see the comparison). It didn't equate because I found the entire scene to just be sort of subtle and it wasn't outright absurd. It was just a strange and distrubing sort of scene, particularly with the brother standing around the corner.

I think it is a matter of our own past experiences influencing how we saw the seen, which is actually really good I think. And, if anything, I think it only further shows how brilliant the scene can be (on some levels) that it is so affective in such different ways. It made you bitter(?) about how it was inserted becuase it detracted from the real issue, self-responsibility. For me, it was just a nice insight to SOME of the past stuff she has dealt with.

Obviously, one thing they do not show is how she got to the point of going into jail and her jail life. I think a lot of lesser movies would have done flashbacks or talked about it. And really, the only extent of information we got was her talking about not "getting with women."

All in all, it was a really moving film, but it is awfully hard for me to recommend it because of how brutal it really is. I think that anyone who could watch this and not be affected by it is either (a) far too apathetic to the world or (b) hasn't had any experiences whatsoever with this sort of thing so they wouldn't see it as "realistic."