Bent (1997)

Bent ( 1997 )


Dugo sam odlagao gledanje ovog filma. Čitao sam o njemu ranije i nisam se htio opterećivati scenama nacističke torture. Dovoljno me terorišu na poslu!
Bent je priča o sudbini homoseksualaca u vrijeme holokausta nacističkih vremena. Jednako uništavani kao i jevreji bili su meta Hitlerovih slijedbenika.
Max je berlinski homoseksualac uhvaćen koji je do odvođenja u logor živio raskalašnim životom, predavajući se seksu , piću, drogi, obilazeći
svako poznato gay mjesto tog vremena.
Nakon što ga uhvate u šumi sa njegovim partnerom Rudyjem odvode ga u nacistički logor Dachau. Na putu do logora užasa strah od sigurne smrti ga prisiljava da negira svako poznanstvo sa Rudyjem kojeg ubijaju, kao i da izvrši seksualni odnos sa lešom mrtve djevočice. Sva sreća te tu scenu nisu prikazali u flmu inače bih momentalno prekinuo gledanje. Film je dovoljno jeziv i bez toga.
Max u logoru nosi židovsku zvjezdu misleći da če bolje proći nego ako nosi pederski crveni znak. Tu sa pederom Horstom provodi dane prenoseći kamenje sa jednog kraja na drugi pa nazad.
U tom tantalovom poslu na jedan specifičan način stvara odnos sa Horstom.
Ovaj film je dokument o tome kuda vodi generalizcija, mržnja, svirepost i diskriminacija. Na žalost ta vremena nisu za nama. Učimo se toleranciji, a Bent neka nas opominje kuda vodi sebičnost i samozadovoljnost!


Director: Sean Mathias
Writers: Martin Sherman (play)
Martin Sherman (screenplay)
Release Date: 26 November 1997 (USA)
Genre: Drama | Romance | War
Plot Keywords: Germany | Gay Holocaust | Train | Gay | Love
Awards: 4 wins & 2 nominations


Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only)

Clive Owen ... Max
Lothaire Bluteau ... Horst
Ian McKellen ... Uncle Freddie
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau ... Wolf (as Nikolaj Waldau)
Mick Jagger ... Greta / George
Brian Webber ... Rudy
Jude Law ... Stormtrooper
Gresby Nash ... Waiter
Suzanne Bertish ... Half-woman, half-man
David Meyer ... Gestapo man
Stefan Marling ... SS Captain
Richard Laing ... SS guard
Crispian Belfrage ... SS guard
Johanna Kirby ... Muttering woman
David Phelan ... Fluff in park

Additional Details
MPAA: Rated NC-17 for a strong scene of graphic sexuality.

Runtime: 105 min
Country: UK | Japan
Language: English

Certification:
Canada:18 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Canada:R (Manitoba) | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Finland:K-18 | Canada:14A (British Columbia) | Canada:18A (Alberta) | Brazil:14 | Germany:16 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | USA:NC-17 | USA:R (cut) | Portugal:M/16



BY ROGER EBERT / November 26, 1997

"Bent" tells a heartrending love story, set against the backdrop of the Holocaust. I could describe the film in solemn pieties, but that would be too easy. The more deeply it descends into horror, the more alarming its agenda becomes, until finally I'd had enough: The material is not worthy of its setting.

The story involves a Berlin homosexual named Max (Clive Owen), who is swept up in the Nazi madness, forced to kill his lover, sent to a prison camp, and there finds true love with another man. Max has lied to qualify for a yellow star (signifying he is Jewish) instead of a pink one (homosexual). By the end he is proud to wear the pink star, but his decision is staged as a crowd-pleaser.

"Bent" is a movie very much about entertaining its audience (I have not seen the stage play by Martin Sherman, who wrote the screenplay). It opens with a gay orgy, hosted by the transvestite Greta (Mick Jagger), where bodies are strewn about in sexual congress. Some of the revelers are either Nazis, or wear Nazi uniforms as a form of erotic enhancement.

Max goes home with a handsome young Nazi, and has sex with him, to the dismay of Max's lover, Rudy (Brian Webber). It is the time of the purge of gay Nazis; storm troopers burst in to slit the Nazi's throat. Max and Rudy escape, hide in the woods, and are captured after a thrilling action scene. The scene exists for its own sake; the drama is suspended, so the audience can thrill to the formula of pursuit.

On a train to prison camp, Max is forced to commit unspeakable acts and betray his friend. The underlying message is, it's every man for himself; the film will refute that. In the camp, Max is assigned to shift rocks from one pile to another. He's joined by Horst (Lothaire Bluteau), who he met on the train. "Friendship lasts about 12 hours in this place," Horst tells him.

But soon, in the midst of dread and a bitter winter, they find erotic desire stirring, and there is a scene where they stand side by side, with no eye contact, and by describing their feelings verbally are able to arrive at simultaneous orgasm. This scene works like the chase scene: It drops out of the drama to stand alone as entertainment--as eroticism. A better film would have found a way to absorb the sexuality into the underlying theme; both scenes are crowd-pleasers, and so is a closing sequence which seems staged more as a noble tableaux than as drama at all.

Max's personal victory we of course applaud, but does the film, with its methods, deserve the sentiment it requests? Sherman's stage version of "Bent" is, I am told, a moving experience. During the film, there was scarcely a moment when I wasn't aware of its gears cleverly turning.

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