I finished watching She, a 1984 Italian-made post-apocalyptic film about a violent she-goddess who gets captured by two man-slaves—then go on the lam.
And the whole thing was inexplicable. None of the motivations of these characters made sense. Everyone is horrible. I wish everyone in this film died.
So I had to figure out why this film got made.
As it turns out, it’s based on a 19th century novel entitled She: A History of Adventure by H. Rider Haggard. And that book is even more bonkers than the movie I just watched.
The plot is probably the most misogynist and racist I’ve ever encountered. In the original book, the she-goddess is a white goddess of an African tribe. And this book has downright Social Darwinist themes too.
Wildly, this novel has never been out of print. It still has a fanbase and you can buy it on Amazon.
Now compared to the book, the movie is downright saintly—but not by much. Sure, the racism is gone. But the misogyny? That’s preserved.
It’s clear to me, even after the BDSM subtext is removed, that the “heroes” are rapists. So if you’ve experienced any of that trauma, you should probably not watch the movie.
I don’t recommend She. It does have its laugh out loud moments—more for how inept this whole movie is than anything intentional. But it’s a terrible movie based on an even worse book.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/She:_A_History_of_Adventure
@movies@lemmy.world
You can’t write this and then end by telling us you don’t recommend the movie. You can’t do that.
The Letterboxd reviews are hilarious:
“Like a schizophrenic group therapy session on haldol. Couch lock inducing madness where somebody left the gate to the primate cage open and now all you can do is sit staring with glassy eyes and drool on your chin while you wait to see what insanity will happen next as the chimps run around wildly blasting each other in the face with fire extinguishers filled with springy rubber snakes and soapy bubbles.”
“Truly an unheralded kitchen sink of a movie, constantly just happening at you.”
“Post apocalyptic backdrop. Amazon warriors. A giant dude in a ballerina outfit. A Frankenstein kill bot. A werewolf party. Robotic dudes who spout pop culture references nonstop and multiply when u cut off one of their limbs. Mummified mutants with chainsaws. Protagonists who aren’t good or bad but u love em anyway. Nazi punkrockers in weird helmets. Badly choreographed sword fights aplenty. Poisonous gases. Cults. Ohhh and a hairy little monk/cult leader with glowing green eyes and telekinetic abilities…”
“Words aren’t enough to describe She. It’s not that it’s impenetrable or especially hard to follow but the world it establishes seems to reset from scene to scene.”
