Misogyny Double Feature

Last night I saw Alejandro Jodorowsky’s “Santa Sangre”. It’s the familiar story of a man who kills women because his mother was a bitch. It contained some interesting imagery, but no interesting ideas. It’s the same thing I’ve seen before. Bitches be tripping, so our hero must kill them.

After that I saw Alex del la Iglesia’s “The Last Circus”. It had a much more interesting plot (war atrocities drive young boy to become a killer clown), but so much misogyny. The perspective is exclusively male. The killer clown fights an abusive clown for the love of a woman. The woman is a pawn who fears the abusive clown but loves rough clown sex and being terrified of the abusive clown. Audience members laughed when she was punched so hard it knocked her across the floor.

There were things I liked about “The Last Circus”, but they were overshadowed by the way it treats women. It’s offensive. It perpetuates violence against women. And it’s tiresome. I’ve had enough of this perspective, where men’s feelings and motives are the focus, and women are conveniently placed McGuffins that advance the story, to last a lifetime.