Thriller: A Cruel Picture [1974]

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-12-02 rating:
worth it for Christina Lindberg
Its an ok 70's revenge flick. Theres 2 versions out there One i'm told has a small bit of hard core porn in. This one doesn't.

If your a fan of 70's exploitaiton films you should give it ago.

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review by: date: 2008-11-14 rating:
Tasteless
Whilst certain aspects of the film may be interesting, I wouldn't recommend this film to anybody, as the director used the dead body of a girl that recently committed suicide (yes a real cadaver) for the infamous gouged out eye scene. That is why it looks real, because it is real. Christina Lindberg has confirmed this. How low can you go? I find such exploitation disgusting and completely unmoralistic. Therefore I refused to watch the rest of the film and boycotted it. I recommend anyone with decent morals to do the same.

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review by: The Man From Morningside date: 2007-08-16 rating:
They Call It Too Long... Aye
Sorry, folks but it didn't work for me at all. It seems any film title that Mr Quentin loves has to be snapped up by legions of hungry fans. They then pretend too love it as much as he does.
The hype destroys it. However, the leading lady is excellent in the role, and looks perfectly worried and scared, then angry and murderous, in all the right places.
But, look, why the slow motion? Why the pathetic fight scenes? Why do you feel like she hasn't achieved anything at the end by the killings?
It delivers on the sleaze, and feels like a Franco or D'Amato film, then as the gunshots begin, it tries to be art... and fails.
By the way, Quentin likes The Titanic! Buy it! Love It!

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review by: loxxibana date: 2007-07-14 rating:
Surprisingly good!
Very interesting film, which in its tone and camerawork reminds me a lot of 'I Spit on Your Grave' - it has that same edgy, subjective, almost documentary-style look to it which really adds to the overall effect (and a similar lack of soundtrack, which make some of the action sequences almost surreal). I call this a mix of Sam Peckinpah and Ingmar Bergman - it has a very bleak, sombre mood and very minimal dialogue. No big cityscapes, no exotic deserts here - instead we're taken on a tour of low-key Swedish housing estates, barren countryside that looks a lot like the North of Scotland. The terriffic harbour scene with Madeleine getting shot up by an unseen assailant is almost pure Sergio Leone, and is the coolest sequence in the film. (The only scene cooler is one that doesn't appear in this cut - the 'alternate' version of the warehouse shootout has her shedding her long coat and launching into some spectacular slow-mo kung-fu kicks - pretty damn good for Sweden, 1974!)

The only scene which doesn't work for me at all is the most notorious one. The shot of the wide open eye is far, far too long to be credible (even brutalised people on heroin don't stare unblinkingly up at a scalpel that's about to be plunged through their eyeball) - it should have been a lot shorter, but the shock value is definitely there. I couldn't watch it first time around. The XXX scenes are pretty disposable too, but at least by objectifying the body parts they make the whole business look as mechanical and sordid as it is, and enhance the downbeat tone.

Only real fault I can find is that some of the scenes could have been trimmed, tightened up at the editing stage. Too much time spent lingering on people doing not very much. Lots of random driving around towards the end, which feels a bit flabby (and lots of cars which decide to blow up for no reason) - 'French Connection' it ain't, but all in all I would really recommend this to any fan of dark revenge/exploitation movies.

I only ever watch foreign movies with the subtitles on, so I can't comment on the dubbing, but the extras are very good. Lots of great stills, some superb shots of Madeleine looking very stylish with her shotgun. And the animated menus are a hoot!

And yes, this inspired 'Kill Bill'. I walked out of that after 20 minutes, but I know I will watch this little classic again. Get it while you can 'cos this version's limited to 25,000.


review by: ferox8 date: 2006-06-10 rating:
Interesting little film
For such an obscurity, this is actually turned out to be a decent little movie. Worth watching for more than just the XXX scenes (of which there are plenty!!). Its a lot better than you might expect.

For a film described as the "ultimate revenge movie", I felt that the revenge scenes could have perhaps used more imagination - but it's still entertaining enough and well paced.

The picture quality/audio is what you might expect for such a rare film - but don't let it put you off - its definitely one of Synapse's better releases.

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Similar categories

Video . DVD & VHS . Categories . Action & Adventure . All Action & Adventure
Video . DVD & VHS . Categories . Drama
Video . DVD & VHS . Categories . Crime, Thrillers & Mystery . All Crime, Thrillers & Mystery
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Format (binding_browse-bin) . DVD
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Editions (feature_two_browse-bin) . Limited Edition
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Region(feature_browse-bin) . Region 0
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Release Date (feature_three_browse-bin) . 1970 - 1979
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Language (theme_browse-bin) . More Languages . Swedish

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