Revenge What?

The use of the word porn as a pejorative is understandable, due to its nature,which leads into the recent and gradual trend of giving the label to pretty much anything. Romantic comedies and vampire movies are emotional porn (not that I disagree, but others have spoken better on this subject). Closeups of food related carnage earned the label as well. Who knows? Maybe the first, wordy sentence of this post will earn the label of "redundant sentence porn". If so, I'm denying all credibility of such nasty and unfounded falsehoods in advance. Well I never.

All this to say, I've avoided revenge porn like the plague. It's popular, and usually involves watching horrible people get what they deserve. It's just what feeds a person with anger issues and therefore needs to be avoided by such a person like the plague. Somewhere between Punisher and Man on Fire I got the point. Redemption was scarce or absent, leaving me with no hope but to forget about it. Punisher? No problem. Denzel's movie? Not so easy. He's just that good.

Recently I rewatched Memento and remembered what makes it so good, beyond the suspense and subtle dark humor. It's a story (SPOILER! DANGER!) about making a case for revenge, even when the only person left to blame may be yourself. It's good for people like me to ponder.

I also watched Tarentino's latest flick which can only be described as the ultimate revenge porn. On a human level, who doesn't want to watch Nazis get what they deserve? This is exactly why I tried to avoid it until I heard a fun fact--the director notes the irony. The title would be a hint, but beyond that the setting of the final battle is a bloody propoganda film. Not my observation, by the way. I read it in a review. I wish I was that smart, but no.

Several times the director causes the viewer to laugh at the pain of cruel men and then say "Shame on you." And I laugh harder, because it reminds me that this is just a movie. And real life people like me, we don't thrive on revenge, because that's not how it works. Maybe for fictional heroes and villains, but not for us. We've got better things to do. After the movie, of course.