Customer Reviews

Outrage [VHS]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The movie itself is quite good, but what they don't tell you is that the original Spanish dialogue has been eliminated in favor of an unforgivable English dubbing. What's more is that there are no alternate soundtracks available on this DVD, and no subtitles to choose from. In other words, it's a low budget insult to the DVD medium where all these things are not just possible, but expected. I would love to see this movie in its original language before it was butchered, because there's some good film-making going on here.

I saw this film in Spanish-language VHS format with English subtitles. My experience with dubbed foreign films has been uniformly bad, and I avoid them like the plague. Dubbing ALWAYS makes a film worse, without exception, and no matter what the language.

I enjoy Saura's Flamenco films, and so was curious about what a Saura "action" film would look like. The fact that Antonio Banderas appears in it was a side issue for me. It was made before he made the Hollywood big-time, and was still trying to be a serious actor. He is actually quite good as the idealistic but jaded young newspaperman.

It is a curious film, not what I expected. Although it was made in 1997, and has televisions, computers, and cell phones in it, it reminded me of the bleak French and Italian films of the '40's and '50's, after WWII, before Europe became prosperous again. It has a distinctly unmodern, pessimistic atmosphere. The setting of the circus, and the character of a trick rider recall the 19th century. Anna, the rider/shooter, is clearly not at home in the contemporary world, seems to be caught in a time warp, and lives according to her own, pre-modern rules. The circus life has much in common with the gypsy life portrayed in Saura's flamenco films, and much of the flamenco "duende". (Note: The character Anna is the daughter of circus people, trapeze artists, from Bolzano, in the Alto Adige region of northern Italy, which accounts for her German surname. She is joking with Marcos when she says her mother was a Russian countess. Anna speaks Spanish with an Italian accent.)

The story is a revenge tragedy, a very old dramatic form, in a modern setting. But Saura, perhaps because he is Spanish, and has submerged himself in pre-modern gypsy culture, manages to avoid modern cliches while using this ancient form.

Her brief love affair with Marcos, the young reporter, is interrupted when she is raped by three young thugs, in one of the most brutally filmed scenes I have ever seen. Saura doesn't clean it up at all. You really want her to kill these vermin afterward.

A woman of Anna's accomplishments and character clearly isn't going to rest until her assailants have been punished. But this is a tragedy, not really an "action" film after all. Her killings of the rapist thugs are convincing in their ugliness, but her revenge is not sweet. It only makes her position more desperate, speeding her inexorable descent into hell. In the end, Saura makes us believe that Anna, guilty as she is, had her reasons, and that her death frees her of her sins.

The melancholy music adds to the bitter-sweet mood of the film.

The acting by Banderas and Neri is first rate. One believes that they are desperately in love, and that it would have ended badly regardless. In spite of the brutality, it is a romantic film, in the 19th century sense of the term.

It looks to me as though Neri did much of her own riding and shooting. The cinematography is quite good, Italianate, and Madrid has the look of a city lived in, not a movie set.

To make a DVD of a film like this in dubbed English only is complete philistinism, verging on the criminal.

Highly recommended in its original Spanish-language form. Even if you speak only a little Spanish, you will realize that the subtitles, even though they are pretty good, don't capture the profanity. There's no point watching it dubbed in English.

Francesca Neri and Antonio Banderas are a great match in a lousy movie. Neri (new to me) is beautiful and charismatic and did ever notice how the always dependable Banderas can make the worst movie tolerable? Here again he does some excellent emoting. Just like one of the other reviewers, the first 25 minutes are quite entertaining, but then it really becomes a violent, disgusting bore. While I was happy that Neri as Anna blew her three rapists to smithereens, her shooting of the two policemen was totally beyond redemption. That's when the film went to hell.

Technical screw-ups with DVD aside, this film is OK. It certainly bears lesser artistic value than other films from Carlso Saura. But, it is not worse than some of the rubbish that come outs. It is just, probably, one of those cases, when an artist needed money and so on...

The story is somewhat weak and superficial. I was drawn into it for the first 20-25 minutes. I expected something really interesting to happen. It did not...

It is a story of a young journalist, Banderas, who needs to cover a story [for reasons, I honestly can not remember] about the circus, which came to town.

Naturally, he falls in love with the beautiful horse-riding circus girl.

From that point on, it gest worse...

It turns out that the girl is half-Russian, half-Italian, half-God-knows what else. She is very bright and intelligent, inspite of her being a circus artist [feel the social message here]: she seems to be speaking all the languages she knows at once.

They end up having a little bit of sex [at least on screen], then, she is raped, and then, what?... oh, yeah, she gets revenge and he gets... nothing.

And you are left in an OUTRAGE: Could the plot be any more lame than this? Hardly...

I purchased this DVD because I liked Antonio Banderas in "The Mask of Zorro" and because I heard that his co-star, Francesca Neri, was the "Italian Michelle Pfiffer." As far as I could tell, they both are obviously very talented actors. However, the film story was terrible. It is a very graphic rape story with a very unsatisfying ending. I was glad I purchased the DVD though because Francesca Neri is truly an incredibly gorgeous actress - and she has one of the most gigantic Adam's apples I've ever seen on a woman!

Outrage!This DVD, called "Outrage!", is the Spanish film "Dispara!", which means "Shoot!". I have the original Spanish language VHS, and no English language dubbing can do justice to the original Spanish version. Why even change the name? "Shoot!" has so much subtext. She's a sharpshooter to begin with. She goes after the men who raped her with her rifle... It nakes so much sense to call it "Shoot!". Antonio Banderas - pre-movie star - is so good, here, as an earnest reporter. He is stuck in the predicament of falling in love with a circus performer who will move on. The real star is Francesca Neri, the Italian actress who seems to do her own riding and shooting. Everything about this movie looks authentic, including the brutal rape and murder scenes. If you are looking for a happy Hollywood ending, go elsewhere. These characters are doomed from the first "shot". -Sheshetta

The story follows Ana (played wonderfully by the beautiful Francesca Neri) as a sharp shooter performing in the circus. She falls in love with a journalist named Marcos (Antonio Banderas). After a brutal rape and several murders later, she finds herself on the run with Marcos chasing after her.

The DVD story would have you believe that this is a typical Rape/ Revenge flick where the rape occurs early on and the rest of the film is the woman seeking vengeance. But the rape doesn't occur until 40 minutes in giving the viewers plenty of time to get to know Ana and like her character. She looks like Rachel Weisz and is quite impulsive and quirky. Her character is very likable and you will find her emotionally honest even when she is lying. This will make watching her downfall a little difficult to bear.

You watch Ana fall in love with Marcos, make love with him, and then you see the excitement in her eyes when she runs to her door one fateful night expecting Marcos on the other side. The gang rape is brutal, but most of the violence (outside of the rape) is implied. The revenge part takes place very soon after. The rest of the film is Ana and Marcos trying to reach each other one last time, making several mistakes along the way, and a very climactic reunion at the end.

Where the story veers into stupidity, is when Marcos sees the news story of the rapists murders, assumes Ana is the killer without even speaking to her, and then proceeds to rat on her instantly. That amore'. Soon after, Ana visits a doctor for her excessive bleeding (ahem, vaginal, due to the "bottle assault"), the doctor immediately calls the police on her the moment Ana leaves the room. Rape Advocacy, yeah! And get this...the doctor then goes on the radio giving the victims name and detailing her vaginal wounds! Ethics? We don't need no stinking Ethics!

Ultimately, this film is incredibly depressing and bleak. The ending will not make you feel any better about what transpired before hand. The victim gets no justice and she is punished for being victimized. A cop even refers to her as "the bitch."

Favorite Quote: "I said I'd follow you to Hell, well, here I am," spoken by Marcos to Ana after he finally catches up to her at the end.

DVD Extras: Scene Selection and brief Film Facts. There is an Italian and English dubbed version. The dubbed version is terrible and takes away from the atmosphere. Plus, I know what Antonio Banderas sounds like and I can assure you that was not it.

Bottom Line: Very dreary film with not much to recommend here except Francesca Neri's great performance.

Rating: 6/10

Molly Celaschi

This movie is horrible and brutal with no interesting hooks and really bad dubbing. Antonio Banderas can not even save this movie with all his talent.

The best description of this lackluster flick is "HO HuM" Banderas walks around like a lovesick puppy and goes off to Barcelona while his girlfriend gets raped by three thugs and then goes on a shooting spree all over Spain after having kill the three. Thin plot, bad acting and not great English dubbing. I should have been paid for watching it. At least I did get a good nights sleep.

The DVD was in excellent shape. The movie quality was excellent. All in all great product to purchase.