This article, as well as this movie, will not be for the faint of heart.
It mentions some things that go down in the movie that aren't very pleasant. You have been warned.
This article, as well as this movie, will not be for the faint of heart.
It mentions some things that go down in the movie that aren't very pleasant. You have been warned.
It was written in 1965 by Jerzy Kosinski.
It was discredited as being an autobiographical novel. And now it was made into a movie.
So bad that when it was shown at The Venice Film Festival people actually walked about.
In fact, reports say that they were crawling over each other to get out (literally).
The boy is left in the care of an elderly lady, and when she dies the boy is forced to move from village to village, meeting a whole slew of nefarious characters.
Throughout the film, the boy undergoes rape, a bunch of torture and witnesses some extreme violence.
There is also some beastiality, which really is the horrible icing on the already horrible cake.
Just to hammer in how nasty this movie is, Harvey Keitel plays a Catholic priest who delivers the boy to a pedophile and Stellan Skarsgård plays a Nazi.
Yeesh, sounds terrible.
Xan Brooks wrote a piece for the Guardian that sums up the horror.
“One day, they’ll make a film about the first public screening of The Painted Bird,”
“It will feature the man who fell full-length on the steps in his effort to escape and the well-dressed woman who became so frantic to get out that she hit the stranger in the next seat.”
“The centerpiece will be the moment 12 viewers broke for the doors only to discover that the exit had been locked.”
It's all very mixed.
Some are recommending that you sit through what can only be described as pure torture, to get to the ending.
It's definitely a film that could go either way for people, and I'm sure the opinions will only continue to divide people.
Which is a fair point.
While it's important to put controversial movies out there, was this film one step too far?
And it comes with mixed reviews.
Will you be able to watch it? Let us know below in the comments!