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.
‘The Painted Bird’ is actually based on a book.
It was written in 1965 by Jerzy Kosinski.
It was discredited as being an autobiographical novel. And now it was made into a movie.
From what viewers are saying, ‘The Painted Bird’ is brutal.
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 story is about a young Jewish boy during World War 2.
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.
And when I say nefarious, I mean really nefarious.
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.
It stars Harvey Keitel, Stellan Skarsgård and Udo Kier.
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.
What did the reviews have to say?
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,”
He describes the panic that erupted in the theater:
“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.”
People were basically unable to sit through it.
“The centerpiece will be the moment 12 viewers broke for the doors only to discover that the exit had been locked.”
As for the reactions of the public?
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.
Some hate it.
It’s definitely a film that could go either way for people, and I’m sure the opinions will only continue to divide people.
Other people think the movie shouldn’t have been made at all.
Which is a fair point.
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While it’s important to put controversial movies out there, was this film one step too far?
All in all, this movie is definitely not for the faint of heart.
And it comes with mixed reviews.
Will you be able to watch it? Let us know below in the comments!
