I saw this last week and thought it was quite an interesting swerve on reality tv or perhaps more fittingly 'mocku-drama'. The characters were all interesting in their weirdness and/or despicable stupidity/cruelty. The scenes of animal cruelty to cats would no doubt put many off but it was a welcome change to see 'real' characters that had more to offer than the pleasures of blinking. What was (or not?) surprising and pleasing was that C5 couldn't find one advertiser willing to break the film Funny how animal torture can deter possible views to alignment but that of humans shares no such balance - not that I condone it for either in reality.
Gummo is a really overlooked film. For those that bother to watch it, as encaser says, it is worth the effort. It doesn't surprise me about advertisers, they think people actually associate their wares with the film/show playing at the time. Another amusing example of their stupidity is with The Shield. When it first came out in the States, the channel could not sell any advertising during the show due to it's 'content'. As soon as it won an Emmy and got some big press, they were falling over themselves to pay for slots. Call me beligerant if you will, but if I lived in the States I'd refuse to buy any products from companies that started late in advertising during The Shield as they're so obviously taking the p*ss out of the viewers (although, arguably, so are all advertisers).
Interesting you mention The Shield, as each time I've seen it I wonder why I bother, oh yeah it's suppose to be hard hitting. Hum, really. I wish advertisers would be scared off more stuff because the ever increasing salvoes is taking the urine, what with the last couple of minutes for more things being broken too. It's more self-evident now how the US tv culture started running to shrinks on mass complaining of loss for closure...man
Hi, I watched and taped "Gummo" when it was on C5, about two weeks ago. Very surreal and disturbing film: more of a documentary though, than a drama, because their isn't really much of a narrative or plot. Just a lot of vignettes about a lot of very dysfunctional people. Yes, the animal cruelty is nasty, but it was nice to see the film uninterrupted! Shame more films aren't shown this way! Pooch
Although wholly necessary. Study after study has proven that individuals that enjoy causing pain to animals will find the same type of enjoyment from doing the same to humans. The equation that, in reality, some people see others as nothing more than animals that are there to allow them to derive pleasure by acting cruelly towards is an important part of 'Gummo'. It's also a reason why I tend to dislike and not trust people who think kicking dogs and cats is acceptable.