That French film I hated at 20 is now my favorite at 45

I first watched The 120 Days of Sodom in a college film class back in 1999 and walked out after 30 minutes, disgusted and angry. Last month I decided to give it another shot after reading an essay about how the director wanted to show absolute power corrupting people, not just shock for shock value. I rented it from the library in Portland and watched it alone over two evenings, taking breaks when I needed to. The difference was like night and day, I finally saw the political message about fascism and how ordinary people get broken by systems. What changed me was studying the history of when it was made and how the Italian government tried to bury it for years. Now I understand why it gets banned in so many places, it's not the gore, it's the uncomfortable truth about authority. Has anyone else had a banned book or film flip for them after revisiting it older?

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the_cameron28d ago

Funny how time messes with your eyes like that. I remember absolutely hating The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover when I was 22. Now I can't watch it without laughing at how brilliant the whole thing is. The colors, the weird pacing, the way it just sits there and makes you uncomfortable. I guess the older you get, the more you realize some movies aren't trying to entertain you, they're trying to tell you something true about how broken things are. And you can't hear that when you're young and you think you already know everything.