Anyone else disturbed?
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Hi, Mom!
hoemoe_13 — 20 years ago(July 23, 2005 07:35 PM)
The experience of watching Hi, Mom! to me can be compared to one's viewing of horrendous or gory beheadings shown on al-Jazeera, You don't want to watch that sort of stuff but for some odd reason you are glued to the tv screen up until the blod spews out of the victims blood causing you to change the darn channel (I hope). Don't get me wrong i did appreciate the rawness of the movie; However i could not help but be disgusted by some unknown aspect of the movie. I can't quite explain why, but i couldnt bring myself to watch the final minutes of this movie. I am not sure why, just simply had to change the channel. Can anyone else relate to the disgusting emotions this movie conjured up in me??
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rayodeluz — 20 years ago(July 27, 2005 07:47 AM)
The site of a jet seeming to head toward a skyscraper just before the explosive climax was indeed eery for me, even though at that time (1970) the WTC was yet to be constructed. Reading Slavoj Zizek's Welcome to the Desert of the Real! has made me look at cinematic representations of catastrophe in a new lightas dark fantasies that have come back to haunt us, making the transition from "reel life" to real life in recent years.
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vivalarsx — 20 years ago(August 03, 2005 06:16 AM)
There are some creepy deja vu moments, I agree, but this movie is clearly set in a pre-9/11 universe and is definitely of its time. I thought it was hysterically funny; no real discomfort watching it at all. (Just saw it last night for the first time.) And if you tuned out before it was over, you missed out. The final few minutes are the culmination of what the movie was all about. I'd say put aside what modern day fears you're bringing to it, and give it another chance.
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midnight_wanderer — 18 years ago(May 02, 2007 08:44 AM)
That's the thing about it though. I don't get why people say it's funny. There were a couple of laughs but most of it was just weird & confusing & once the black group were harrasing the white theater goers then it seemed normal at first but turned into what seemed like real violence. I didn't ever know how to view what was going on.
Don't wander into abandoned churches for Czakyr will grab you from underneath the watery grave. -
eolloe — 14 years ago(January 07, 2012 02:51 AM)
I think rayodeluz misremembered that scene.
It is in the final act, at about 1hr 16 min into the film.
Right after Rubin has watched the troupe's attempts to bring the Be Black experience to the coop building be violently foiled, and he has smashed the television set he was watching all of this this on, the screen fades to black. The next scene opens with the coop building in silhouette at twilight. The titles read, "Three months later the urban guerilla goes into action."
The camera is turned up at about a 60-degree angle from the ground, so that the upper floors of the building are visible, along with a wide expanse of sky, a tiny crescent moon, and what turns out to be the contrail of a jet plane which initially is hidden by the building. The low-flying jet emerges into view from behind the building and very rapidly flies off the top right side of the screen.
So the jet doesn't fly
toward
a skyscraper; it flies above and past a skyscraper.
This happens so fast and almost off-screen that it would be easy to misremember what happens.
I think it's the speed that the plane is traveling at that seems to be the thing that makes the image somewhat reminiscent of the 9/11 plane footage. -
vacousin — 20 years ago(August 24, 2005 12:40 PM)
Actually, I just saw this film for the first time and I was bothered and disturbed by it as well. First, the "Be Black Baby" is rather dated, but the rape is just too brutal and real to be appreciated as a "theatre of the absurb" or "performance art" piece. The second thing is, I never felt Rubin had any genuine or sincere motivation just to blow up a group of pretty much innocent people just because they lived, what, in a government built housing? This is especially true since one of those is not only now his wife but more importantly his unborn child. She may be a bit shallow, but he was using her rather callously. It all emphasizes Rubin himself is much more corrupt and shallow than the people he has murdered. Its bothered me for days, especially since the first third of the movie is so eccentrically amusing.
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jeffoneonone — 20 years ago(February 17, 2006 02:44 PM)
It's important to realize that Hi, Mom is a satire it gives you a front row seat to the more extreme elelments of the late Sixties. And Rubin is neither a hero or an anti-hero, he just is, so doing something like he did in the end is not out of the question.
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herzogvon — 14 years ago(September 12, 2011 06:36 AM)
I see that last comment was posted in 2008. This being 2011, the above poster would now be catching all sorts of flack for referring the previous poster as "retarded". That word has since become politically unacceptable. Our lovely world just keeps on changing everyday, don't it? { Slang vernacular intended for effect. }
One more thing: An address by Robert "Rubin the Bombthrower" De Niro was voiced over yesterday's 911 remembrance ceremony at Soldier Field, Chicago. Oh, the irony! -
SkylinexBleedsxRed — 19 years ago(August 11, 2006 02:47 PM)
I have never seen this movie, But it is coming on TV tonight so Iam going to see what it is about.. If it is too graphic I will change the channel because I hate seeing people getting their heads chopped off.. I can handle anything but the neck up LoL.. When it comes to someone being cut in the neck or whatever, I cannot, Makes me cringe! I will just have to see what it is about.. Iam always up to watch a Robert movie that I have never seen before.. As long as the sh*t doesnt have nudity in it.. There are many Robert movies that I actually do not like.. Its not that I dont like him, Its just that the storylines are disturbing.. So yeah, I will give this one a whirl and let you know my thoughts..
If You Cannot Fight One On One, You Are A Bitch
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chrispoggiali — 19 years ago(September 10, 2006 04:29 PM)
"'Paramilitary Activities in Urban Areas.' Because all organized revolutionary movements have been thoroughly infiltrated by government agents, the successful acts of sabotage will be carried out by single individuals. A lone saboteur must first assimilate himself into the urban community, assuming a lifestyle indistinguishable from the bourgeois members around him."
Robert De Niro reading from The Urban Guerrilla in HI, MOM!
[This coming from Brian De Palma, a filmmaker so subversive he turned the sicko punchline of GREETINGS into a completely different type of film CASUALTIES OF WAR twenty years later, and nobody noticed] -
divineangel — 19 years ago(January 17, 2007 01:26 PM)
the film starts out great with a fascinating premise, then drops it in favor of the be black baby scene which has nothing to do wit te first part. it is disturbing and the screaming bothered me as did the nonsensical ending.
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lookoutjoe75 — 18 years ago(January 29, 2008 11:37 AM)
by chrispoggiali (Sun Sep 10 2006 16:29:11) Ignore this User | Report Abuse
"'Paramilitary Activities in Urban Areas.' Because all organized revolutionary movements have been thoroughly infiltrated by government agents, the successful acts of sabotage will be carried out by single individuals. A lone saboteur must first assimilate himself into the urban community, assuming a lifestyle indistinguishable from the bourgeois members around him."
Robert De Niro reading from The Urban Guerrilla in HI, MOM!
[This coming from Brian De Palma, a filmmaker so subversive he turned the sicko punchline of GREETINGS into a completely different type of film CASUALTIES OF WAR twenty years later, and nobody noticed] -
JohnnyBlaze1986 — 17 years ago(September 22, 2008 08:25 PM)
It's a good movie. The only thing that I didn't like was that the ending was weak. I looked at the TV(it's on Encore on Demand now) and as soon as he said "Hi, Mom" and the credits showed, I was like "That's it?! WTF?!" It was like that during the "Be Black Baby" scene too. I thought it was some real thing he was filming(YES I know he was the cop in the scene too, but sometimes low budget movies used the same actors in other roles too.) and then come to find out it was a play.
I don't understand the complaining about how disgusting it is. The only turn-off was the swerve and the ending because it came out of nowhere. Then again, I'm used to things like that. I watch Raw.
"What's Your Damage?"
-Heathers