Ultra-Violence, Reality, and Comedy in The Untold Story

To me, the most striking fact about The Untold Story is that it is based upon a real massacre. Upon learning this, I became even more upset by the film than I had been initially, but I got to thinking--don't I like movies based on awful, real-life violence? Of course there are other horror films such as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Psycho which claim to be based on real-life events (in each of these cases, the events in question were crimes of Wisconsin native Ed Gein), but what about Bonnie & Clyde, or even In Cold Blood? For some reason, the violence in The Untold Story and its relation to reality made me more uncomfortable than these other films--and for that reason, I had disliked the movie.

Realizing that it could not merely be the violence and reality itself that had upset me, I decided it must be the confluence of reality, violence, and humor that felt somehow incorrect. I think that one of Prince's points is relevant here, as he writes that "it seems likely that representation of violence on screen that are unrelentingly horrifying, nauseating, or disgusting will fail to attract viewers, in comparison with films that provide aesthetic pleasures." I think this is an important factor of the equation, especially with regard to nausea and disgust. It wasn't so much that the violence of the film shocked me, it was more the case that certain aspects of it were nauseating because they were presented in a humorous--which is definitely not helped by the fact that the film is ostensibly based upon true events. One of the worst offenders in this regard was a scene relatively early in the film which depicts the rape and subsequent murder of a woman at the hands of our protagonist. In this scene, there is uncomfortable confluence of "real violence" and "funny violence" (by which I mean cartoon violence, e.g. Jerry hitting Tom in the head with a mallet). The act of rape is a rather taboo subject to depict onscreen, especially in such detail, but what I think makes this scene so horrible is its comedic approach to the material.

This is not really a logical response that I can quantify. After all, I like several movies which depict or even centrally feature all forms of violence (including rape), I also like films in which the violence is based upon real violence, and I also like films where the violence is employed for comedic effect. But for some reason, the congregation of extreme violence, with comedy, with reality was quite disturbing to me. Although, it is not that the film was not aestheticized, quite the contrary. It was, rather, the film's specific kind of aesthetic approach, the making-fun-of purportedly real and extreme violence, was not something I could palette enjoyably.

I wonder if anyone else had a similar response to the film.