- Content: “Monster Crime Spree”
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What You Need To Know:
THE BRIDE! is well filmed by Actress Maggie Gylenhaal, who wrote and directed the movie. It has a couple of amazing set pieces, including a fun musical number. However, the movie tells a dark, iconoclastic, amoral, misanthropic story of radical feminism combined with a contradictory unconventional love story. It also has extreme violence, lewd behavior and lots of strong foul language. As a result, the movie doesn’t quite work and has a confused moral foundation.
Content:
Very strong Romantic, radical feminist, misanthropic and rather ugly worldview posits that American society and all but a few men are pretty much totally corrupt so women must rise up and rebel and refuse to take part in reforming society (an iconoclastic sub-culture of women is created and seem to totally withdraw form society, even though one major female character wants to join the male rulers as a police detective and reform the police and society), plus the movie strangely contradicts its amoral iconoclastic and feminist spirit by promoting the romance between the lead male and female characters, even though they go on an iconoclastic crime spree for kicks, sort of like Bonnie & Clyde (the audience at the screening we attended clapped during one of the movie’s most feminist moments and clearly enjoyed it when a would-be rapist got his just desserts), plus woman misquotes Thomas Jefferson’s motto, saying, “Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God,” but she says it in the context of the movie’s feminist worldview;
At least 53 obscenities (including at least 38 “f” words), two strong profanities using the name Jesus, two GD profanities, and eight light profanities (such as OMG and OG);
Some extreme violence in some scenes such as a character repeatedly stomps on the head of an attempted rapist, a character is shot with many bullets, another character is shot in the head, and a woman falls down some stairs and hits her head and body multiple times and breaks her leg until she lying still and dead at the bottom, and strong violence in other scenes such as man thrown off a train, and he fatally hits his head on a tree stump on the ground, female character shoots a policeman in self-defense after shooting the gun in the air and over the heads of people and policemen at a fancy party that the police invade, two other policemen are shot dead, two men assault and try to rape a woman but the man who loves her comes to her rescue and kills them, and a mad female scientist says she brought her husband back to life because she loved him, but he wasn’t the same person, so she euthanized him;
Depicted fornication in one scene, implied fornication in one or two other scenes, attempted implied oral sex in another scene, a cop gropes a woman in a traffic stop, and women are shown kissing in two or three party scenes;
Brief upper female nudity in one scene and upper male nudity in several other scenes, pus brief rear male nudity in one or two scenes;
Some alcohol use and drunkenness;
Smoking, but no drugs; and,
Police detective admits he was corrupt and worked for the mob in Chicago, two people illegally hop a freight train, and 1936 Chicago is wracked by gangsters.
More Detail:
The movie opens with FRANKENSTEIN author Mary Shelley in Limbo or Hell saying she had another story to tell, but society wouldn’t let her tell it. Cut to 1936 Chicago where a party girl, named Ida, possessed by Shelly’s iconoclastic spirit, runs afoul of a gangster at a party. Two thugs take her outside. During the struggle, she falls, hitting her head multiple times on the way down a long stairway.
Cut to Dr. Frankenstein’s monster, Frank, barging into the lab of a mad female scientist named Dr. Euphronius. He’s read about her work on reanimating dead people and demands she make a female companion for him. They dig up Ida’s corpse and bring her back to life, but Ida loses her memory during the process. Also, some of the reanimating fluid stains the side of her right cheek.
Frank tells Ida she is his bride but lost her memory in an accident. They go see a movie with Frank’s favorite actor, Ronnie Reed, and then go dancing at a nightclub. However, as they leave the club and enter an alley, two men harass Ida. When Frank tries to stop him, they knock him down and try to sexually assault her. In the ensuing fight, Frank kills them, stomping repeatedly on one of the men’s heads. As they run away from the scene, someone takes their photo, and it ends on the front page of the newspapers, because of the two dead men.
Frank tells Ida she should leave him, but she sticks by his side, and they hop a freight train to New York. On the way, a security guard finds them, but Frank knocks him off the train and, unknown to them, he fatally hits his head on a tree stump.
A Chicago detective named Jake and his assistant, Myrna, investigate the case of the two dead men. The death of the train guard leads them to follow Frank and Ida’s trail to New York.
In New York, Frank and Ida try to attend another screening of a Ronnie Reed movie, but people see their faces and run out of the theater screaming. They wind up crashing a high-class party where they pose as catering servants. Ronnie Reed happens to be at the party. When Frank tells Reed what a big fan he is, the scene is a bit awkward.
A funny interlude occurs when everyone at the party starts dancing to Irving Berlin’s “Puttin’ on the Ritz,” and Frank leads the crowd in the dance. This homage to the famous comical dance scene in Mel Brooks’ YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN is interrupted when the police arrive and try to arrest Frank and Ida. Ida gets hold of a gun and things go south when one of the police officers gets nervous and gets ready to shoot Ida, but she fires first.
Frank and Ida escape and go on a violent crime spree. Jake and Myrna continue to follow their trail. However, so does an assassin hired by the Chicago mob. Meanwhile, their exploits attract a following among disaffected young single women. The women start copying Ida’s look and behavior.
THE BRIDE! is well filmed by Actress Maggie Gylenhaal, who wrote and directed the movie. It has a couple of amazing set pieces, the best of which is the “Puttin’ on the Ritz” number. In fact, the rest of the movie could use more fun scenes like that. However, the movie tells a dark, iconoclastic, amoral, misanthropic story of radical feminism combined with a contradictory unconventional love story, extreme violence, lewd behavior, and lots of strong foul language. As a result, the movie doesn’t quite work and has a confused moral foundation.
THE BRIDE! has a very strong Romantic, radical feminist, misanthropic and rather ugly worldview. The movie posits that American society and all, but a few men are pretty much totally corrupt. So, women must rise up and rebel and even refuse to take part in reforming society. Thus, during the movie the bride develops an iconoclastic following and an amoral sub-culture of women who seem to totally withdraw from society. That said, the woman who helps the white detective wants to join the male rulers as a police detective and reform the police and society. Strangely, however, THE BRIDE! also contradicts its amoral iconoclastic, radical feminist spirit by promoting the romance between Frank and the Bride, Ida, even though they go on an iconoclastic crime spree, sort of like Bonnie & Clyde. Despite this, the movie’s ending doesn’t endorse marriage, much less the concept of a happy matrimony.
