Let's Talk About Sex and Connections to Other Films

Today we watched A History of Violence, a film that chronicles the life of a man from an idyllic All-American small town -- a man who it turns out happens to have a much different past than anyone in his community (where "people take care of their own") knows.

This film definitely looks different than a lot of what we've seen thus far (The Godfather, Ride with the Devil, Dead Presidents, and Traffic) in class. So, there are several questions we have to deal with, including the two below.

We ask that you respond to these questions with the same level of thoughtfulness and thoroughness that you have during the past week. Here goes:

1) How does this film connect to the other films that we've seen these past few weeks? Themes/Issues? Characters? Community? Critical stance on "America"?

2) Moreover, we've seen some fairly graphic sex scenes, both of which are very different. First, the film shows the characters involved enacting a sexual fantasy they have. Later, the film depicts a scene that seems very disturbing because it looks like a form of rape. The film asks us as viewers to engage -- arguably quite uncomfortably -- with these characters in these moments and their actions.

So, what do we make of this? Why does the film feature these two scenes and what does it say about the film?

Looking forward to reading these thoughtful and thorough responses.