User reviews

"Violence and Flesh" is an early Eighties Brazilian skin-flick that actually begins with a title which translates as "Strictly Prohibited to Minors Under 18". I don't think I've ever seen that in a movie before. Obviously on TV movies would have ratings that appeared before they began, but this is actually part of the movie itself.

The movie opens with a group of crooks digging something up and killing a guy. The gunshot appears to awaken a young woman, bare breasted, with her lesbian lover beside her. The crooks are shown setting fire to a car. The car burns for quite a while. Probably the most expensive scene in the whole movie, the filmmakers wanted to get their money's worth, I guess.

One of the women is experiencing shame over her lesbian relationship, saying that her mother says all sins are punished by violence.

A young man dances around on the beach wearing a skimpy bathing suit that looks like panties.

Another woman, naked, is then shown having sex, with a man this time.

If you haven't read it in the plot description, you have probably already guessed that the crooks are on a collision course with the lesbians.

The girl was obviously correct when she siad she thought her lesbianism might lead to violent retribution. If you had never seen a movie before, you might not have picked up that this was obvious foreshadowing. However, it makes you wonder what the filmmakers think about this. Are they trying to say that the retribution is deserved?

More people arrive at the besieged beach house, who are also soon taken hostage. The people have an uninteresting conversation about politics and crime.

The crooks force a woman to get up on a table and dance, and she does this while stripping, without even being told to!

The movie also features male-on-male rape, which doesn't often occur in grindhouse home invasion flicks.

In one scene, the crooks quibble over who they will rape next, and one of the women actually volunteers. We are treated to a sex scene which doesn't look like rape at all.

One of the crooks goes out and discovers yet more naked women frolicking in the sea. He has no trouble having sex with one, but their encounter, belatedly, turns violent. It's like the filmmakers wanted the movie to just be called "Flesh". The "Violence" part is an afterthought. Did they add that just to distinguish it from a run-of-the-mill porno?

Many scenes take place in a room with movie posters on the walls behind the actors. You can see posters for "Belle de Jour" and "Rosemary's Baby".

The movie has more dialogue than it needs to, and none of it establishes any of the people on-screen with discernible personalities.

You can't even tell which of the men are the bad guys - if that's even what they're supposed to be. It appears one of the ladies falls in love with her captor - if that's what he is.

The movie seems to remember its set-up at the end, when out-of-uniform 'police' arrive and we get a few barely violent scenes, and even a ridiculous suicide.

And then it's over.

This one of only three Brazilian "pornochachadas" (basically delirious combinations of wild telenovela soap opera and softcore porn) to be legitimately released in the English language. I don't know that it's the most outrageous, but it's definitely the least socially redeeming. There are no social messages here, just flat-out, unapologetic exploitation.

The plot involves a trio of criminals who run across a porno movie set and inflict abuse and humiliation, mostly of the sexual kind, on the cast and crew. It sounds like "Last House on the Left", but the victims in "Last House on the Left" were sympathetic. These characters are completely un-rapeable because they're sexual caricatures, who are having non-stop hot sex before the criminals show up and are only going to incorporate the three miscreants into the general hedonism. You simply CANNOT rape and humiliate these people because they obviously enjoy every minute of it. That may sound sexist or misogynist, but one of the willing (and enthusiastic) rape victims is actually a young pretty-boy male who gets forcibly sodomized by one of the bi-curious criminals. This strange bit of homoeroticism gives this a distinctly Brazilian flavor, which sets it apart from an Italian film or a Japanese "pink" film, both of which delve into similar very un-PC territory, but are much too homophobic to indulge in something like this.

One reason to seek this out (besides enjoying the sensation of your lower jaw regularly hitting the floor) is Helena Ramos, the hottest woman and by far the best actor in this thing. She would go on to star in a number of other "chadas" like "The Chick's Ability" and "Mulher, Mulher" and (although she was much less prolific) I consider her the Edwige Fenech of Brazil. This isn't the best "chada", or even the best Helena Ramos "chada", but it's definitely worth a look

Three criminals escape from prison and break in a seaside house to wait for the getaway boat. They subdue four aspirant actresses and three men and rape and torture them. One of the escapees is an idealistic political prisoner that falls in love for Letícia. When the violent Jorge kills a woman camped on the beach, the police investigate the area.

"Violência na Carne" (meaning violence in the flesh) is a silly pretext for sexual assault and violence, exposing naked women in humiliation. The story is stupid and the tragic romance between Letícia (Helena Ramos's character) and the political prisoner is ridiculous. My vote is two.

Title (Brazil): "Violência na Carne" ("Violence in the Flesh")