The Brute

Sarah Douglas is a model married to urbane, upper middle class Julian Glover, who also happens to beat her up at seemingly arbitrary intervals (the film opens with him waking her up from a deep sleep by beating her with a belt). She thinks he needs therapy, but when he refuses and his behavior becomes increasingly erratic, she leaves him and takes refuge in the flat of her photographer friend Bruce Robinson (yeah, the writer/director of "Withnail and I") and his girlfriend.

This is a really strange film. On the one hand, it seems to be a fairly well-meaning depiction of spousal abuse focusing on the difficulty women have dealing with police and a court system that's stacked against them. Glover is a fairly crazy and outrageous example of a domestic abuser (at one point he suddenly puts on her clothes and chases her, and he later tries to brand her), but the film also depicts a working class couple with an abusive husband who is far from outrageous and really disturbing in his casual violence. The film uses this second couple to highlight that while Douglas has a lot of resources and can leave fairly easily, many women do not have this luxury.

But ... this film is also a sexploitation film. There's a truly heroic amount of nudity in this film and some moderately explicit sex scenes, a lot of this involves Douglas. (When Douglas is fleeing the initial assault in, her breasts tumble out of her nightgown)

Speaking charitably, this film was made during a particularly difficult period in the British film industry, so I'm pretty sure that the sex angle was needed to sell a film with a particularly difficult subject matter (one not really dealt with yet in American films). Still, it makes for a pretty odd and discordant experience.

This may have been the feminist icon movie of the seventies in its portrayal of IPV, however, these days, it portrays it very clumsily with lots of nudity from the delightful Sarah Douglas.

I have so many questions. I know Why would a model put up with spousal abuse? Did she have no other choices?

Why did she stay with him after he cross dresses.

Why is there so much nudity? Was it supposed to be a movie for married couples? The feminist angle for her, the bewbs for him?

Why is the working class couple and their story with brutal IPV so casually given with no ramifications?

In the end it is a hodgepodge of ideas that is very much of its day.

The Brute is written and directed by Gerry O'Hara. It stars Julian Glover, Sarah Douglas, Roberta Gibbs, Bruce Robinson, Suzanne Stone, Kenneth Nelson, Jenny Twigge and Nicholas Barnes. Music is by Kenneth V. Jones and cinematography by Dennis C. Lewiston.

Model Diane Shepherd (Douglas) is emotionally stuck in a violent marriage to her husband Tim (Glover), who in his constant paranoia accuses her of infidelity. Finally having enough, she finds shelter with photographer Mark (Robinson) and his girlfriend Carrie (Stone). Meeting up with another abused wife, Millie (Twigge), Diane begins to find hope for the future, but then Tim informs her that if she doesn't come back to him, he will see to it that he gains custody of their young son and make it impossible for her to see him freely.

Tricky subject matter inevitably invokes tricky human reactions, something writer and director Gerry O'Hara knows only too well. Given the "X" certificate upon its release in the UK, the film was promptly vilified by most critics and caused uproar in press and women's group circles. It seems that back in 1977 the issue of domestic abuse should not be put up as a filmic subject. Things didn't help that the marketing department played it up as a horror movie, something O'Hara wasn't aiming for, whilst some mischievous critics angled it as sensationalist soft-core pornography!

Viewed now, and it's become something of a rare movie, there's flaws aplenty for sure, but one of them isn't being sensationalist for sensationalist's sake. Tonally the picture is all over the place, one minute it's grabbing you by the throat and shaking you, the next it's almost like we have been transported into some swanky kitchen sink drama. In fact quite early on it gets a little bit sketchy as to where its heart is, but once Diane makes the decision to leave Teddy (how inappropriately cuddly a name can be eh?!), and we get brought into Millie's awful world (Twigge excellent) then pic finds its rhythm and makes telling and dramatic points.

The violence here is tame by today's standards, unsurprisingly of course, but it's still terrifying, especially with the Millie scenes, but I reiterate, this is not a horror movie per se. Don't seek this out if you are looking for something like The Stepfather, this is a social concern movie about horror inflicted domestically, there is a big difference. Lead cast members are more than up to the task of bringing the story home safely, though some of the support work is decidedly amateurish, and those irked by PC issues in movies are likely to draw back their bow and arrows ready to fire off a poisonous dart.

A journalist friend of mine went to a special educational double bill screening of The Brute and The Burning Bed (Farrah Fawcett TV movie) in the early 90s. She said that at the end of The Brute the audience applauded and it was a hot-bed of debate in the bar afterwards. I didn't feel like clapping myself when I watched it yesterday, I felt exhausted yet strangely uplifted. You see here's the thing, it's all in the finale, in its hopeful denouement, and with the realisation this is not about The Brute of the title, this is about the women. Very much so. No masterpiece is this, but a very smart and misunderstood piece of cinema. 7/10

A difficult film with some nasty moments but then is hardly surprising with a title like The Brute. Gerry O'Hara worked in the business most of his life and between the 50s and 60s worked up to assistant director with such as, Otto Preminger, Carol Reed, Tony Richardson and Laurence Oliver. In1963 he was director for the first That Kind of Girl (1963) and was a sexual titillation while moralising about the dangers of STDs and later The Pleasure Girls (1965) written by O'Hara and directed with a swinging 60s scene. He made more films and then came up with his new one of The Brute and written and directed but never had much of an audience. It is a strange and is surely exploitation with the film at the opening with the most terrible of her husband burst into the middle of the night and drunk beats her savagely. There is another scene later on and she tries help. The film then becomes more of how it is the bad about men.

Back when cable TV was new (early 1980s) some of the movie channels were airing obscure British films like this to fill time slots. Most of the them (like this one) were pretty good. It deals with Diana Shepherd (Sarah Douglas) being routinely beaten by her sadistic husband Teddy (Julian Glover). She realizes she can't deal with it anymore and leaves...but Teddy won't let her have their child Timmy.

The beatings themselves are (pretty obviously) faked but this does deal with an touchy subject matter with taste and intelligence. This is much better than the TV movies over here dealing with the same subject back then. The acting is good across the board and it does have a happy and believable ending. No great shakes but it's stayed with me for almost 30 years! Recommended.