A Certain Sacrifice

What can one say to defend a movie like "A Certain Sacrifice"? Even I, as much as I LOVED (yes, LOVED) this movie, must ask myself. As you may know from other reviews and such, Madonna has a very early role as a deathrocker who gets together with a very angry "philosopher" who left the suburbs for New York's underbelly. (I related to this on a lot of levels, so I know it's possible to say that there are some fascinating characters, events, and ideas in this ugly, little film!) Then, there's that "Raymond Hall" guy, who is quite the successful attempt at the creation of a character who is so repulsive, you just wanna get sick every time he's on screen (until he's about to be killed, then it's funny)! Anyway, Raymond is a horny, dirty IL' dude, who ends up raping Madonna in the bathroom, while loving boyfriend Dashiel (the philosopher... heh heh) waits for her to fix her make-up. The gory revenge that ensues (with the help of Madonna's Gothic sex cult, or her "family of lovers") gets cheezier and cheezier, but, thankfully, the filmmakers are well aware (they just don't give a f*ck). So... is the sound bad? YES! Is the dialogue sometimes hurtfully cheezy? YES! Is the acting terrible? Not nearly all of it. In fact, most of it was pretty damn good, even though Madonna's better acting moments were when she started to come off as a Goth castaway from a John Waters movie toward the end. (And, yes, I know John Waters doesn't have a lot of Goths in his movies, but it's the best comparison I can think of!) Anyway, is the gore very minimal and fake-looking? YES, but still it's a lovely touch! Is Madonna shown fully nude? NO, but she's shown topless several times, once even covered in the blood of her slaughtered rapist. Also: This movie MUST be seen when you're VERY intoxicated. Then it can sink right in. I've done it three times, I think I turned out alright, but my wife's head needs to stop calling me from the 'fridge. Time to listen to some more Pattnosh.... mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha! FIVE STARS (and I HATE to rate things with stars!)

In a hilariously ironic twist of events, pre-stardom Madonna (Ciccone) is the sexual target here, that of lustful New York City street-demons who paw at her whitebread innocence in this super-tacky Super-8 fiasco. Long, rambling section with Maddy in the backseat of a limo, making quasi-jaded comments about her surroundings, will tire any fan's patience, and the surreal jumble which substitutes as the finale is the most garish and garbled ten minutes of celluloid I've ever had the misfortune of sitting through. Yes, it's terrible, it's excruciating, but I rented it with this in mind and I must say it did not disappoint...

This picture is so terrible that it may actually become an underground cult classic! It can't be judged by normal-movie standards; it has to be seen as a "grab-the-camera-and-start-filming-random-events" kind of experiment - and it fails even as that. Technically, this is the worst movie I've seen since Andy Warhol's "Trash", but "Trash" had Paul Morrissey to redeem it, this has nothing (apart from its short length). (*)

1st watched 2/24/2005 - 2 out of 10(Dir-Steven Jon Lewicki): Cheap, exploitation film featuring Madonna in her first starring role??? The only reason I'm giving this movie more than 1 star is because of the business sense of the filmmakers to put this together and make money off of the Madonna name. Other than that, the film itself, is pretty much about a low-life who becomes lower and lower, up into the very end of the movie. This low-life meets the Madonna character who runs around with a gang of lovers, and basically gets involved in satanic rituals, murder, and whatever else turns them on. Even a couple nude scenes of Madonna doesn't help this from being a cheap thrown together mess of a movie.

If you don't mind watching a B-movie from the late 70's, shot on Super 8 film, with an art-student edge and poor sound, then you might dig it. One of the reasons why you might, particularly if you are a Madonna fan, is the fact that this is practically the only MOVING FOOTAGE (rather than the many still photos)that captured her before she was a star, at that very interesting period when she was twenty in New York, had only been there for a year or two, and at certain periods was nearly starving. This is a very sexual movie, but not in a conventional sense, it is chock full of simple impulse and flirts with the satanic. In short, it's just plain weird. It probably would best be described as a few steps up from a homemade film. An interesting piece of TRIVIA is that at the time this movie was being made, right before the rape scene in the coffee shop restroom, the director did something to try to up the authenticity of Madonna's acting. Director Stephen Lewicki took the actor who played her rapist aside and instructed him to rip her blouse off during the scene---- a detail Madonna had no idea about. If you look closely, there is an undeniably real sense of shock on her face during the scene, and I remember reading in some biography of hers that they used that take, that the director was pleased with the result. (Madonna wasn't harmed, just a little surprised.) Another bit of interesting TRIVIA is that among her on screen "family of lovers" were a few people she actually hung out with at the time, including Angie Smit, a dutch girl who had studied dancing with Madonna before she dropped out, and later had a brief stint in a band Madonna spent a great deal of time with, "The Breakfast Club."

This movie has some parts to it that are hilariously retarted, and are actually amusing. I was (and still am) a die-hard Madonna fan when I first saw this movie, and even I was a tad disappointed. For all you folks who aren't a real big fan of hers, I wouldn't recommend it, but on the whole, as I said, it was somewhat amusing. IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A MOVIE SHOT ON DECENT FILM, WITH ABOVE AVERAGE ACTING, YOU ARE LOOKING IN THE WRONG PLACE. THIS MOVIE IS INTERESTING AT BEST.