Raw Deal: A Question of Consent

I couldn't sit through the whole film. It's really disturbing that something like this can happen around Year 2000. I'm not talking about rape. It happens every day. I'm talking about the failed prosecution (under whose administration...), the way some really twisted frat boys got away when the crime is recorded on tape. If the woman's so below them, like the guy kept saying, then why did they hire her? If her "stripper" profession's so disgusting, who does the hiring? If they were honest on tape about smearing her character (calling her "crackwhore" etc), why did they also call what they were doing "rape" in the same sentence? Again, what's horrifying is not the crime itself, but that people can watch it and think it's not. How far have we gone in the last four decades? In this day and age.

In what other movie could you watch graphic sexual activity and still not understand at the end whether the sex was consensual or not? This movie is as provocative a film as you're likely to ever see, making every viewer question their preconceived notions of what rape and consent are. Along with Memento, no other movie in years has left me with more questions after the film is over. Unfortunately, unlike Memento, more and more viewings probably won't help our understanding of what we saw on screen. Some of the people involved aren't talking, and those who do probably all think they are entirely truthful and right. Don't be put off by how graphic it is...see it when it comes out.

This is a very thought provoking film. It disturbs the idea that the justice system can simply discover the truth of what happened and shows clearly how instead the system constructs the truth of what happened. By juxtaposing video footage of a rape with extracts from interviews with the survivor and a friend of the attacker a complex picture emerges that forced me to rethink 'consent'.

I think it is important to see this film but it is very hard to watch. You are literally seeing someone being raped.

Firstly, I feel wrong adding a commentary to what is a depiction f someone's real life misfortune. It's not like this doco was some Hollywood production - it was real life. Grading something like this feels inappropriate. I'd also like to say that I find the thought very troubling that anyone could sit through the entire documentary and not feel as though they were witnessing something so deeply, deeply wrong. It is so clearly evident that you are witnessing a rape. I do wonder how others who can't see that in this movie would go about defining the act of engaging in sex.. I didn't know that it required the male to over-power and actually pin down the female. I didn't know that slapping and gouging at eyes was an acceptable part of having sex. I feel that the footage depicted in this documentary is disturbingly graphic. My assumption is that this documentary would have been a last ditch attempt available to the victim so as to seek some form of justice. I was left feeling such incredible sympathy for Lisa and a feeling of violently despising Tony Marzullo and his fello fratmates. Really, they should have a 300lb bloke do the same thing to them!

I found this to be a very serious and deep piece. I did not find the material to be needlessly graphic but I admit it was hard to watch at times. This documentary shares a very introspective look at politics and law. I was most impressed to find audience members debating the films' themes as it played.