User Reviews

Sad movie that unfortunately has been a reality in our own country. I think the reason she screams so much is because it's blatantly obvious the entire town is blaming the victim and trying to ignore the "situation" until it disappears. This is the number one reason why most rapes go unreported. It was her trying desperately to hope there was someone, somewhere who had to believe her and all her cries fell on the deaf ears of her own neighbors. It takes incredible courage to fight a war like this completely alone. She found the will to keep fighting her battle even with the possible consequences she feared would come to life. The fear didn't stop her. And it did work, just with a wrong and tragic ending. Someone did listen. Someone who had to be an outsider who wasn't tainted the way the whole town was. Someone who could believe her and confirm she wasn't crazy and indeed a victim while being objective. Someone who could help end the repugnant version of morals and normalcy the town live their lives by hopefully exposing the horror these two girls went through

***SPOILER*** Like the films title suggests it's about the shame of being forcible put upon and raped with the victim holding herself, instead of her attackers, responsible for it. It's when Diana Cadell, Amanda Donohoe, was forced off the road by an out of control lumber truck and needed to get her motorbike fixed that she ended up in the little out of the way town of Sawaya. It's there that the young men seem to have no respect or pity for women who've been raped and humiliated as well as their family members. That's because they for the most part were the ones responsible for doing that.

Staying over at auto mechanic Tim Curtis, Dean Stockwell, place since all the hotels in town were filled up Diana saw first hand what the town's out of control home boys were involved in. That's when Tim's teenage daughter Lizzie, Fairuza Balk, went out on her first date with her cute boyfriend Andrew Rudolph, Wyatt Orr, to see a movie together with her good friend Lorna Rainey,Shelley-Lynn Owens. Coming back more then two hours late Lizzie was traumatized over hen she went through; And it wasn't because of the movie that she together with Andrew saw. The two girls were drugged and gang raped by a number of Andrews friends with Andrew and Lorna's date Steven, Gabe Khouth, too drunk to do anything to stop them.

It's Diana who gets Lizzie to not only overcome the shame of being raped and made to look like the town tramp by her rapists but press charges against her attackers. This put Diana on the hit-list of those in town who felt that they boys who attacked Lizzie were only doing what was natural to them in sowing their oats with Lizzie purposely turning them on to do it! In fact as it turned out Lizzie as well as Lorna were brutally gang raped by the boys lead by their leader Danny Fiske, Dan Gauthire,after they were slipped some kind of date drug in their beer that made them both drunk and immobilized.

Now with Lizzie willing to testify against Danny and his friends in a court of law she together with her dad Tim and Diana were given the business in both dropping the charges against them and in the case of Diana leaving town as soon her motorbike was fixed. And as it soon turned out the business was a lot more violent and destructive, to both the victims and victimizers, then anyone including Danny could have imagined.

***SPOILERS**** Shocking movie with a very depressing ending abut rape and its aftermath and how trying to both play it down and cover it up can destroy the victims of rape more then the act itself. Lizzie and her good friend Diana did the right thing in bringing to the surface the brutal gang rape perpetrated on them. It was the town of Sawaya's non action and in many ways holding Lizzie responsible for what in fact happened to her that lead to the very sad and tragic ending in the movie. An end that could have been prevented if the law was allowed to take its course and put Lizzie and Lorna's attackers out of circulation and behind bars before that could commit another crime!

When I learned that Shame had been remade by the Americans I jumped online to watch it. I grew up with the original of this flick (Aussie, 88, with Deborra-Lee Furness as the lead)having seen it on numerous occasions I couldn't pass up checking out this version. I went into watching this remake with an open mind as mates had said it was basically word for word & scene for scene with the biggest difference being the accents. All I can say is... WRONG!!!!! While the lines are said and the scenes are very close, I call weak effort on this. It is a tough topic to watch but this version just doesn't have the grit of the original. As odd as it sounds, it's too clean, too polished. It feels like a cheap copy. It's a topic that's been done before and in this remake the actors have done a decent job but none of them have managed to make the characters really stand out from all the other similar ones. With this version I was left feeling only a shadow of what I normally feel from this story. Shame will make you brim with rage & it will break your heart on multiple levels! There is no pretty ending! But if you want to see this flick and take the emotional hammering then I recommend you go with the original.

Diana is an attorney from a big city, on vacation when her motorcycle is run off the road in a small town. She is immediately harassed and mocked when asking at a bar where she can get repairs made, and finally goes to the house of Mr. Curtis, who fixes that sort of thing. She spends the night on a sofa in his garage and overhears his daughter Lizzie come home after being brutally raped by a group of older guys.

The next morning Diana goes out to eat and is again bothered, by the guys who raped Lizzie this time. A local factory worker tells them to leave her alone and they begin beating him up until she rescues him. When she realizes he needs medical attention she offers to drive him to the hospital but he says he has to go to work and Diana learns how bad the workers at the factory have it. The factory owner's son is the head of the gang that raped Lizzie. Finally he gets fed-up and complains, but is immediately fired. Diana threatens to sue the factory and mentions the rape, but the town is against her for interfering because they don't want to lose their jobs. Diana decides to stick around a while to try and get justice for the people of the town, but then realizes she may have gotten Lizzie into a lot of danger.

Shame is a remake but is a great movie all the same. It was great seeing actress Lee Garlington again; she was in a similar film called When No One Would Listen. I loved the main piano theme song, the Canadian scenery and the entire story. It has its sad moments, to the point where Lizzie is murdered and her best friend, also raped, is beat up by her own father for the crime. This film points out the crimes that happen every day in these small towns though; for example in Oromocto New Brunswick, rape and pedophilia happens all the time on the army base and is often covered up. It was great to see a film that raises awareness, as well as raising awareness of unfair working conditions at factories.It's an amazing movie, watch it if you ever get the chance!

The story is compelling, but the ending is unsatisfying. I didn't understand why Lizzie had to die. Her death did prompt the other girl who was raped to testify, but then it was still one testimony that would be heard in court, which is what would have happened without Lizzie's death. I also agree with other comments that Lizzie did shout a lot of her lines in the film. It just made her look demented. Must be why they picked her for the villain in "The Craft".

Ultimately, you never find out what happens to the rapist's which leaves you feeling like you just spent two hours watching this movie for nothing.