CINEMA'S TAKE ON SEXUAL VIOLENCE\Filmmakers defend on-screen rape, but criticism persists.

Byline: Beth Pinsker Dallas Morning News

Glimpse the terror in Jessica Lange's eyes after she's been raped at knifepoint by Tim Roth in "Rob Roy." Watch Sean Penn's steely gaze crumble as he's strapped to a table, about to be executed for sexually assaulting and murdering a young couple in "Dead Man Walking." Study Elisabeth Shue's battered visage - and the fear-stricken look of her young tormentor - after she's gang-raped in "Leaving Las Vegas."

Those images illuminate the horror and consequences of rape - and the terrifying power it generates on screen.

Not since Jodie Foster won the 1988 Best Actress Oscar for "The Accused," in which she played a rape victim put through the paces by the justice system, has sexual violence been a primary topic among the shiny, happy crowds at the Academy Awards.

But this year's nominees tap into that power like never before. Roth, Penn and Shue are nominated, as are the directors of "Dead Man Walking" (Tim Robbins) and "Leaving Las Vegas" (Mike Figgis). Also up for statuettes are the foreign film "Antonia's Line," about two family members raped by one man, and the year's nomination king, "Braveheart," the story of a renegade Scot who first lashes out against the government when his new wife is in danger of being raped.

Yet Hollywood's increasing fascination with sexual violence isn't all award-worthy. While politicians vilify sex and violence in Hollywood, rape scenes in movies ranging from "Priest" to "Kids" to "Showgirls" have run the gamut from the socially relevant to the merely gratuitous to the grossly exploitive.

"The fact is that rape happens every six minutes," says Shue. "I think that's why it's starting to infiltrate movies so much, because it's really part of our world, and it's a part of our world that we never really wanted to look at before. It's the ultimate violence."

So what impact does this wave of reel-life sexual violence have on real life?

"Our studies indicate that desensitization to fictionalized rape scenes carried over to one's perception of real victims of violence, real women who were real rape victims," says Edward Donnerstein, a psychology professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who studies the effects of media violence. "People would see less injury and less suffering in a real rape victim after exposure to this type of material."

"Leaving Las Vegas" director Figgis takes that to heart. "I think rape is voyeuristic, pornographic and wrong," he says. "It's an excuse for the worst kind of male-dominated sexual violence."

But he included the rape scene in his film, he says, because it was an important part of the uncompromisingly dark novel he adapted - the late John O'Brien's semiautobiographical exploration of an alcoholic drinking himself to death and the prostitute who loves him to the end.

In the film, Shue's prostitute, Sera, is gang-raped by a group of teens. Figgis agonized about how to portray the violence in a way that showed the emotional turmoil of the victim.

"It's the most difficult editing ... getting some kind of humanity," he says. "Where the scene took place in the book, it would have made the film unwatchable. It was almost completely without reason. So I moved it and gave it a reason: that Sera, having fallen in love, lost her ability to defend herself."

The scene is viewed through the hazy lens of a video camera that the boys use to film their brutalization of Sera. Focusing mainly on the faces of the victim and the perpetrators, and spinning wildly around the room, it becomes a dizzying array of closeups.

"Mike was very clear in showing that the boys are victims, too," Shue says. "He has that really wonderful shot that holds on that boy's face, and you really see that this guy is going to be destroyed by the event, just like I have been.

"And he also never revealed any part of my body during that scene, and I really respect him for that. It was a rape of images, and not of taking my body and desecrating it in any way."

Figgis adds rather bluntly: "On a crude level, I would hope that no man ever got an erection watching it."

"Showgirls" director Paul Verhoeven says the camera angles and tricky editing used by Figgis are the tools that allow contemporary directors to show violence in more graphic detail than ever before.

"I think the sophisticated ways we can portray things on screen - which we use for any category, but also for violence - has pushed filmmakers to describe violence in sounds and images in a less elliptic direction," says Verhoeven, whose NC-17-rated, critically panned film included a brutal rape of a supporting character.

Many viewers were offended by his approach. Says Shue: "I was really shocked at the way it was handled in 'Showgirls.' I think when rape is handled that way - in a cheap way, in a way that kinds of tugs at audiences' emotions - that's really irresponsible."

Donnerstein, the media violence expert, says the problem is context: "Unfortunately, many times graphic images of rape are juxtaposed with a lot of 'sexuality.' That reinforces a lot of stereotypes. One has to really ask the question of, 'Is rape there for the hell of just being there? Is it valuable to something about the characters?' "

Yet, he adds, not all images of rape produce negative effects. "Many images of violence can be pro-social, can teach messages about violence," he says. But he puts sexual violence into a separate category: You can't just depict rape as unsavory, he says; it requires a higher degree of explanation to be beneficial.

Margaret Lazarus, director of the documentary "Rape Culture," says repeatedly viewing these acts is damaging in itself. "My feeling is that the more violence we observe, the more paranoid our worldview," she says.

One recent example is John Schlesinger's January flop "Eye for an Eye," which used a rape and murder as a central element. "Rape is a violent act," the director says, "and I don't think it's one that should be glossed over and made as a piece of entertainment ... unless it's in some way required."

Lazarus scoffs. "Everyone claims intent," she says. "What you really have to look at is effect. Was the rape part of smooth-flowing action in which you sort of went along with it and dehumanized the people it was happening to, and you came away at the end with the worldview where rape is an expected scenario?"

The answer to making films that deal responsibly with rape may just be a matter of some critical thinking while a film's still in the planning stages, experts say.

"There are lots of folks who can help - rape counselors and women's groups who are well aware of the research on myths and stereotypes," says Donnerstein. "That's not censoring or regulating. It's just saying, 'You can do it in a different way and it can be beneficial instead of nonbeneficial.' But there's so much research out there to help, that not utilizing it is a problem."

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Photo (1) Jessica Lange's character in "Rob Roy" is raped in the film by Tim Roth, who earned an Academy Award nomination for his role, one of several for films that tackle the subject of sexual violence. (2) The rape of Nomi (Elizabeth Berkley), shown in "Showgirls" with her strip club employer Al (Robert Davi), drew much criticism, and helped earn the controversial film its NC-17 rating. (3) "Rape is a violent act, and I don't think it's one that should be glossed over and made as a piece of entertainment ... unless it's in some way required," says director John Schlesinger, whose "Eye for an Eye" starred Kiefer Sutherland as a rapist-murderer and Sally Field as his young victim's vengeful mother. (4) Actress Elisabeth Shue praises the way director Mike Figgis handled her rape scene in "Leaving Las Vegas" "It was a rape of images, and not of taking my body and desecrating it in any way," she says. (5) Jodie Foster won an Oscar in 1988 for her portrayal of a rape victim put through the paces of the court system in "The Accused."