I think that's an oversimplification, because of how delicately the aftereffects of Lisbeth's rape are handled. In a pure exploitation revenge movie, the implication is generally that the vengeance resolves whatever problems the act of rape created in the first place- it satisfies the character, so it satisfies the audience. In Dragon Tattoo, Lisbeth seems traumatized long afterwards (she certainly doesn't readily leap into bed with Blomkvist, and on her first meeting with him she's clearly physically leaping away from every touch- she engages him sexually only when it's clear that she can maintain complete power over the encounter), and her vengeance has little to do with the process through which she recovers her sense of self. It's what she thinks to be the correct thing to do, but it's not the cathartic explosion I would expect in a movie whose goal was to wallow in the audience's bloodlust.Brian C wrote:Well ... duh. I wouldn't say that the rape scene is played for titillation, exactly, but knives has this sort of audience manipulation pegged pretty clearly: you get the crowd's collective dander up by showing something awful, and then you deliver the payoff with a scene of grisly revenge. There's nothing thoughtful or complex or socially relevant or anything about it - it's just playing to the crowd in a very base way.
I think you're reducing the sensitivity of the movie's depiction of Lisbeth's rapist, too. He's repellent on their first meeting, surely, but not particularly because he's physically ugly- he's more or less average looking- nor because he's an overtly leering and smacking pervert, but because of the insinuating way he manipulates his power over a woman with no recourse, and our empathy for her position. It's totally appropriate that the film doesn't do more to make what Lisbeth does seem worse than what he does, because it damned well isn't- his abuse represents the abuse of the powerful and the privileged, and her revenge is problematic only insofar as it may be read as being 'just as bad' as what he did.