Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist (Audio Review)
Posted by Jay C on April 30th, 2007
Filed under: Audio Review, Reviews
This weekend I sat down with some good friends to watch Kirby Dick’s (This Film is Not Yet Rated, Chain Camera) ‘Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist’. I don’t think any of us had any idea what we were getting into, (well okay, maybe I did a little) and much to our suprise, we were treated by visions of sharp metal objects being stabbed through genetalia and phlegmy, wet cough montages. But really, what can you expect from a film that details the life of Bob Flanagan, a performance artist who spent much of his life using S&M to battle the symptoms of cystic fibrosis. Needless to say, I think this reviews guest was wishing he hadn’t passed on watching World Trade Centre. But really, is Nic Cage with a moustache and bad brooklyn accent much better then a metal sphere being forced into the anus of a naked man?
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YHBT on 
April 30th, 2007 20:40
eek!
Does it actually go through the shaft? Stapling the scrotum I can handle, but not that… I have a hard time handling fictional torture, let alone real torture - selfinflicted or not!
Thanks for the warning.
April 30th, 2007 21:27
No, it doesn’t go through the shaft.
IT GOES THROUGH THE HEAD.
June 24th, 2007 09:31
I find it interesting that you seem to have watched this film but missed so much of what it is about. Yes, it is about the things Bob did but it is also about his amazing struggle to live and to take control of a body that was always trying to control him. How can you watch a man dying, see him wake up for a brief moment to tell his partner how much he loves her, and then die, and not mentioned anything of the emotional part of this movie?
June 24th, 2007 11:40
Emma,
Did you actually listen to the audio review? We actually address that very moment and how it was the turning point for me for the entire film.
April 11th, 2008 10:43
I have to agree with Emma, you totally missed the point. You have to keep in mind that here is a guy who has been dying all his life, and according to doctors should have died years ago. His way of dealing with that was pain. The gross factor casts a huge shadow on that, I have to admit. But nevertheless… This Movie was to me a movie about the last days of a man trying to control his life and dance with the devil. Not about penis piercings.
Cheers