This movie was a foray into the darker sides of men. It was released in the final-wave post WWII 'man hunt' era, and the midsts of human rights troubles in various parts of the world where governments tried to rule by violence. The year of its release '1984' is probably not an accident either.
Unfortunately, this movie quickly fell victim to the 'PC' culture, apparently, and with a few snips of the sissors became nothing but a hollow vision of barely believable evil.
This movie, largely because of the now 'missing' scenes, etched its message deeply upon me the first time I saw it. The second time I saw it, those scenes were gone. And they are not in either of the 2 VHS releases I have.
Playings on both pay and free TV over the past decade have cut out (at least) the first scene where the 'doctor' discusses and demonstrates the differences in torturing men vs women. Without that opening scene, many of the following scenes and much of the movie become pointless depictions of torture without the insights into the deepest 'evil that men do.'
Admittedly, even with those scenes, it was not Charles Bronson's best, yet any movie that etches itself as deeply, and as hauntingly upon the memory is worth seeing at least once, uncut.
