MovieChat Forums > The Proposition (2006) Discussion > is it possible for ANYONE to survive the...

is it possible for ANYONE to survive the flogging?

posted 13 years ago by creatorof2002
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This was a fourteen year old BOY not even a full grown MAN. I still do not understand what the charges were for him he was INNOCENT. How is it HIS fault what crimes his BROTHERS commit? I do not even think he was AWARE of it?

His sentence was a HUNDRED lashes but I think the flogger had had enough and refused to give more than forty? Either that or someone else stopped it?

I am wondering if ANYONE could survive a hundred lashes? The best bet would be a very large tough person like the bodybuilders Lou Ferrigno or Ralph Moeller?

Would a hundred lashes actually expose bone, like in the movie PASSION OF THE CHRIST? Unlike that movie this whip did not actually have metal hooks attached to it to tear off chunks of flesh it was just a leather strap but that can still break skin and draw blood. I am imagining by lash 100 the entire back being just a mass of mutilated flesh hanging off partially exposed bone.

Would internal organs like intestines and kidneys be visible by this point? I read on a religious site that the Roman floggings could sometimes do that though the lictors purposefully held back to prevent killing the victim before the crucifiction. If a person did recover (as much as is possible) from a hundred lashes would the entire back be a disfigured mess of scar tissue? with nerve and muscle damage that would cause the person to have a bad back for the rest of his life?

Also, I would assume that only MEN were allowed to be flogged like this in Australia back then? I cannot imagine anyone in this time tolerating doing this to a WOMAN?

[–] blunderbus 13 years ago

Floggings like this were not uncommon in Australia. Especially during the penal colony days. And they often did die. But not as often as you might think. There were actually guidelines. Like a doctor had to be present and you could not whip an unconscious man. There are records of some convicts there receiving literally thousands of lashes. Not all at one time. But still. They'd hang them feet off ground, whip them within an inch of of their lives, pour salt water on the back and send them off. If infection did not set up, there was a chance to live. But get this, while an Australian prisoner could get 100 lashes at a time, if you was in the British Army you could legally get 1000+ lashes!! 200 and 400 lashes could be given for even the slightest of offenses.

Also, it might be noted that you could lash a man, or hang him in Australia. But not both. And yeah, women got lashed too in the early years. Children as well. Although I do not think they got as many lashes as men did. But given that in the early years they were hanging kids 10 and 12 years old in the UK for stealing, no great leap to imagine them flogging them to death.

And yeah, it is hard to imagine..... the brutality of it.