A COLUMN BY Dick Rolfe Chairman, THE DOVE FOUNDATION
LITTLETON, CO - LIFE IMITATES ART, AGAIN!
by Dick Rolfe, Chairman, The Dove Foundation
Two high school shootings seem to be tied to a graphic scene from the 1995 film, "The
Basketball Diaries" starring Leonardo DeCaprio.
In the midst of the horrible tragedy at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado,
Tuesday, April 20, 1999, the prevailing question remains -- how could this happen? There
is little doubt that the two shooters were deeply disturbed youngsters. But what were the
ingredients that pushed them over the edge? What brought them to the point where they lost
all respect for life, including their own?
The motives behind this epidemic of youth-on-youth murders are complex with no single
clear-cut determining factor, but one thing is clear. The American popular culture is
surrounding us with media messages emphasizing hopelessness, despair, violence and weird
immoral behaviors. They have virtually taken our minds hostage with endless graphic images
of bloody carnage and mayhem -- from the music of Marilyn Manson, to video games like
"Doom," to Teen Sexploitation movies like "Cruel Intentions" and
soon-to-be released, "The Hazing." Even our news coverage is exploiting the most
heinous events of our time with round-the-clock coverage. There is little argument that
our culture has, at the very least, become desensitized to the consequences of violence
and other abhorrent behaviors.
The 1995 film, "The Basketball Diaries" has been associated with the shooting
last December in West Paducah High School in Kentucky. Michael Carneal, the 14-year old
charged in the shooting of three classmates talked about seeing the movie starring teen
idol, DeCaprio repeatedly just prior committing the assassination. A dream sequence in the
film depicts the main character in a black trench coat, wildly wielding a shotgun in his
school, blowing holes in his classmates. After the real-life shootings, Carneal told
police, "It was like I was in a dream, and I woke up."
The scene at the shooting rampage in Littleton was an amazing replica of the film's dream
sequence, right down to the black trench coats and shotguns!
MGM, the film's new home video distributor as of June 30th, said they will offer a refund
to any video store that wishes to pull "The Basketball Diaries" from their
shelves. A spokesperson for MGM said they felt it was "the right thing to do, in
light of the circumstances." This borders on an admission that the movie is in some
way culpable in these two tragic situations.
Frankly, I hope that everyone in Hollywood finally heeds the nearly 6,000 independent
studies that clearly demonstrate a connection -- the depth of which is still in dispute --
between media violence and the real-life violence that is ravaging our society.
An example of insensitive news coverage was demonstrated in Littleton by Today Show's
Katie Couric when she interviewed the father of a murdered African-American athlete and
his son's friend, who also lost a sister mere hours earlier. Ms. Couric pressed the
student relentlessly with incendiary questions squeezing out all of the gory details of
the shooting -- right in front of the grieving father! When the television host's husband
died of cancer several months ago, she retreated into seclusion for nearly a month to
recover from her tragic loss. No one pursued Katie to pick at the sores of her hurt.
Journalist peers remained at a respectful distance allowing their colleague time to heal.
Speech is the threshold between thought and action. We should never take our freedom of
speech for granted, or it soon grows into license, permitting the expression of every
imaginable form of bigotry and hatred.
It is time for everyone to stop playing "Moral Limbo" and cease trying to see
how low we can go. Every constituency -- gun lobbyists, filmmakers, journalists, community
and religious leaders, and yes, especially parents -- needs to spend less time in denial
and more time making a positive contribution toward a collective solution. If we allow
this sickness in our society to continue to fester and escalate, our Freedom will be
replaced by either Anarchy or Tyranny.
Dick Rolfe is Chairman of The Dove Foundation a nonprofit organization whose mission is to encourage and promote the creation, production and distribution of wholesome family entertainment. For more information about wholesome films and videos, write: 535 E. Fulton, Suite 1A, Grand Rapids, MI 49503, or call (616)454-5021.
Return to our home page | Dick's bio | past columns
to dickrolfe@dove.org
Updated by: Scott RolfeCopyright © 1999, The Dove Foundation. All rights reserved.