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MOVIE
VIOLENCE: THEN AND NOW – part 2
By Dick Rolfe
This is an update of an article I wrote seven years
ago in 1997. It demonstrates the fact that things have not
improved much in this area, in spite of thousands of studies
that document the harmful effects of media violence on our
children and society in general.
The subject of excessive
violence in films is creeping into the national dialogue
again. The idea that audiences have become increasingly
desensitized toward violence appears to be more fact than
conjecture.
Movies with violent themes
bear that out by their consistent progression over the years
toward more explicit violence and bizarre behavior in an
apparent attempt to evoke some level of emotional response
from moviegoers.
In spite of Hollywood’s love
affair with violence, the box office receipts do not provide
any financial justification for releasing movies of this
type. Violent movies simply do not produce the profits that
family-friendly films do. But, facts rarely deter filmmakers
from doing what they want to do. This attitude exemplifies
the saying, “Man prefers to believe what man prefers to be
true.”
The first violent film that
literally moved an audience to an emotional response was
“The Great Train Robbery” in 1903. When the villain pointed
his phony prop gun directly into the camera, audience
members ran screaming from the theaters in terror.
In 1931, when James Cagney
starred in “Public Enemy,” a New York Times film critic
berated the picture as "sensational and incoherent, ending
in general slaughter." In fact, there were a total of eight
deaths, and every one of them took place off screen.
Compare that with the 1990
Bruce Willis film “Die Hard 2” which had 264 brutal
killings, all in front of the camera. Again in 1997, Robert
Redford and Brad Pitt starred in “Spy Game” where the body
count topped off at 212 kills. Continuing with the trend,
the 2000 Tom Cruise film, “Mission Impossible II” chalked up
567 bodies.
Another disturbing trend is
showing up in violent films over the past few years. Humor
is being introduced to inoculate the audience from the
horrors of violence. Films like “Natural Born Killers” and
“Pulp Fiction” and the recent “Kill Bill” exemplify that
trend.
The comedic elements work so
well that audiences often lose touch with the seriousness of
the crimes being committed. Many even empathize with the
criminals. A majority of audience members interviewed in
exit polls after “Natural Born Killers” felt the villains
were "somewhat justified" in their murderous acts.
Tom Cruise’s current film,
“Collateral” is billed as “a comedy thriller” co-starring
Jamie Foxx. It features a professional assassin who uses a
taxi driver to unknowingly take him from one hit to another.
Vincent [Cruise] shows no compassion or consideration for
the value of humanity, as he coldly snuffs out one life
after another.
In 1996 the NC-17 movie,
“Trainspotting” was released. Promotional copy from Miramax
(Disney) touted the film as "a violent comedy about a group
of Scottish drug addicts." According to Preview Family Movie
and TV Review, the film contains 173 obscenities and
profanities, explicit sex with male and female frontal
nudity, homosexuality, transvestitism and excessive, nonstop
violence including vomiting and people being splattered with
excrement - not to mention plenty of drug and alcohol abuse.
These are not, in my opinion, great elements for comedy.
A current film in theaters,
“Resident Evil: Apocalypse,” is based on a violent video
game. The main theme? People are expendable resources and
nothing is sacred, so anything goes. “Resident Evil” is
dominated by nonstop, graphic violence, gore and horror.
Sex-thrillers are another
phenomenon slithering into a theater near you. The technique
involves combining the sex act with murder to "heighten the
audience's sensual experience" - sort of like "snuff" films
of the 80's.
In the 1930's, Rhett Butler
shocked the audience when he gave Scarlet O'Hara a
passionate kiss in response to a slap in the face. In 1990,
“Sea of Love” starring Al Pacino was about a crazed
mysterious murderer who stabbed men with an ice pick during
sexual climax. The next step was to mix murder with
voyeurism in two Sharon Stone sex-capades, “Sliver” and
“Basic Instinct.” Following in the same genre was the 1997
film, “Crash,” an auto-erotic story of a bizarre group of
weirdoes who get their kicks by having sex during car
crashes.
In spite of these rather
depressing statistics, I'm convinced that Art does not
imitate Life - at least not to the extent that filmmakers
would have us believe. Society as a whole is far healthier
than one would assume by watching the array of films I've
mentioned here. In fact, violent movies represent a
significantly smaller portion of all releases than they did
seven years ago when I first wrote this article. Check
www.dove.org for up-to-date reviews on the latest films
coming to a theater near you.
It is important to take time
and consider more carefully what kind of entertainment we
watch, not only for the health of our own psyches. We must
also remember that our movie selections send a message to
Hollywood that they listen to closely.
With over 6,000 independent
studies proving conclusively the connection between movie
and societal violence, I'm more concerned about the impact
on our society as Life imitates Art.
Here are some valuable
resources on the subject.
Movie Violence Count and Ratings Service
http://www.scms.ca/
Media Awareness Network report on Violence in the Media
http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/violence/effects_media_violence.cfm?RenderForPrint=1
Government publications on Media Violence
http://www.health.org/govpubs/ms714/
Other links to the Media Violence issue.
http://www.cln.org/themes/media_violence.html
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