Month: January 2013

In the past month I have seen 3 new films: Django Unchained, Gangster Squad and Seven Psychopaths. This is unusual because I rarely go to the cinema more than once a month – I don’t consider most new films worthy of my time and money – but I currently have a part-time job that enables me to see new films for free. I’ve left each of these three films really disappointed and, more significantly, quite disturbed.

I’m disappointed that in each film, gratuitous, unrealistic death scenes were more prevalent than witty dialogue and character development. Violence is portrayed as comic-book-like; bodies exploding like dynamite-infused pumpkins, blood squirting across the room like a crushed fruit-punch-flavoured juice box.

I’m disturbed that violence is the emphasis of these stories – classified as revenge/justice/psychopathic sadism. And the stars of these films were not handsome, rugged, American men – they are guns. With the recent mass murders in the US, I have to wonder if there needs to be more responsibility taken in the artistic community (specifically film but this could apply to gaming and music as well) to account for the glorification of gun use and trivialization of murder? 

I can’t help but assume that mainstream entertainment is more violent – and the violence is treated more flippantly – than ever before in history. I think this has very serious ramifications on culture. Violent entertainment affects some people more than others, and some people have a stronger filter – the understanding that what they’re seeing on-screen is not a depiction of reality. But what about young people whose minds haven’t developed enough to clearly make that distinction? What if the majority of the entertainment they’re subjected to is in support of gun use, the necessity of violence to solve conflict and justification for retribution? This can’t help but inform their world-view, right? (And I won’t even get into those young people who are actuallysubjected to violence, let alone exposed to guns; that’s a much more complex, disturbing topic.)

I ardently oppose censorship and I don’t think government intervention is necessary … but something significant has to be done here – and it has to come from inside. Responsibility has to be taken by the people creating violent entertainment for mass consumption. At the very least, I would like to hear influential artists like Tarantino admit that gratuitous violence and the obsessive featuring of guns in entertainment is unhealthy for society. But I don’t think that’s going to happen.