Is Violence in Films To Blame?

[Flame]

So the tv is on in the background and a talkshow host is bringing on the mother of a boy who was murdered by his peers.

Three boys decided to reenact a violent murder scene from a movie and the boy was the victim.

How easy it would be to blame the movie biz and claim that violence in films leads to violence in real life.

Equally easy to say that the parents are responsible for their children's actions and it's got nothing to do with the movies... The idea for method may have come from the film, but surely they would have acted out violently in any case.

What to do?
What to think?

Ban violence in movies on the chance that they are furthering violence in real life?

Or are we sure that violence in the movies is a scapegoat for the problems with violence in our youth?

Toni

 

[Flame]

The film which provided the 'scene' was
Reseviour Dogs.

Huh. I like that movie.

 

[Darat]

I think I've posted something relevant to thread this one or twice before....

Violence should always be portrayed as accurately and as graphically as possible, if people don’t like this then don’t show violence at all – don’t censor the consequences of the violence! Perhaps that way kids will grow up with an abhorrence of violence, perhaps then they will learn that violence hurts, is nasty and is sickening and above all has consequences. It is like the censored films and broadcasts from the current conflict in Iraq. I've heard TV commentators saying "We are showing as much as decently we can for this time slot." What the hell are they saying? “Decent” ?!– People are being killed in our name for goodness sake!! Think about it - I can tell you a missile has landed in a marketplace and I can tell you the number of injuries and deaths but I can't shown you them! Why not? Perhaps it is because the "truth" is too painful; perhaps I don’t want to really “know” what the consequences of my actions are. Show the violence as it truly is, show the terror in peoples eyes as they are shot, let the kids in the classroom see the p*ss trickle down the young child’s leg as the soldiers burst into her home to liberate her. To sanitise the world allows us to invent terms such as "collateral damage" to avoid thinking what war, death, injuries really mean on a human, personal level. The world is violent and hiding the truth from our kids means it certainly will continue to be so. [/rant off] I detest most of the "family friendly" drama series I've seen. The example I often use (and is now an old show) is "Hercules", the amount of violence in that show is incredible, but the consequences are never shown. Hitting someone with a chair will really hurt someone, fighting with fists results in broken knuckles, cuts and bruises. I am not saying we should show children this graphic level of violence but if a show wants to use violence then show the damn consequences; don't keep the violence and sanitise the consequences, that is wrong, that is not protecting children.

 

[zenith-nadir]

If one is so inclined to act out a scene from a violent movie then obviously one is, a) unbalanced, b) of low IQ, c) incapable of self-control, d) easily swayed and e) a red flag for more chlorine in the gene pool.

 

[Earthborn]

Violence should always be portrayed as accurately and as graphically as possible, if people don’t like this then don’t show violence at all – don’t censor the consequences of the violence!

Perhaps that way kids will grow up with an abhorrence of violence, perhaps then they will learn that violence hurts, is nasty and is sickening and above all has consequences.

The problem with this is that it will normalize the true horror of violence and people will not be shocked anymore. Kids will then grow up in a world where violence is perfectly normal.

Roman gladiatory games show that this is what happens: confront people constantly with the consequences of violence and they will get used to it, even learn to like it. The same happened with the use of the guillotine in France. The sight of blood and guts made some people so excited they started murdering themselves. Even today there are people saying that the prisoner abuse in Iraq is actually a good thing.

While it is dangerous to make people get the sense that violence is without consequences, constantly confronting them with these consequences is not without risk either.

 

[Thanz]

I think that any argument that violence on tv and in movies is to blame for violence in real life can quickly be dispellled by looking at Canada. We get the same tv shows, the same movies, the same music, the same video games and our violent crime rates are way below those in the United States. There must be other factors that cause the violence.

Further, I think that any kid who acts out a violent act that they saw on tv is just prone to be violent in any event. The tv show (or whatever) justs sets out the particulars of the violence. If the kid had not seen the show, he would likely just be violent in a different manner.

 

[Darat]

The problem with this is that it will normalize the true horror of violence and people will not be shocked anymore. Kids will then grow up in a world where violence is perfectly normal.

I don't think it would. Consider TV dramas at the moment:

Our hero, the handsome, athletic, cop with a rebel streak rips the rule book up and pursues the villain into the building without calling for back-up. Our hero enters a darkened room; the villain lashes out at our hero with a cosh, our hero stumbles with his hand to the side of his head. The villain seizes his opportunity and tries to pass our injured hero. But heroically our hero manages to grab him and bring him to the ground. A scuffle ensures and our hero prevails, he cuffs the villain and leads him to the outside. He calls in for back-up and within moments we see the villain being pushed into a patrol car, and our hero holding a handkerchief to his slight artistically placed cut whilst making light of the risks he took with his pleased but infuriated partner.

My alternate would be:

Our hero, the handsome, athletic, cop with a rebel streak rips the rule book up and pursues the villain into the building without calling for back-up. Our hero enters a darkened room; the villain lashes out at our hero with a cosh, our hero crashes to the floor, blood gushing from his broken eye socket, his eye is pulverised, his teeth are scattered across the room. As he passes out the villain stamps on his head. We hear and see the bones in his face shatter and as our hero’s nose is forced into his brain his body spasms and we see urine spreading from his fallen body. The villain walks out.

Doesn’t make for as exciting TV does it? Yet there is no reason for the cosh in the first example either. A tense drama could have been made without making it a fantasy.

At the moment violence is not treated with the "respect" it should be. I am talking about making sure people know if you hit someone on the head with a blunt instrument you'll probably kill them, no nice stars and a bit of amnesia. That hitting your refrigerator with your bare knuckles hard enough to rock the refrigerator means a visit to the ER for your smashed knuckles to be bandaged up.

Roman gladiatory games show that this is what happens: confront people constantly with the consequences of violence and they will get used to it, even learn to like it. The same happened with the use of the guillotine in France. The sight of blood and guts made some people so excited they started murdering themselves. Even today there are people saying that the prisoner abuse in Iraq is actually a good thing.

Don't follow your point - can you please expand or restate it?

While it is dangerous to make people get the sense that violence is without consequences, constantly confronting them with these consequences is not without risk either.

I totally agree.

 

[Drooper]

Blame everyone but ourselves (that is parents etc.).

As a tangental example of find a scapegoat, there was a story running on UK news channels about obesity. Some people are calling for an end to ads for fatty food because they claim it "makes" us, especially children eat badly and get fat.

So our intrpepid Sky reporter was on the job running a story form the home of a couple of fat early teens. She looked at the camera, while standing in the lounge room with the fat kids infron of the TV in the background and delivered her lines without so much as a wey smile.


"I've been here with the Smiths and these children have been bombarded with ads for fatty food all afternoon."

That's right, sitting there "all afternoon" in front of the TV on a sunny spring day. And they are fat because of the ads.

 

[Charlie Monoxide]

We are all zombies and unable to think for ourselves. When I see a violent scene on TV or in a movie I am very tempted to go out and reproduce that violence in real life.

All forms of entertainment violence (including just bad acting) must be banned.

Charlie (must kill Flanders) Monoxide

 

[Fade]

I've never in my entire life believed that there was such a thing as real desensitization. Scapegoating is always going to be common. Don't work on the problems that cause violence (poverty, lack of education, religion), just blame whatever new shiny thing is on the block. Be it Gladiators or TV, we always want to blame anything but the real cause. I'm sick of it.

I am going to say that there is absolutely no way TV has caused any increase in violence. Or, any media has in the history of humanity. The only thing it has served is to make people that would do violence do it in a more creative way.

 

[Dancing David]

This is a definite cart pulling the horse phenomena, I think that Thanz has pointed out the real issue.

Media reflects culture but it also reinforces it.

There is something to be said for thinking that exposing young children to high level of gun violence on TV could lead them to tolerate more gunviolence in thier own lives. That is the effect of media reinforcing culture. I personal am more upset with the level of violence in general on TV and the fact that your average cartoon show is very violent.

But Media reflects culture. And the problem with a violent media is that that it reflects a very violent culture. We USers tolerate way too high a level of violence in our society. Especialy if it happens in a 'bad neighborhood'. A child who grows up in the Robert Taylor homes (where the one kid dropped the other off the building) is going to be exposed to high levels of all sorts of violence in thier enviroment. And that is just a likely to influence them as anything else.

And while you can blame the parents we can also blame the culture, especialy whatever small violent subculture these kids grew up in.

I have met a wide variety of children in my three years working at a domestic violence shelter(about 150), the frightening one was the three year old whose mother let him watch Scream repeatedly, there were others who thought is was a good idea to expose thier young kids to 'gansta' films, which are very violent in general.

I blame the culture and the media, and the idiotic laws that allow for the easy 'stealing' of guns to be sold on the black market.
(Batten down the hatches.)