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Violence in Movies: A Personal Rant with a Happy Ending by Neville Harson Photo by S.E. Eggleston  Sometimes I consider myself a film fanatic. I will rhapsodize about Herzog, moon over Miyazaki, and sing the praises of Tarkovsky to the moon and back. I’ve gathered as many as 15 friends (and two dogs) in my house to watch the original “Wicker Man.” But I don’t watch very many movies these days, and I rarely go out to see a new movie in the theatres. It’s not that I don’t want to. I’m always looking for something imaginative, or uplifting, or just something that looks like the people who made the movie really cared about it. I recently picked up “1001 Movies to See Before You Die” in an attempt to find such films. Instead, I found something else: a history of human cruelty.
We are, more often than not, it seems, a violent species. This is not only depicted in films, but demonstrated by the fact that there is no shortage of audiences who support them. We flock to these movies in ever-growing numbers, to watch people inflicting cruelty and violence on other people. Even educated and conscientious people who consider themselves generally kind and peace-loving folk routinely expose themselves to violent movies. I can’t understand why. We are so concerned with our physical health; in many cases, obsessed with what we put in our bodies; I find it odd that we’re not as concerned about what we’re putting into our mind.
A quick look at the Top 20 Readers’ Favorites in the Time Out film guide confirms my suspicions. About half of these films contain LOTS of graphic violence and/or cruelty, from “The Godfather” (#1) to “Schindler’s List” (#20). Out of the five films nominated for best movie this month, at least three revolve around violence of some sort.
When discussing these films with my friends, I’ll ask them about the violence. “Yeah, it was violent,” they will tell me, somewhat sheepishly, “but it was done really well.” Personally, I do not want to see violence that is “done really well.” Once in a blue moon, perhaps, but certainly not every week. And when I do choose to put myself in that position, I want that violence to affect me; I want to be upset; I want to lie awake in bed afraid, so that I know I am a thinking, feeling human being and that I have not become desensitized to the effects of seeing one human being cruelly mistreat or take the life of another.
One friend tried to make the point that these films are dealing with big themes like Mortality. I nodded in agreement, but countered that “Harold and Maude” dealt with mortality, but it wasn’t especially violent, and was overall rather charming and life-affirming. Other friends say that some of these films depict “real life.” Whose life? Neither I nor anyone of my close personal friends is a hit man, a cop, or a gangster. No one in my extended circle of friends lives like that. I would argue that in reality only a very small population of the US are hit men, gangsters or thugs. Odd, isn’t it, that we don’t see too many movies about computer programmers, bakers, swim coaches or financial analysts.
It’s not the violence that I am opposed to per se (after all, David Lynch’s “Blue Velvet” is one of my favorite movies). It’s the relentlessness; the endless parade of violent movie after violent movie in a horrific succession that seems far out of proportion to the amount of real violence in our society. And the seeming lack of choice around other kinds of movies. Recent movies like “Once” come feverishly recommended by many, many people—and I don’t think this is  because “Once” was such a great film, but a refreshing one. I think that all the great word-of-mouth reviews say less about the actual film and more about our need for this sort of alternative to the constant onslaught of on-screen violence.
Whether or not this amount of screen violence actually encourages violence among the young and impressionable remains open to debate for some, though the scientific evidence against watching violence is fairly incriminating. Personally, I don’t know if violent movies “cause” violent behavior, but they certainly encourage violent behavior simply by showing that it IS an option. They also encourage a lot of confusion in our culture about anger (a normal, healthy, human emotion) and violence (not acceptable in most cultures unless it is “ritualized” as in football).
I’m not calling for a ban or a boycott. If I want anything from you, dear reader, it is self-imposed censorship. I want for you to become aware of what movies you are watching and why. Choose wisely. I don’t want you to feel guilty about what you watch—we all have our “guilty pleasures”. But you might want to think about cutting back a bit, or being more selective, or engaging your family and friends in a discussion about movie viewing habits, yours and theirs.
Being a psychologist of a decidedly Jungian nature, I would make the case that not only is seeing a little violence on a screen good for us from time to time, but that owning our own ability to be violent is the first step towards transcending that violence. This is important to remember. By denying or ignoring the anger and violence in our human selves, we run the huge risk of becoming somewhat imbalanced, projecting our anger onto others, or eventually blowing up—perhaps even becoming violent—over some relatively inconsequential occurrence.
But come, let us celebrate movies that show love in all its forms. Let us find, recommend, demand, or even better, create, movies that show not just the love between two people, but the love of an artist for what he or she creates (“Once”), the love of a person for the natural world (“Local Hero”), or the love of a human for all of humanity (“It’s a Wonderful Life”). "Neville Harson is a therapist in Denver, Colorado,where he specializes in working with creative andperforming artists. He is also a founding member ofthe experimental music duo Mandible Chatter." "Peace Now!" by John c. kuchera or better known as ( jck or jckuch ) |
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