violence in movies

[Doreen Peri]

We rented a movie called "The Professional" .... I was fully aware that it was about a hit man but I read the plot and it said he became the custodian of a 12 year old girl who wanted to be like him and I thought it was going to be him turning his life around and talking the child out of a life of violence... but no, he was teaching her how to use the weapons.

Anyway, the movie's on now.... Lrod's still watching it, laughing all the way through.... and there is scene after scene after scene of people blowing each other away.

It's disgusting. Sick. Ugly.

I can't imagine how violence and murder and training a 12-year-old child to kill people can be entertaining.... or funny.

How many movies are out there like this? I'm appalled at this.

If people have a regular diet of watching junk like this, no wonder the world is so fucked up and there are those who don't understand the value of life.

How much do you think movies effect people's real lives?

Do you enjoy watching violence in movies?

[Dave The Dov]

doreen have ever seen the movie "A Clockwork Orange"???? You should check that one out!!!!
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[Doreen Peri]

Actually, Clockwork Orange is one of my favorite movies.

It was one of Kubrick's finest. Malcolm McDowell's performance was stunning!

That was different. The violence portrayed was not portrayed as it is in today's movies. It was more suggested, than displayed. Plus, it was a futuristic psychological examination of social ills.

The movie I had the unfortunate occasion to partially view last night and listen to its entirety, had some redeeming scenes, but for the most part, was a a series of vivid displays of violent murder, realistically portrayed.

Personally, I'm just not too hip on watching heads being blown off and repeated blood baths.

Did you know that Mick Jagger was offered the Malcolm McDowell role originally but turned it down?

[Lightning Rod]

doreen, I know that you were put off by the violent backdrop
in The Professional. This is really a very sensitive movie. It's a chaste romance reminiscent of the old black and white westerns or Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

The violence was arch and theatrical. I thought that is was a great movie. Natalie Portman was brilliant and Gary Oldman was beautifully dastardly.

Violence portrayed in movies can be totally gratuitous at times but at other times it offers the perfect intensity with which to contrast a tender, human story.

I would much rather see violence portrayed on the screen than in real life.

[Dave The Dov]

Check out "La Femme Nikita" it's by the same director who did "The Professional". It's one of his better movies!!!! Yes OCW is my favorite movie of all time. Kubrick is also my favorite director as well. I've got a shrine in his honor on the wall of my room. When I saw "Eyes Wide Shut" Kubrick's final movie to be made by him. I was the only one in the audience who applauded after the move was done. Yes I did know about Jagger being offered the role but Kubrick wanted McDowell instead or the movie wouldn't be made.


As for staged violence in the movies the general public likes it or hates it.
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[Doreen Peri]

My Lord, er Lrod -
Violence wasn't a backdrop in that movie. It was the central theme. Violence consumed the film. Perhaps there were "sensitive" scenes but the audience would have to be totally desensitized in order to sit through it because of the graphic violent depiction. I've never heard of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight."

I would much rather see violence portrayed on the screen than in real life.

Violence is part of life and it's an important part of many stories.... but the choice to represent it in film artistically and subtley by suggesting it rather than graphically displaying it is more appealing to me.

Dave-
I heard it was Kubrick who wanted Jagger. I haven't seen "Eyes Wide Shut".... I'm going to go put that on my Netflix list. Thanks! If "La Femme Nikita" is similar in graphic violence, I wouldn't be interested, but I'll look it up and see what the reviews say.

I'd like to hear from some of the general public who enjoys watching graphic violence in movies. I want to know why they enjoy it.

[Dave The Dov]

No I'm sorry that's not what I heard dp. He wanted McDowell because he wrote the screenplay with him in mind. You should check out LFN. The reviews are good on that one. The plot kind of mirrors OCW in a way. Only in LFN the violent person is used to commit violent killings in a good way. I've seen it and yes it's that good.
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[e_dog]

violence in film is necessary to the social order.

it helps youth identify with the virtuous killer protagonist against the beastly killer antagonists.

this has two interralated functions. one, it sells violent video games. two, often with the assistance of the latter, it prepares the imagination and ethical (de)sensibilities of said youth for military and police service (or, gang service as a way of promoting the market for police services).

the 'real world' and the world of the fictive media are not so distinct. they are vitally intertwined by (tele)communications, interconnected.

[panta rhei]

i'm not a big fan of violent movies - the fact that violence is performed to entertain disgusts me, while the violent scenes themselves bore me (should a fight be needed for the plot, i'd prefer a subtitel to appear that says "a and b fought for an hour. b won", or something like that).

still, i consider 'the professional' a great movie. i saw it several times, and i liked it every single time.
yes, there is violence, and lots of it, but violence is not the central theme. the central theme is the yearning to belong and the longing for love... and hope against all odds.

it's a sensitive movie, and jean reno is a great actor, as always (and natalie portman is gripping).

i've also seen 'nikita', and even thought there is lots of violence in that film as well, again the central theme is not violence but rather the lack of compassion and humanity in society.

i'm absolutely not interested in violence-films á la schwarzenegger or bronson, where it's all about explosions and fightning... but i consider luc besson films to be different.


(did you know that the source of "eyes wide shut" is arthur schnitzler's "traumnovelle" ("dream story", a novella), btw?)

[Dave The Dov]

Yes I did know that!!!!
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[Doreen Peri]

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree about this particular movie, panta.

To me, violence was the central theme. There was a bloodbath, every other scene.

I couldn't get past it in order to see anything sensitive about it.

I had to stop watching it after 45 minutes.

It sickened me.

[K&D]

i loved the proffessional because it was about so much more then violence...it was about a person opening up and allowing someone near...some one dealing with the parodox of what they did and who they were...i saw it when i was a freshman in highschool haven't seen it since, but it had a real impact on me...one of the few i remember and i have a terrable memory.

[e_dog]

a few postings to this thread defend the violence of The Professional -- which i've not watched that i can remember -- on the basis that its not about violence per se but about personal struggle, interpersonal connections, or whatever.

of course this can be said about almost any violent movie.

Charles Bronson's vigilantist films are not about violence but about a man's dedication to a cause, or really a heartful saga of a man's struggler to come to grips with the death of a loved one.

Arnold Schwartenzneger's movies are not just about violence, but about the potential dangers of technological progress (Terminator) and the abuses of power by state and corporate elites (Total Recall). Even the film Predator. despite its violent veneer, is a thoughtful, if melodramtic, commentary on the clash of competing civilizations and cultural norms.

[Doreen Peri]

The Terminator movies, (and I especially LOVED Terminator 2,) portrayed violence in a way that was clearly theatrical. Same with Total Recall. I enjoyed those movies very much.

I have a problem with a film which depicts violence in such a graphic manner that you have to duck in front of your television set and hide behind the couch to make sure you don't get splattered with blood. I'm not interested in seeing such realistic graphic depictions.

One of my other main problems with the movie I mentioned, The Professional, was that the main character who's job was a hitman took the little girl up on top of a roof and had her practice arbitrarily shooting people who just happened to be walking or jogging by. "Who should I shoot?," she asked. "Anybody. It doesn't matter," he replied. Then, they showed her looking through the scope and focusing in on a jogger. She shot. He fell. It was't a real bullet... the movie didn't say what it was... but it hit him. "When can we use REAL bullets?," she asked.

Her "teacher" laughed. I didn't.

If this story was supposed to be relaying a compassionate relationship between a man who wanted to help a girl who's parents and family were murdered right before her very eyes, then I'm at a loss to explain how.

That scene disturbed me almost as much as the ones with the REAL bullets where people's brains were being blown out and I had to duck to hide behind the couch so I wouldn't get hit.

Compassion? Touching? I think not.

More like totally gratuitous violence for the sake of violence, teaching amorality and disrespect for life itself.

[e_dog]

or teaching people the disgusting brutal reality of guns.

i don't know about you, but seeing graphic violence in war flicks, for example, doesn't make me wanna rush over to the army recruiting center.

there are, however, some people who watch movies and become desensitized and hero-ize the whole game.