Violence:Is It All That Bad, Really?

Well I never thought I'd say it but I quite enjoyed our lecture and seminar on violence! When thinking about violence that you see on screen you notice that it can be portrayed in many different ways, such as through assassination, war, torture and moster movies to name but a few. I find some of these types of violence are much easier to handle than others, for example I love watching big battle scenes in films like Gladiator and Braveheart, yet I can't bring myself to sit through any of the Saw films because of the torture. I think its purely down to the amount of suffering you see.
One film I did manage to sit through that includes this sort of content is Mel Gibson's The Passion Of The Christ. I felt totally sickened throughout the film because I just couldn't believe the amount of hatred and brutality shown towards one person. Not only did the violence shock me but it was also extremely upsetting. No one has the right to cause another human being such pain and The Passion Of The Christ really pushed the boundaries, causing outrage and backlash when released, with Slate's critic David Edelstein describing it as "the Jesus Chainsaw Massacre", and hearing numerous reports of people fainting in cinemas due to the sheer amount of brutality that was shown. It wasn't easy viewing.




Like it was stated by Ivan, stabbings and beatings etc are much more personal than gunshot and therefore harder to watch. Its continuous and very emotional, this type of violence usually being carried out by someone you know or are related to rather than a stranger.


During our seminar we were asked what our personal threshold for violence is. For me its cruelty shown towards both humans and animals and also anything specifically directed to the brain. And the latter is all down to Hannibal Lecter (which has, by the way, scarred me for life). The particular scene I am refering to is when he cuts open a mans head and removes part of his brain to cook and eat....urgh...its just way too much. I think we'll stop there, just thinking about it makes me feel sick.
Heres a picture from the film showing the exact the scene I'm talking about:




Moving swiftly on.....
Looking back at movie releases over the past year there has been one film that has stood out from the rest, namely Kick Ass. Using a child to portray an assassin was always going to be a risky move, especially with bad language thrown in to boot, but the way it is filmed - its based on a comic book - and showing the characters committing these violent acts as superheroes, they have made it seem funny and silly in a way and by achieving this they have managed to detract from the initial shock of seeing a child kill numerous people. Its more of an action adventure comedy rather than a serious depiction of what happens/could happen in normal society.




The truth of it is we were all brought up watching violence on t.v, this is obvious if you have ever watched the likes of Tom And Jerry or any of the Warner Brothers cartoons. Over the years the violence has got worse, with film makers desperate to produce something to truely shock you but I don't think showing violence in film is particularly a bad thing. Violence happens in real life whether we like it or not and has done since the evolution of man, and if someone is going to commit these acts they don't need movies like this to set them on that path. (If that was the case then how can you explain the violence that was commited hundreds of years ago?)

I think the scariest thing about this topic is purely that humans are capable of committing these crimes, that we are all capable of it, regardless of whether you actually do anything about it. But in a situation where we are pushed to the edge to protect the people we love, how far would we be willing to go?