Other Winners and How to Win!

Winner Jan '00

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Violence in Movies

Posted by: ShaKraa (OFFKEY)
Forum: Jedi Academy

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Interesting question! I think about violence in all the movies I see. It really depends on, not really how much there is, but on how its used. Like someone mentioned before, the violence in "Saving Private Ryan" was used to portray the horrors of war. It even, in a weird way, amplified to me how important human life is. Same with movies like "Schindler's List". The violence tends to "wake us up" to the way the world was back then, to warn us how they might be if we aren't careful. As the saying goes, those who forget the past are doomed to repeat its mistakes.

This does not go, however, for moves like "Silence of the Lambs", "Scream", or other such movies. Personally, I hate slasher films, and excessively violent horror films. I think they're tasteless and predictable, not entertaining, and they de-sensitise people to killing.

I mean, when people are gunned down in a movie with no regard, other than the occasional "Oh crap.. got blood on my new suit", it puts people in the its-only-a-character mindset. They don't think of them as people, only as expendable extras to further a story. That is what is so poignant about the scene in "Schindler's List" where Schindler sees the little red-coated girl carted off to be burned with the rest of the dead. She was a person. She wore a red coat. She hid under the bed. She had a family, a doll, blond hair. She was THE only splash of color in the whole movie.

Its funny how the death of one little girl affected me more than the whole of, say, Braveheart. I loved Braveheart, btw, its just that armies of faceless people being slaughtered doesn't impress one as much as a recognizable character's death. Can anyone say that they were affected more by those nameless deaths than the death of Wallace's wife?

Its all how its portrayed. A lot of movie directors put violence in movies just as space-filler. Or as a vehicle for the hero to look more heroic. Whatever. In my POV, the line for violence is drawn when one ceases to look on the dead as people. As humans, individuals who had a mother, wife, or family at home. People who had pets, lives, jobs, who played the piano, washed the dishes, clipped their toenails. That's my definition of senseless violence.

These were just a bunch of reflections on my part. If they didn't make any sense, sorry, I'm not too good at making sense on the weekend. If you are reading this, I'll assume you waded through my rambling, so I'd like to thank you for listening. May your day be full of coherency! ;)

- ShaKraa

Violence in movies Other Nominees: Galaxy Quest • • • The Psycho movies' inconsistencies • • • Julia Roberts • • • Not trusting critics • • • Preconceived ideas? • • • John Cusack • • • Under-rated and Over-looked • • • Violence in movies • • • Pushing Tin • • • Best Movies of 1999?