Article 1 for next week.

response:
 I don't watch any movies about 15 years. I observed my kids watching the movies. It had no effect to them because I educated them that the movies were bullshit. Just for excitement or feel action to do something for fun a bit. I don't hold the movie directors accountable for the violence. It is the parent's responsibility to educate the rights or wrongs.

Article 2 for next week

response:

I believe that the movies don't hold their accountable related to the crimes that we face daily. I hold the media the most accountable for keep the crimes spreading. They expose too much about the crimes which encourage the bad people to get attention or wanna to be "well known" in news or history. If the media don't show the crimes happenings, the crime will cut half or much more.


Marilyn Manson’s “Columbine: Whose Fault is It”

response:

The enterainment was not accountable for this crime. I strongly believe that the parent and media were responsible for either exposure or poor judgement. The parent should notice the signs of trouble that they had. The media gave too much attention so they influence the bad people wannabe to be famous. Suppose that the media doesn't exposure much about crime, it will be much less than we would think.

Violent movies and their effect on American culture

 In an article published to SFgate.com, author and movie critic Mike LaSalle confronts the issue of violence in movies with the claim that these images desensitize and contribute to violence in American society.  He then switches over to blaming critics for this phenomenon, because he feels like they(himself included) should have spoken out and somehow convinced movie makers that showing violence in any film rated underneath "R" was wrong.  I think Mike feels like critics have more control over society and the film industry than they actually do.  People only care about what critics think when they agree, these trends and film in general reflect society moreso than the other way around. 

Tarentino advocates not blaming the film industry for real world violence. His claim is that films reflect society and people do not feel the need to commit violence against actual people just because they saw it.  While there are good points to be made about this, in my opinion he is too dismissive of the effects films can have on people.  He speaks about wanting to reach people and then pretends like his films have no lasting effects.

Our last article, by Marilyn Monroe, provides the most insight into our topic simply because he's not using an interview or article as a sales technique, but is actually contributing to an ongoing discussion. He claims that the attacks by journalists are simply a tactic to distract people from the fact they provide as much violence to the public as anything else.  Monroe also contends that times have not become more violent but our access to individual events has increased.  From my perspective, there is a lot of truth to that.  Its easy to decry violence when it happens against people you sympathize with, but nowhere near as many people bother to address the issue when we're killing Osama Bin Laden in his home, in a foreign country, or when we execute a murderer, or when a war breaks out between other countries. 

Lets not blame any industry or group or law for violence commited by the individual.  Every person is different, everyone reacts to different things.  Lets educate and help people, and see if we can have more of an impact in reducing violence than people who seek to blame and legislate.

Article Response

In the article about Quentin Tarantino I do believe that he has a valid point about separating violence in movies and violence in real life. Quentin believes that violence is a part of his movies as much as another film maker may use comedy. Everyone has their own style. I believe that there is little to no connection between animated violence and real life violence. For example, I grew up watching violent movies and playing violent video games but I want to be a police officer to help better the world. I believe violence is in the person and the media is just something to blame.

In the article written by Mark LaSalle he states that violence is the cause of violence in our society. He says that movies, like anything else, are a part of our culture and children and young adults see images of graphic deaths it desensitizes them to real life violence. He believes that fake violence is creating a culture in which young people turning into adults don't understand the seriousness of violence. He also says that movie critics aren't helping because they will write a good review on a violent movie just because that's the thing to do. Violence is a part of any culture and video games and movies are entertainment. A normal minded person will not get desensitized just from movies.

Marylin Manson makes his view very clear in this article. He was blamed for creating a violent culture of young adults. Manson claims he was just making music and that has nothing to do with turning two teenagers into murderers. Manson blames the media for making violent people "celebrities" by plastering their faces all over the media. They make movies, write articles, and make murderers famous. Manson believes violence is human nature like when Cain killed Abel, there was no movies to blame it on then, just human hate. I believe Manson has a point, human nature is violence, it has been in our history for millennia and movies are just something to blame.

Article Responses

Article 1:
I very much agree with Quentin's stance. Violence in movies is purely an art form, the purpose to create dramatic cinema that impacts the viewer. I believe that Quentin Tarentino just wants to make a memorable movie-watching experience, a realistic one, at that. The fact that people are violent in the real world in similar ways has always been true, but now that someone is making really famous films depicting such acts- the media has someone to blame. Movies are just a cheap, scapegoat excuse for why people behave violently, just like video games. The correlation is only speculated, not once proven. Quentin Tarentino is just exhausted with the controversy, which would explain his sass.
Article 2:
I don't necessarily agree with the opinion of LaSalle, I don't believe violence in the media overlaps with real-world violence at all. He states that constantly absorbing this violence through media will encourage the violent behavior. I personally believe that fantasy is easily distinguishable from real life. This is someone Quentin would not agree with!!
Marilyn Manson Article:
I love Marilyn Manson's opinion about humanity and violence! I very much agree that the media needs to stop trying to blame entertainment and using performers as scapegoats for unthinkable crimes. Like Marilyn says, we are all to blame; for senselessly watching and absorbing violence daily. We watch the media cover shootings like Columbine and don't feel a thing, like they aren't real people dying. We hear about our presidents killing people and bringing warfare in other countries, and turn our head. I blame the media for desensitizing our people to violence, not entertainment for causing it.

Article Responses

Article 1 response

Ultimately I’m pretty conflicted with this article. I understand people’s frustration with the ramping up of violence in movies and the media. Tarantino’s movies especially are incredibly gory and visibly violent. At the end of the day though, nobody is forcing anybody to watch a Tarantino movie. We all have a choice. And if it just so happens your 14 year old son secretly is watching violent movies, that’s his choice to make. Violent exists and is out there in the world, there’s no sheltering somebody from it indefinitely. Better to understand it now than face it unknowingly later. Now I’m not saying violent movies necessarily prepare you to deal with life, but that doesn’t mean they don’t teach us things about humans, because they do. If you watch any of Tarantino’s movies, you find that the violence is just a mechanism to further develop the characters. It’s about how violence affects and changes people, not about the violence itself.

Article 2 Response

I think LaSalle hit some very important points, the first being the interaction between real life and movie life. When a filmmaker defends his film for being a reflection of culture and not in influence on culture, he/she is both right and wrong. Movies will always influence behavior, even if only in small ways. The fact that the movie is a reflection on society doesn’t change this, it only furthers it. And while free speech/expression is of course important, especially in artistic venues, it’s not the only important part of the equation. At some point the people creating the films and video games of today have to decide what ideas they want to propagate and advocate. Yes it’s free speech to make a violent movie. No it’s not really spreading the right cultural message to others. But therein lays the issue, for every piece of art that some consider bold and important there are as many who deem it harmful, and neither group would be wrong. Ultimately there needs to be a better regulated separation of adult content from non adult content, so that societies children aren’t watching things they shouldn’t without having to censor anyone.

Article 3 response

I find myself agreeing wholeheartedly with Mr. Manson. Music, movies and other entertainment aren’t the real issue, and nothing gets fixed unless you can identify the real issue. There’s plenty of things wrong with our society, but it’s not always so obvious where we need to focus our efforts and that’s the first place to start. Figuring out where to start, the source of the problems. Treating to symptoms is fine but never fixes anything. We can keep blaming music for corrupting our children, or we can say “Why do our children feel the desire to turn to this anyways? Where’s this all coming from, and why?” If there’s violence in the streets then figure out why and what can be done to help, don’t waste your time trying to get a song censored or removed off the radio. If people thought a little more about the long term and less about themselves in that moment we could actually address the underlying issues here instead of pointing fingers at the same person because they happen to be popular at the moment.

Article Responses

Article Reactions: Media Violence

In response to “Violent Media Poisoning Nation’s Soul”

               

     In the article “Violent Media Poisoning Nation’s Soul” by Mick LaSalle, he discusses how movies and reality influence each other. He mentions that the chaos and violence depicted in “The Dark Knight Rises” reflected the shooting in Aurora, CO. Although some movies may portrait situations that occur in real life, there is still a distinction between the two.  Movies should not be held responsible for the actions of people that watch them. Violence in movies should not be looked at as the cause of violence but as a way to entertain people. People are not so easily influenced by movies that they commit violent acts because they saw it on a screen. There are many aspects that cause someone to be violent, from mental illness to their upbringing.

In Response to “Everything Quentin Tarantino Really Thinks About Violence and the Movies”

              

     In the article “Everything Quentin Tarantino Really Thinks About Violence and the Movies,” by Esther Zuckerman, he discusses Tarantino’s outlook on the relationship between violence in movies and violence in real life. Tarantino enjoys violence in movies and believes that in real life it is a very serious issue. If he is asked about his thoughts on the relation between the two, Tarantino will not comment on the subject, for he has said it all regarding the topic. I agree with the feelings Tarantino has towards violence in movies and I enjoy watching the chaos. I do not believe that violence in films is morally wrong and that it does not directly reflect the violence in real life. There are ratings set aside for video games, television shows and movies to prevent the young, impressionable minds from being influenced by a fictional story. Violence in movies is entertainment and should be looked at as such.

In Response to “Columbine: Whose Fault Is it?”

               

     In the article ““Columbine: Whose Fault Is it?” by: Marilyn Manson, he discusses the issue that people are quick to blame others for violent acts and that media highlights violent offenders at the level of a celebrity. He brings up a situation where two young men died and were, “wearing makeup and dressed like Marilyn Manson” therefore he received the blame for the chaos. I agree with Marilyn that the media highlights violent offenders and are quick to blame something else for these events. When criminals get media attention, it motivates people to continue to do similar actions to receive the same spotlight. Because Marilyn dresses in a strange manor, he gets put into a category of “violent artists” when in fact he is not a violent person. People should take a step back and should not be quick to blame other people for violence.

Responses

Quentin Tarantino article

            I completely agree with Tarantino on the subject on violence in the cinema. It is just a film solely a piece of entertainment set in front of us to leave our reality for a mere moment. Just because I go and watch a series of goreish horror films or a movie based on rape, does this mean I need to or feel an obligation to go reenact the horrific scenes from this piece of entertainment or I for some reason have become desensitized to the horror? Not at all they are merely scenes that help build the story a director is trying to convey. Nothing more nothing less, as Tarantino says in the article “If a guy gets shot in the stomach and he’s bleeding like a stuck pig then that’s what I want to see- not a man with a stomach ache and a little red dot on his belly.” Yet again it is just a supporting scene in the grand scheme of the picture.

Violent media poisoning nations soul

            In this article the author relates horrible real acts of violence committed by sick unhealthy individuals to mere “gun problems” or “being raised around violent forms of media” i.e. video games, movies, ect. But nowhere in this article do I see the author tackle the real underling problems of mental health and the lack of people seeking help for their effected loved ones. Also when was it the government or society’s job to make sure and instill morals into your children? Last time I checked wasn’t it the responsibility of the parents to make sure their children are brought up proper. It is a real shame to see “entertainers” such as this author pointing the proverbial finger at the entertainment industry as the cause of all of the problems. When did censorship like the proposed in this article ever work? Yes there might be a massive market for the PG-13 film but if we regulate all violence into a mere R rating aren’t we just putting the problem of educating our young off till another day?

Columbine; Whose Fault is it?

            I really like the points that Mason brings up in this article, Such as, How society has become so broadcast and we are looking for the next scandal to make celebrities from be it famous or infamous. Do we perpetuate this cycle? I think we do. Why is it when situations like that of Columbine or other nefarious acts happen, instead of trying to get down to the motives or reasons behind what may have caused this such as mental health. Why is it that we never try and advocate for help in the area of mental health? Maybe when we take the stigma away from the kid that sees a psychiatrist as a crazy person and we congratulate he and his parents for helping his problem more parents will recognize the mental health problems that plague the youth of America or the world. Manson say “Mans greatest fear is chaos…Theses kids had no clear black and white reason for their actions…so a scapegoat was needed.” What I take from this article is that yet again society is pointing the finger in a quick attempt to turn the gaze from their inability to learn from the mistakes and create a healthy society of educated persons, only to find a quick rating and a jump to the next attack on the entertainment or gun industries.