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.

Responses

Response to Marilyn Manson article.

I think Manson made some great points in the article. He stated that "America puts killers on the cover of time magazine, giving them as much notoriety as our favorite movie stars". I found this very interesting because I have always wondered why America does that myself. Why would we put there picture all over the news and basically make them as famous as most celebrities? Its basically a double edged sword. We as a country would like to know what is going on in our country but by plastering serial killers all over media website and news networks, we more or less make them celebrities over night. I'm sure not all of them care if people know about them but a majority of them commit these crimes as a cry for attention or as a message to the masses. What better way to get attention than to be seen on every channel and to be talked about on every radio station. Its a very tough situation and I don't believe America has been dealing with it in a correct manner. Although I am very unclear on what the correct solution is and I believe America is to.

Response to Quentin Tarantino articles.

I for the most part personally agree with Tarantino's take on the subject. Movies are movies and real life is real life. It's unfair to blame violent movies for violence in the real world because people who have never seen violent movies can still be violent and people who have seen violent movies aren't violent. In certain situations I think violent movies may trigger real life violence in some people but only because they already had that violence inside them. I think violence is more of a home life issue. If you grow up around violence in the house hold than your way more likely to be violent. For someone who has grown up around violence and already has that psyche a violent movie may trigger that rage and anger but I don't feel just by watching violent movies that it will cause a normal person to be violent. I lot of other personal (real life) situations have to take place  before someone becomes violent. Although I will agree really violent movies don't help the situation much.

Response to "Violent media poisoning nation's soul"

Lasalle makes some great points. I especially liked the argument for making violent movies rated R, instead of having so much violence in PG-13 movies, that makes a lot of sense. A lot less impressionable minds would be subject to the movies violence and that would always be a good thing. A point that really got my wheels turning is the fact that we don't see very many explicit sex scenes in movies. So why is it okay with America to "promote" violence in movies but not acceptable to "promote" love. The act of making love is more unacceptable to the public than the act of taking a life. Seems quiet backwards to me. Like I stated in my response to the Quentin Tarantino articles, I don't agree that movies alone are responsible for influencing a person to be violent but I do admit that the movies aren't helping the situation. This issue is just one of many hard hitting issues our country is presenting facing. I really hope we can fix the problems but it will take some time and some very hard work.