In Friday's Deseret News, Chris Hicks writes about how this year's blockbuster comic book movies have ratcheted up the violence and gore (link). He writes that most of it is "treated lightly, frivolously and, in some cases, simply ignored."I don't think anyone would contest that violence in media is more prevalent today than it was 40, 50 or 60 years ago. The Dark Knight, Wanted and Iron Man are just the tip of the iceberg. Video games take violence to another level altogether.
By almost all measures, violence is wildly popular these days. Of the top ten video games sold for consoles in the US in 2007, fewer than one quarter of the units sold featured no violence (Guitar Hero II & III, and Madden NFL 08 - although one could argue that football is a violent sport). Another 40% of these games featured "mild cartoon violence" (Pokemon, Wii Play and Mario) and the remaining 36% of games featured "blood and gore" and "intense violence" (Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, and Assassin's Creed). (link)
And violence was also a big hit for the top ten grossing films for 2007 in the US (link). Using the Kids-In-Mind rating service, those films scored a total of 52 of an available 100 points in the violence category, and only 25 in profanity and 26 in sex and nudity. Apparently Americans are twice as comfortable with violence and gore as they are with either profanity or sex and nudity.
The great irony that I see is how uncomfortable Americans seem to be with real violence and death. According to iCasulties, there have been 4,124 confirmed deaths of US soldiers in Iraq, and this statistic is usually among the first cited when criticizing that war. Our sensitivity to violence and death has heightened considerably from the days of the Civil War, for example, when over 618,000 Americans lost their lives, or more recently in World War II, when over 290,000 US servicemembers perished.The US military has performed weapons training with human silhouettes for decades now, because the likenesses have proven highly effective at sensitizing soldiers to firing upon human targets. Studies on video games have proven to have similar effects, but from the sounds of the political discourse in the country, Americans, despite the rampant violence in media, yet have weak stomachs when it comes to the real thing.
There is an obvious double standard here: on the one hand we glorify fictitious and meaningless violence, and on the other hand we have a hard time even accepting honorable and meaningful violence.
Mr. Hicks continues, "With all the real-life violence brought home to us via TV and the Internet these days, I'm having second thoughts about destruction as entertainment."
I have to agree that a culture of violence and death as entertainment is definitely something worth reconsidering.
3 comments:
Interesting statistics, oussan.
I saw the Dark Knight a while back and couldn't help but think: "Man, there are a lot of kids in this theatre...and this is probably a little too much."
Always thought provoking reading, man. Thanks.
Peace,
Boz
I don't want to come off as a saint here (and I think my biases are pretty obvious as well). I frickin' LOVED The Dark Knight - but it was very violent, and very intense. I think I'm just starting to reach a point where enough's enough ("starting" is the key word there). Eventually the pendulum will swing the other way, because entertainment tastes seem to be somewhat cyclical. It's only a matter of time, but it's something that we as a culture and a nation probably ought to be cognizant of.
And the trend of parents taking kids to places where they clearly don't belong is very disturbing to me as well. Are parents too cheap to pay for a babysitter, or are there too few babysitters that can be trusted? It just seems like children these days are alternately viewed as fashion accessories or burdens. Parenthood requires a great deal of sacrifice on the part of the parents, and it seems like there are too few parents willing to commit themselves to that reality.
Thanks for the comment, Boz!
Take care.
My circus post got me to listening to Tool, and when I came across "Vicarious" I couldn't help but think of this post.
It's my kind of story
No fun til someone dies
'Cause I need to watch things die
(from a good safe distance)
Vicariously I live
(while the whole world dies)
Much better you than I...
And incidentally, I took my wife to see The Dark Knight last weekend (she's a big fan of comic book movies) and the scene where Harvey threatens Gordon's wife and children and shoots Batman bothered her enough that we walked out of the theater. On the one hand I was proud of her that she had the moral courage to say "enough is enough" and on the other hand I was a bit embarrassed that I hadn't done the same when I'd seen the movie before.
Post a Comment