Violent Movies

Directors like Quentin Tarantino and Eli Roth have made themselves known because of the brutal and disturbing movies that they create. Kill Bill, Hostel and Pulp Fiction are amongst a few of these directors’ films and are known by most people as exceptionally violent. With these movies readily available to a lot people, we can see how they act similarly to video games.

One thing that can temporarily stop these movies being seen is the rating system, which puts a small halt on under aged people viewing them. That is until children’s parents begin to rent their children movies that the children want to see.  Now although ratings prevent people from seeing movies in the cinemas when they are first released, it becomes void when they are released on DVD or on iTunes. This is because people have got themselves fake ID’s or as mentioned before, parents come into play. Harris (1999) states that "Exposure to the gratuitously violent film also produced violence without provocation by the experimenter." This quote is taken from an experiment at Virginia Tech University. The whole experiment can be found here.

“Laboratory experiments in psychology find that media violence increases aggression in the short run.” (Dahl, DellaVigna, 2009). Further information can be found here. Also, “movie attendance appears to reduce alcohol consumption.” (Dahl, DellaVigna, 2009). This is interesting because we can see that alcohol is not a main reason that affects movie violence on people.  In my opinion, movie violence does have an impact on people, especially young people, as it can be a major influence on their lives. This is because of their young minds still being molded and shaped. 

Bendaimmortal (2012) states "Common sense should tell you not to let your little kid watch just any shut they want and as much as they want because children are usually incapable of comprehending the deeper meanings." The rest of the blog entry further talks about this matter.

A few things to think about...

Violent Video Games

Games, if any media, would be the number one cause of violence in people because it allows for violent behavior to be carried out without any repercussions. This where a lot of people believe that a persons judgment of what is acceptable and what is not is twisted as they are confused between reality and the game experience. "Due to consumer demand over the last three decades, most video games produced and sold today are violent." (Norcia, 2013). This helps in understanding why violent games are often thought to be a reason behind violent behaviour. This website helps to further understand where I am coming from. 

Grand Theft Auto, Saints Row and Gears of War are three of the thousands of games that allow lifelike violence that ranges from running over pedestrians to Gang warfare. I have played these games and I have never felt the urge to kill or injure anyone, but then again I do not play them constantly. Repetition of killing people, whether they are pedestrians, neighbors or police officers might cause something in people’s minds to think that it is ok to do it in real life. This is when the blurring between reality and fantasy occurs and people crack and perform psychotic things.

While playing these games, people are encouraged to empathize with the character they are playing as and if the characters are psycho gang members or zombies killing scantily clad women, then they, the person may be encouraged to feel like them. In doing so, possibly aquiring aggression and hostile feelings that these characters have might . "Players are encouraged to actively participate as a character by choosing how they will interact with other characters including which weapons will be used while fighting or attacking other characters." (Norcia, 2013).

An example of where video game violence has cause violence in real life is the Sandy Hooks Elementary School shooting where Adam Lanza shot and killed teachers and pupils. This article explains what happened and how video game violence can effect a person. Furthermore, a new mexico teenager shot and killed his family. He was also highly involved in violent video games. FoxNews (2013) stated "He also contemplated killing his girlfriend's parents, the sheriff said. Instead, they say 15-year-old Nehemiah Griego texted a picture of his dead mother to his 12-year-old girlfriend, then pent much of Saturday wither her. The two went to church where his father had been a pastor, and Griego eventually confessed to killing his parents and three younger siblings." The rest of the article goes to describe what happened. 

People have also stated there opinions here and the majority believe that no, violent games do not promote violent behaviour, however, I disagree.

10 Relevant Links

1.) Violent Games post 1

2.) Violent Games post 2

3.) Violent Movies post 1

4.) Violent Movies post 2

5.) Video Game Controversies

6.) Movie Controversies

7.) Effect on viewers

8.) Example 1

9.) Example 2

10.) Example 3