Violence in the Movies - Essay Example

Running Head: Criminological theories Criminological theories of Criminological theories Cinematic violence has been in films since the start of movie making. From John Houstons depiction of men at war with The Battle of San Pietro, to the hardships teenagers face growing up portrayed in the film, Boyz in the Hood, violence has always been present in film in one form or another. Graphic violence has become as important to film as the happy ending. Throughout time filmmakers have made extreme statements about our society and the involvement of our country in other conflicts, such as war, which affect our nation. Movie makes have realized the power and movement within society that a film can create when the reality people do not wish to accept is put before their very own eyes. It is quite often that extreme measures are taken to achieve this; violence in film. Three main categories of violent-oriented films that this paper will discuss are westerns, war movies, and American cities/society violence (deviant behavior of citizens). The American Heritage Dictionary defines violence as; Physical force exerted for the purpose of violating, damaging, or abusing. This is a pattern for any films alleged, "bad guy." It is the extreme which the "bad guy" uses this force that is the cause of so much public back-lash against filmmakers. This did not however deter them in achieving their visions. We know however that war is violent, so what other genres need to include such violent subject matter? I like to look at violence as three separate categories. 1. War Violence- could be gang or different nations, or for that matter could be two different planets. 2. Realistic Violence- this is what you would see in an operating society, basically anything that can realistically happen to you or I. Rape, murder, mugging, beating, etc.... 3. Fantasy Violence- Luke Skywalker gets his arm cut off with a light saber, or Linda Blairs head spin in The Exorcist. The emergence of western films was a direct result for the desire to bring the understanding of man and his existence within society to the screen. Several cultural issues, as well as family issues, self morality, labor concerns, and foreign policy are clearly depicted in these films (VAC, pp176-191). The exploration of the west brought about new forms of living and also new forms of violence and deviation from the norms of society. And as the examples in this paper reveal, people today are still fascinated with the idea that western stars dont always do the right thing, but are heroes in the end. Many western films create situations where one man, or a group of men, is tested and tried by the rest of society. In 1969, Sam Peckinpah released his film, The Wild Bunch. William Holden and Ernest Borgnine starred in this bloody western that literally left the dirt streets on the screen stained with blood. The grim standoffs in this film let way for a flood of directors to try their hand at creating the horrors of life. This is just one of Peckinpahs films known for its truly realistic and reinterpreted vision of the dying West in the early 20th century. Its unrelenting, bleak tale tells of aging, scroungy outlaws (the wild bunch) bound by a private code of honor, camaraderie and friendship, but they find that they are at odds with the society of 1913. The lone band of men led by Pike Bishop (William Holden) have come to the end of the line and no longer are living under the same rules in the Old West. They are relentlessly being stalked by bounty hunters, one of whom is Pikes former friend Deke Thornton (Robert Ryan), who would rather side with the outlaws if it werent for the threat of being sent back to Yuma Prison. The outlaws represent an un-idealized version of the western Japanese samurai warriors in Akira Kurosawas epic The Seven Samurai (1954) - a film that Peckinpah used as a model. The anti-heroic bunch also represents contemporary American soldiers in the late 60s, out of place in the jungles of Vietnam. Unchanged men in a changing land. Out of step, out of place and desperately out of time...Suddenly a new West had emerged. Suddenly it was sundown for nine men. Suddenly their day was over. Suddenly, the sky was bathed in blood...Nine men who came too late and stayed too long...Born too late for their own times. The much-imitated, influential film is book-ended by two extraordinary sequences, both massacres. The gang of desperadoes are first assaulted in the films opening ambush following a failed bank robbery in a Texas border town, and then brutally destroyed in the films conclusion - as united comrades in a selfless, redemptive act - by a savage and vindictive Mexican warlord after a double-crossing arms deal. The two scenes include some of the bloodiest, most violent shoot-ups ever filmed. The slaughter of innocent bystanders, and the use of women as shields (in the all-male film) were served up as counterpoints to the medias honest display of violence during the late 60s, with the Vietnam War, assassinations, urban riots, and other events filling the airwaves. Clint Eastwoods Unforgiven is a satire, typical anti-western about a reformed gunman who comes out of retirement for one last job. Odd as it may seem, the viewer sympathizes immediately with the main character. Will himself is a lone "peacemaker" who wants the justice to have its way. It is extremely difficult to evaluate the main characters in terms of good and evil, what is more it is even difficult to define these two terms. Forrest Gump would say "Stupid is who stupid does" but it is not necessarily the truth this time. In Unforgiven a man who "presumably" does good is not always a good man and the one who is an evil man not always does evil. Eastwood plays a weakened, once-violent but reformed gunfighter - and an aging pig farmer - in this serious, dark, film-noirish, violent tale of retribution that concludes with a climactic and bloody showdown. The themes of justice, law enforcement, the untamed West, corruption, revenge, honor, feminism and masculinity, mythic heroes vs. reality, the tainted gunfighter, and the central, brooding and complex message of the non-glamorous, painful nature of gunplay and violence are well-delineated. War movies have always captured the majority of the American population. We are intrigued to see what "we are not suppose to." People wonder what goes on during war times, and the making of war movies began to allow us to visually understand the truth and reality about war. Not only did this allow for society to see the hardships men face during war, but also gave rise to the understanding that war is not as "simple" as those not involved may think it is. Many war movies have done a great job in capturing the impact of war on soldiers and it effects. On a personal note, I feel that film, and television, is one of the reasons that more and more people are against war nowadays. More people are able to see the truth that war brings to man and his country. As a sub-genre of war, combat cinema came of age during World War II when Hollywood tapped the realism of the spate of wartime documentary films such as Hustons The Battle of San Pietro.31 After the mid-1940s, filmmakers established the structural formula of the combat film by focusing on the squad and the platoon to conceptualize and dramatize the problems of men at war. This formulaic approach sometimes created cliché and caricature (the weak officer, the tough sergeant, the rookie soldier, the coward, the cynical but ultimately brave private), but in skilled hands it also produced memorable cinema. The latter part of the Vietnam War brought a new type of violence to our screens, although this was not the movie screens, it was our television sets. Television was broadcasting terrifying footage of the carnage going on in the Vietnam conflict. The war was in effect a cinematic challenge. The filmmakers had to deal with a conflict for which the public was already familiar with. Robert Aldrichs, The Dirty Dozen, was one of the escapist fantasies created as a result of our societies involvement in a foreign conflict. In the 1960s and early 1970s, the combat sub-genre was profoundly affected by U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. The combat films of those years were often subverted vehicles with cultural overtones that reflected the mores of the radical 1960s antiwar movement. Films such as The Dirty Dozen and Kellys Heroes were about antiheroes, misfits, and criminals fighting in World War II. There are several interpretations of why these films used criminals as the main characters. One of the most widely accepted is that it was to show the dislike of the involvement in this foreign conflict. However, the Vietnam War, and this film, as a result could also thematically portray how all men of this society, deviants or non-deviants, are willing to do what is necessary for the good of the country. If that is fighting for your country, then this film helps to show that all men are equal on the battlefield in terms of justification to fight for your country. By the 1980s, Vietnam provided an environment for the revival of the combat film. However, unlike the 1940s and 1950s, the conventions of sanitized warfare were abandoned in favor of explicit scenes of violence while scripts became notable for the use of profane military slang. David Russells, Three Kings, came out with the Gulf War ripe in public memory allowing it to actively participate in the discourse surrounding the war. By creating a film that relied heavily on the tools and moments of the initial post-modern event, Three Kings could both critique and engage in the official narrative and understanding the Gulf War. Three Kings delivered to its audience a set of fragmented narratives that flowed together in opposition and contradiction of each other, thereby creating a dynamic meta-narrative that was not bound to one position or another. By removing itself from the obligation of its film genre, engaging the Post-modern aspects of the Gulf War, and being skeptical of US foreign policy, Three Kings placed itself in a category that is neither war protest film or patriotic war film; rather, Three Kings is an interruption of the various assumptions about the Gulf War and the role of action/war films. Every person at one point in their life is tempted to be a deviant citizen. The genre of film that instills this idea involves people such as gangsters, criminals, and cops (possibly gone bad!). Examples of films such as these are Bonnie and Clyde, and Boyz in the Hood. Society condemns its people from breaking rules or laws, yet when this is portrayed by a character in a movie we become intrigued. It is almost as if we can act out our fantasy of becoming a criminal or gangster, but yet we do not get "in trouble" for it as does the character in the movie. American cities were the subject of many films that portrayed violence, after all this is where most of the violence played out. Dirty Harry in 1971 showed the harsh realities of a police officers life in San Francisco. It also showed that a cop can go beyond what the badge entails to bust his man. In the 1995 Leonard Maltin Movie Guide, he states that the film was "in tribute to the police officers of San Francisco who gave their lives in the line of duty." Harsh realities breed harsh films. Police officers have died in the line of duty forever, however it was not until a film like this did people sit up and say "wow its not pretty when they do die." The film was criticized for its violence, but would the impact of the streets been there without it? John Singletons movie Boyz in the Hood is the story of three young men who are forced to deal with the reality of life in South Central, Los Angeles. Singleton uses this setting to illustrate the obstacles facing these young black men who unavoidably encounter violence all around them. Singleton refrains from portraying his characters as inner-city misfits but instead he characterizes them as average American teenagers who are caught in a situation in which they have no control. This creates an emotional response by the viewer which gives the scene a new dimension and a sense of understanding. This film is associated with the harsh reality of living in South Central, Los Angeles. The choice of lifestyle for the characters in Boyz in the Hood divides the characters into two distinct groups: upper and lower class. He enables the film to illustrate the problems that young black men face when they are surrounded by a society that doesnt allow for them to live the life of the average teenager but instead confronts them with a life in which violence is everywhere they turn. Arthur Penns Bonnie and Clyde is one of the sixties most talked-about, volatile, controversial crime/gangster films combining comedy, terror, love, and ferocious violence. The story of Clydes rise and self-destructive fall as an anti-authoritarian criminal gangster is clearly depicted. Both tragic outlaw figures exemplify innocents on the run who cling to each other and try to function as a family. The film, with many opposing moods and shifts in tone (from serious to comical), is a cross between a gangster film, tragic-romantic traditions, a road film and buddy film, and screwball comedy (SV, pp.54-56). The films major poster about the infamous couple romanticized violence and proclaimed: "Theyre young...theyre in love...and they kill people." A composite image of many early 20th century outlaws was loosely based on the historical accounts of two 1930s Depression-era, social misfit bandits who terrorized the Midwest. In the film, the two young and good-looking gangsters become counter-cultural, romantic fugitives and likable folk heroes with semi-mythic celebrity status, recalling Robin Hood and the outlaws of the West. However, the sordid and bleak reality behind the self-made publicity that the latter-day doomed couple generates (through poetry and photos) is also revealed. The Dust-Bowl period is effectively evoked, although the loose adaptation is also an inaccurate and fictionalized retelling of history. When they first met, the real Bonnie (19 years old) and Clyde (21 years old) werent glamorous characters, and their romantic involvement was questionable. She was already the wife of an imprisoned murderer, and he was a petty thief and vagrant with numerous misdemeanors. In the late 1960s, the films sympathetic, revolutionary characters and its social criticism appealed to anti-authority American youth who were part of the counter-cultural movement protesting the Vietnam War, the corrupt social order, and the U.S. governments role. The restless couples robberies of banks, viewed somewhat sympathetically by the rural dispossessed, occurred at a time when the institutions were robbing and ruining indebted, Dust Bowl farmers. We have seen violence in cinema create all types of reactions from people; tough criticism, assassination attempts, and claims of demonic possession. There is something else that these films have in common besides the violence though. They are of course all GREAT films. All of these filmmakers set out to make a film that for the most part tells the truth, whether it be about war, street life, or demonic possession for that matter. The truth sometimes hurts, and as long as there are filmmakers and film to use, there will be things about the films they make that people wont like. But most people appear to be thankful for the realities, and fantasies, that filmmakers allow us to have a "peek" at without being harmed. Bibliography Alexander, George. "Spike Lee." In: Why we make movies : Black filmmakers talk about the magic of cinema / George Alexander. 1st ed. New York : Harlem Moon, 2003. Baraka, Amiri. "Spike Lee at the Movies." In Black American Cinema. Edited by Manthia Diawara, pp. 145-53. London: Routledge, 1993. Fraiman, Susan. "Geometries Of Race And Gender: Eve Sedgwick, Spike Lee, Charlayne Hunter-Gault." Feminist Studies 1994 20 Wallace, Michele. "Boyz n the hood and Jungle fever." In: Black popular culture / a project by Michele Wallace ; edited by Gina Dent. Seattle : Bay Press, 1992. White, Armond. "Flipper-Purify And Furious-Styles (2 Characters From The Recent Films Jungle Fever And Boyz N The Hood By Spike Lee and John Singleton) Sight And Sound, 1991 Aug, V1 N4:8-13. Read More