Violence in Films

Discussion of Joseph Campbell's work with an emphasis on the personal creative impulse as well as the sociological role of the artist in today's global community.

Moderators: Clemsy, Martin_Weyers, Cindy B.

Chrissurf
Associate
Posts: 30
Joined: Thu Apr 07, 2011 12:19 pm
Contact:

Post by Chrissurf »

I don't think they would be putting violence in movies if it wasn't helping them sell movies. The funny part is, having had worked in film, Hollywood is mainly liberal and anti-gun. As an experiment I once tried to see how much time would pass between movie premieres wherein a marques did not feature a gun or other killing tool. There was never a week without one. Always a gun or a bloody knife in at least one movie poster, every week. Sex sells. Violence sells. Being a writer, I celebrate the right for artists to have freedom of speech and expression. Without that, art is worthless. In our society we can change the channel or complain. I can barely stomach Tarantino films because of the violence (although I like the story lines), and when I was in film school it seemed like every student there wanted to be him. Television as well has become more gratuitous. I was watching TV with my mom over xmas when we came upon a scene that featured two women in bed...i wont get into it, but I didn't want to watch that with my mom. LoL. What happened to Its A Wonderful Life? Unfortunately I don't think we can judge what is art and what isn't. We can only decide what we want to consume and support, and if we don't like it, we should change the channel.
Author of The Traveler's Companion

lancimouspitt
Associate
Posts: 152
Joined: Fri Jul 31, 2009 11:32 pm
Location: Ohio

Post by lancimouspitt »

well............I guess i'm going to be "that" guy in this particular thread. :oops:

Personally I don't mind violence in films,nor does all the gory stuff bother me. What to me is repuslive and unacceptable is reality tv. To me that's where the true horror is displayed. Watching Jersey Shore on a continuous shuffle is my own personal idea of hell. :lol:

Me and my fiance have Halloween,the orginal on constatly here. It reminds her of her childhood and now reminds me of her. I know it's a kind of wierd way of identifying someone with something but it works for us.
I think it's up to parents to decide what is suitable or when it becomes suitable. with her daughter she has taken the road in deciding that one day or another these things will be revealed to her despite how hard it may be cloaked and we feel it's better to help put these things into context now whether than let her attempt to figure all this out later.
Here's what I posted on another thread about monsters and why they keep re-occuring in the pop culture (other than the fact their is a constant shock factor involved and they bring in a lot of money):

As I was reading The Great God Pan i kept wondering if Machen was prior to or after Lovecraft and sure enough I had to find out before I finished the story last night.
Afterwards I read the White People and my oh my that was something. I immediatley saw that the bulk of guillermo del toro's Pans Labryinth had to have been influenced by Machen's White People. I popped in the second disk of the film and believe it or not their was a featurette entitled "The Power of Myth". No doubt a tribute to Campbell's work. One aspect of Joe's work I always felt left unturned was monsters,such as the ones we see in movies(the whole reason why I made a thread about metaphors in horror movies).
I remember in one book a woman ask Campbell why her son has such a fixation upon Frankenstein and though I can't recall his exact response I felt it a little inadequate. Much to my pleasure del toro makes this the heart of the feature and goes into early mythologies and discusses how early societies attributed natural phenomanon to creatures such as gods and animals. I think back on Campbell describing the Lion upon an African plane and how the creature becomes associated as a solar symbol in how it spreads the grazing Zebra's and Gazelle's just as the sun scatters the stars for the mornings arrival.
Guillermo del toro argues that as society evolved and the complexes of society bounded our instincts and primal impulses into a cage (to make it a Jungian thing) we casted this shadow and we had to explain those things we found unfit about ourselves. Murder,cannabilism,etc. and monster became our way of attempting to understand these dark things about ourselves. In short, monsters help us to understand the dark side of our nature. I'm thinking though that somewhere I have yet to look Campbell has probably said something simular. Anyways I have felt this has all lead me down a rich path of discovery i'm sure won't end any time soon.

Chrissurf
Associate
Posts: 30
Joined: Thu Apr 07, 2011 12:19 pm
Contact:

Post by Chrissurf »

Good points. I agree reality tv is an abomination. and not reality, for that matter. I think the news is worse. When I think of my girlfriend, I think of twin peaks, her favorite, which is a gory weird fest, but fun none-the-less. You'd strike gold if you wrote a book on the power of Monster myths!
Author of The Traveler's Companion

lancimouspitt
Associate
Posts: 152
Joined: Fri Jul 31, 2009 11:32 pm
Location: Ohio

Post by lancimouspitt »

Chrissurf wrote:Good points. I agree reality tv is an abomination. and not reality, for that matter. I think the news is worse. When I think of my girlfriend, I think of twin peaks, her favorite, which is a gory weird fest, but fun none-the-less. You'd strike gold if you wrote a book on the power of Monster myths!
I was working working on one............ :twisted:

Though was a very casual thing to be honest. More like my own self discovery. Writing things down,connecting dots. Lost the whole thing when my last computer crashed on me though. :x

Another thing I find of particular interest you can find in the Halloween 25th anniversary dvd. The original house in the film is now somewhat of a holy shrine of sorts. A museum open year round that see's hundreds of visitors a day and even more during the fall season.
Some devoted fans even become so emotionaly charged when entering the house that they just break down and cry all over the place.
As ridiculous as it sounds their is most certainly something their speaking to a particular group of people.

Pussycat
Associate
Posts: 18
Joined: Sun May 25, 2008 6:37 pm
Location: England

Post by Pussycat »

Pro Libertate Patriae wrote:I dont think the problem is the violence, it is the amount of violence that is portrayed. We all experience violence the first time we see it. We all understand violence the first time we feel it, weather it be in real life or in a movie or tv show. If we feel it while watching a movie then we have an opinion as to weather that person who had the voilence done toward them "deserved" it wthout any remorse or ill effects. Well, in real life it is much harder to feel someone deserves to have action against them which results in pain, physical or emotional harm or death. In movies I think kids do know the difference, but the issue is the amount of violence which is so prevalent in our culture (US) which can result in a numbing of our emotions toward violence.
Violence is a tricky thing which needs a lot of discrimination. When I read Daughter of Fire, a diary of a Sufi training, it has a lot of violence in it. Also some of the initiation ceremonies that Campbell talks about, also have a lot of violence in them. In the video with Bill Moyers, Moyers refers to a soldier's experience of the carpet bombing of Dresden in WW2 as 'sublime' - that is, it goes beyond the human, to something magestic and beyond our understanding. The Christian religion for example, is also based on betrayal and violence. The cruel death of a man creates the doctrine of love. It's terrible and terrifying, and it is also mysterious. This sort of violence - is it really violence? I ask myself a lot about this. I can't stand the gratuitous violence in films, but what is it trying to say? How close should we look? The beauty of the Grimms Fairy tales, which have a lot of violence in them, is to offer a 'harmless' container for the child to put all his dark thoughts in, and so get some relief from them. That is why they are so wonderful. They are more than that though, and like dreams, they take us into a mythic world, which is teeming with violence and LIFE. It's hard stuff to make sense of.
Pussycat.
Perseverance brings good fortune

Neoplato
Associate
Posts: 3907
Joined: Fri Nov 21, 2008 3:02 pm
Location: Virginia
Contact:

Post by Neoplato »

And here's the other half of the conversation. At least I'm consistent in my opinion.

Andreas started this thread almost three years ago. :shock:
Infinite moment, grants freedom of winter death, allows life to dawn.

Nermin
Associate
Posts: 520
Joined: Mon Feb 01, 2010 2:31 pm
Location: London, Britain

Re: Violence in Films

Post by Nermin »

Andreas wrote:Hey,

What do you think of violence in films or in any other form of art. Where does violence begin anyway? Some films can be so strong without showing one drop of blood spilled. I personally dont mind it, sometimes i find entertaining (like Tarantinos movies) but are the younger audiences able to understand what is reality and what is fantasy? Can they tell the difference of the negative aspects of violence and transform it into something positive in their life.

So what do you think?
Hello all,
Basically, I think that violence is inherent in human nature and it doesn't make
sense to try to suppress it by letting children watch unrealistic fiction. A better
pedagogical attitude would be certainly letting them learn to channel their violent
energies to constructive ends and IMHO this is a delicate process.
The movie Avatar for instance is very noteworthy in this respect.
Did-you watch it?
True friendship is based on trust, honesty and sincere generosity of our hearts

Andreas
Associate
Posts: 2274
Joined: Sun Aug 23, 2009 6:07 am

Post by Andreas »

Did-you watch it?
Ofcourse and loved it!

Btw Nermin, check the music thread you gonna love (I hope) what I am about to post there. :)
“To live is enough.” ― Shunryu Suzuki

nandu
Associate
Posts: 3395
Joined: Fri May 31, 2002 12:45 am
Location: Kerala, the green country
Contact:

Re: Violence in Films

Post by nandu »

Nermin wrote:Basically, I think that violence is inherent in human nature and it doesn't make sense to try to suppress it by letting children watch unrealistic fiction. A better
pedagogical attitude would be certainly letting them learn to channel their violent
energies to constructive ends and IMHO this is a delicate process.
I linked this in the other thread also. I think this story is very instructive.

The Toys of Peace

Nandu.
Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavanthu

Locked