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A Discussion of Violence and the Movies - Page 2

© John Lovett

Movies can also grasp the obvious and let us see things we would normally ignore. This is the "Emperor's New Clothes" phenomena. WAG THE DOG is a good example of this.

Truth can imitate art. Art can imitate truth. But censorship because some disturbed members of our society cannot respond appropriately to stress? At some point, there comes a place where parental responsibility takes over. There is an OFF switch on the TV as well as on a computer. If you are a parent, use it. If you are an adult, if you don't like what you are watching turn the d...ned thing off. Geez. What the movie industry does not need is another Hayes Commission deciding what we, the American public, can see or what it cannot see.

Certain experts have expressed the opinion that as a society the American public has become so exposed to motion picture violence that we don't even see it. This is the "delayed stress syndrome" analysis. In other words, that veteran just returned from Vietnam, Iraq, Albania, or wherever is going to suddenly jump up and start shooting innocent people on the subway because he just saw combat, don't you know. Or, better, some youngster is going to do the same thing because he just saw THE GREEN BERETS. Well, my response to those experts is poppycock. But, I guess that makes better copy, and movies, than the millions of veterans who return home and just want to get on with their lives.

Next week: My review of THE MUMMY from a military point of view. Royal Air Corps?

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