Violence and The Cinema

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iacrobat

War Child
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I am just wondering what peoples' thoughts are on violence in films.

I have been mulling this over for a while now and I don't know exactly what to make of it. All this talk of the Passion has made to start to think about it more.

For example, I have seen Kill Bill, which is excessively violent and didn't bother me, but I am not interested in seeing The Passion for this very same reason. Can the two films be compared? Or am I being inconsistent?

If violence is presented in a cartoonish way (Kill Bill), does it make okay? Or is it trivialising something that ought not to be trivialised?
 
Violence is often important in film because it can truly convey a situation in a particular way, Kill Bill uses gore in a stylistic anime way to make its violence cool but The Passion uses it to show great suffering and pain. As examples both films use violence to their advantage. In other situations not showing but inferring the violence can be really good in shocking the audience (im thinking here of The Sixth Sense where that Ghost kid had the back of his head blown off by a shotgun but you only see it when he turns around, uhhh). Violence is only bad when it doesn't fit into the medium, war films must show war for what it is and not in a glossed over manner (think Pearl Harbour versus Platoon). In my opinion people have a right to see what they want to see (as long as nobody gets hurt or any laws are broken and over a certain age) because violence in film does not allways trivialize violence and can very often influence peoples concepts of issues.
 
I'm not sure if I'm misunderstanding your post iacrobat, but if I got it right - then I am the same. Violence doesn't usually bother me, but I am more than a little put off by the reviews on the violence in The Passion. I dont think I can sit through it.
I dont think violence itself is any more unnessecary than other facets of the uglier side of humanity.
 
For me it all depends on how violence is presented. In a film like Kill Bill, it's so cartoonish and ridiculously over-the-top I can't seriously relate it to real life, and I do like black humour done well. But the reviews of violence in the Passion do put me off a lot. There just doesn't seem to be much point to it besides showing how much Jesus suffered, and I think I get the idea from just reading the graphic descriptions and looking at blood-drenched screenshots without actually sitting through the film.
 
Violence is necessary to show the uglier side of humanity Angela, I think you're right there. I guess the trick is when and how to use it in a film.

However I don't want to see the Passion because I don't want to subject myself to the violence in the film, it is the same reason I have never seen Schindler's List.

Responding to A_Wanderer, is it okay for Kill Bill to make it's violence cool? I am not sure Kill Bill is different from your average Arnie movie.

A couple of days ago I saw a film called Te Doy Mis Ojos (I give you my eyes) which is about domestic violence. There is no scene where he is actually hitting her, the fear she conveys through her performance is enough to make you understand how she has been affected. For this I thought the film was excellent.
 
This probably has a lot to say about society but war violence, people being shot, etc. usually doesn't bother me I can distance myself from it because it's a movie and the settings are usually circumstances I would never be in. At my age I will never fight in a war, I will never be in a sword fight, and I will never be in a big Hollywood type blow em up chase scene. But the violence that is hard for me to watch is the violence that is everyday brutal human on human violence. Graphic rape scenes, the face to the curb scene in American History X, and the baseball bat scene in Casino; these are hard for me to watch. Not that I think they should be eliminated from movies, I just think there is a difference in the type of violence.
 
i dont know...vioence in movies has always been around, so for the public to pick on Passion of Christ for its "violent" content is kind of stupid.
 
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I doubt that forty years ago films as graphically violent as the Passion or Kill Bill.
 
icelle said:
i dont know...vioence in movies has always been around, so for the public to pick on Passion of Christ for its "violent" content is kind of stupid.

I think there are some that pick on the Passion because they felt it got to the point of being excessive, but I think most picked on the hypocricy of the churches endorsing this movie when they preached against violence in films in the past.
 
violence in movies is used to make a show between good and bad, the righteous and the wicked...the most movie producers and a lot of film-makers give a lot of money to make senseless movies crammed with violence just to have a deep impact with criticians, journalists, just to appear like the real illustrators of life, and they don't care about how offensive they may be and most of all how much negative impressions they may leave in childrens minds
 
BonoVoxSupastar said:


I think there are some that pick on the Passion because they felt it got to the point of being excessive



i dont think it was excessive.
 
icelle said:




i dont think it was excessive.

But that's your opinion and that's fine, I don't agree with you but that's fine, but you should be careful about saying you think people criticizing it for being violent is stupid. There are many on this board that did think it was excessive.
 
there's other movies out there with rape, murder, etc...

i dont understand how anyone can say Passion is more violent than the others. i think they're picking on the movie because of the fact its about Jesus, not because its violent.
 
No need to be defensive icelle, no one is picking on The Passion in this thread. Apparently it IS very violent, everyone seems to agree on that point.

Rape and murder in other films don't justify what some people see as excessive violence in The Passion. Personally, I don't like watching rape scenes either, so itmakes no difference to me that they exist in other films.

If you have issues specifically about The Passion, I believe there is another thread open on the topic.
 
no, i wasn't being defensive, just stating my opinion.

i guess after seeing the movie, i was a bit "let down" so to speak cuz everyone kept saying "omg its soooo violent" and it just didnt faze me that much. sure i got emotional, because of the suffering jesus went thru, but the violence, meh. it wasn't all that it was hyped to be, imo.
 
As BVS pointed out, some violence is very moving or disturbing. The Passion moved people on two levels - the violence and suffering and the spiritual message (which many can find disturbing).

Most films leave violence on a near comic level - few really wince when it appears on screen.
 
Yes, violence can be moving or disturbing. But why is it necessary? Do I gain anything from witnessing the re-enactment of Christ's crucifixion or from seeing people murdered en masse in Schindler's List? Is my understanding furthered in any way?

For example, I have had many people tell me that I must see Schindler's List, but I am not convinced.
 
iacrobat said:
Yes, violence can be moving or disturbing. But why is it necessary? Do I gain anything from witnessing the re-enactment of Christ's crucifixion or from seeing people murdered en masse in Schindler's List? Is my understanding furthered in any way?

Consider a parallel with discrimination. We cannot "understand" discrimination at the same level as those who suffer discrimination.

With violence, a visualization takes us well beyond the intellectual understanding of violence.
 
nbcrusader said:


Consider a parallel with discrimination. We cannot "understand" discrimination at the same level as those who suffer discrimination.

With violence, a visualization takes us well beyond the intellectual understanding of violence.

The re-enactment of a violent act is just another's visualisation, something I am capable of myself.

If we use discrimination as the example, watching it doesn't really give you the ability to understand what it feels like if it's not you being discriminated against. You are still outside the experience, just a passive viewer.

Hearing an account of discrimination or violence is not just an "intellectual" experience, it is a very emotive experience as well, perhaps more so.
 
Not to change the subject, but what drives me crazy is how US society is totally ok with people getting gunned down and chopped up, but not ok with some nudity or sex. I don't think that the nudity should be shown on prime time (Janet) but I think as a whole, the US should lighten up a little but when it comes to nudity and sex.
 
iacrobat said:
Yes, violence can be moving or disturbing. But why is it necessary? Do I gain anything from witnessing the re-enactment of Christ's crucifixion or from seeing people murdered en masse in Schindler's List? Is my understanding furthered in any way?

For example, I have had many people tell me that I must see Schindler's List, but I am not convinced.

There's much more to Schindler's List than just people being murdered en masse. Yes, there are scenes of killings and suffering, but ultimately the movie is focussed on the story of the people who survived and the man who saved them. It's one amazing story IMO.

I'd be much more interested in Passion if it wasn't so relentlessly focussed on Christ's last hours. What ultimately moves me about Christ is his life and his teachings, not his death.
 
Schindler's List and The Passion are 2 VERY DIFFERENT movies:

Schindler's List didn't focus on the violence as its main theme, whereas Passion did. In my opinion, that's why Schindler's List is a more quality film than Passion. The Passion didn't teach me anything new about Christ, it took no different point of view such as a movie like "Last Temptation of Christ" To me, Passion left me with a bad taste in my mouth, because of its showboating of violence.

Schindler's List on the other hand, told me a story that was moving, and not because of its violence. Because of its CHARacters, its plot, and a unique interpretation, not to mention brilliant direction and cinematography. You got to know those characters inside and out.
 
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