It’s time for Hollywood to tone down the violence
Aris Christofides, editor of the parental review website Kids in Mind, says violence in movies has become a nuclear arms race in Hollywood. Teenage boys, the coveted audience, want to see action on the big screen that’s more explicit than that on cable TV. In recent years the Motion Picture Association of America, which rates movies, has gotten softer, as studios lobby for more PG-13 ratings to allow high-school kids to buy tickets.
“What I can tell you, we’ve been doing it for 20 years now, and movies are definitely getting more violent,” Christofides says. “There’s definitely more gore. In a PG-13 movie 10 years ago, you expected violence, but not gore. We tend to think of the MPAA as being an independent organization. It’s not. It’s the lobbying arm of the movie industry. What they are trying to do is accommodate marketing decisions.” (The MPAA didn’t respond to my request for a comment.)
Even before Sandy Hook, the Mortal Kombat level of violence in movies was starting to feel unbearable. In Looper, Bruce Willis assassinates little kids. The Watch flopped, after the trailer had echoes of the Trayvon Martin shooting. I remember going to the movies in 1992 and seeing Batman Returns, where a villain fired a gun at Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman. The 2012 version has Bane in the streets of Gotham City, mutilating crowds of women and children with his machine guns.
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It’s time to tone down the attacks on the 1st Amendment.
davidk on January 7, 2013 at 10:18 PM
No it isn’t.
Rode Werk on January 7, 2013 at 10:28 PM
It’s time for Hollywood to shut up and sing.
petefrt on January 7, 2013 at 10:32 PM
Violence in movies has no effect on the audience or society. This is proven by the movie industry charging more and more for product placement advertising.
“Our audience is smart enough to realize that the violence portrayed in our product is not real. But they’re like sheep when it comes to the advertising we hide within the movie itself.”
BobMbx on January 7, 2013 at 10:35 PM
Yeah, it really is.
Do I want to see the government stepping in and trying to censor movies? No, of course not. But Hollywood has, for many years, been turning out an absolute cesspool of filth, both in terms of violence and in terms of sex. It’s time for it to stop.
The author has a very valid point about the MPAA. We all accept their film ratings as though they represent the opinion of some independent body. But the MPAA is Hollywood’s industry association. It’s whole reason for existing is to advance the interest of the Hollywood movie studios. It is no more impartial than are the studios themselves.
What I would advocate is a truly independent agency to provide more accurate and informative film ratings that customers and theater owners can then use to make their own decisions.
Shump on January 7, 2013 at 10:42 PM
If “Hollywood” wants to self-regulate, fine. Whatever. Violent movies would just find another way to the consumer, probably online. Such is the glory of the free market system.
visions on January 7, 2013 at 10:49 PM
No, it really isn’t.
xblade on January 7, 2013 at 11:26 PM
Don’t watch it Shump if you don’t like it.
roy_batty on January 7, 2013 at 11:35 PM
I despise Hollywood. They do deserve criticism and to be trashed for being hypocritical, progressive, sick, anti-American jerks they are.
There is no doubt they have influenced this nation over the last 30-40 years in a negative fashion overall.
Now they have the right to free speech and the government should not be banning anything, although I am open to taxing the heck out of the entertainment industry, mostly Hollywood….after all they were ones screaming about raising taxes on Americans…I say give it to them.
William Eaton on January 7, 2013 at 11:39 PM
No, it’s not time for that. It is time for Hollywood leftards to quit being hypocrites tho.
NoLeftTurn on January 8, 2013 at 1:17 AM
I have a signed copy on my bookshelf. Laura is fairly bitter these days – basically unbearable. She’s like Swalker except she can probably get a date.
No, it really isn’t. But the true-conservatives out there push faux-outrage and base-resentment as patriotism. If somebody claims to be a truecon these days, watch out. They’re just haters and are almost exactly like the liberals they supposedly detest.
As soon as Hollywood elites are compelled to change they will compel us to change – with legislation. Get it? No? OK, try this:
Would you like Ted Nugent silenced? He’s on the board of the NRA. Think about the fallout from him being essentially censored. His views would then be susceptible to sanctions. If you think they’re going to go after the guns of rappers, you’re wrong.
Johnny Cash’s I shot a man just to watch him die will be the object. Ted Nugent’s Motorcity Madman moniker will the target.
Hollywood is a marketplace. Starve the market to tame the beast. All other attacks on personal-freedom are un-American regardless of which side levies them.
Don’t send your kids to the movies you find objectionable. How hard is that? Don’t let them listen to gangsta rap, gangsta rock or watch gangsta films. If your’e not going to be consistent please pick another team.
I’m on Team America. F*ck censorship. My morals are stronger than their lack thereof. My voice will never soften.
Capitalist Hog on January 8, 2013 at 2:00 AM
I believe the discussion about movie violence IS important, but having a knee-jerk reaction to ban such violence is the wrong approach.
Hollywood isn’t anymore responsible for the Sandy Hook shooting than the gun manufacturer who made the weapons used. The person wielding the weapons or trying to live our their fantasy movie is responsible.
The discussion is important because it follows the exact same logic that liberals use against guns. Blame the vehicle of the violence, instead of the actual source. Notice how Hollywood is quick to distance themselves from responsibility. Sorry, the logic don’t add up.
We should also have a cultural discussion about why the lives of the children who are killed from drunk driving are not quite as valuable as those who were killed by guns. How about the children who have had their lives taken from car accidents? Don’t they deserve the kind of national attention we are giving guns?
But naturally, a majority of liberals (I wager) drink alcohol and own cars which they could not live without. They don’t, in a majority, own guns so it is easier to write that off because it doesn’t impact their life.
Like it or not, the constitution protects the rights of everyone. Not just liberals and not just conservatives but everyone. It prevents one side from running over the other when government power changes hands.
So sure, I’ll give up my guns when the liberals surrender their alcohol and vehicles. Deal?
Flashwing on January 8, 2013 at 4:49 AM
Can there be a law that the storylines have to make sense? /
Fallon on January 8, 2013 at 7:41 AM
Honestly, what planet do you people live on ? This IS.NOT.HAPPENING.
Ok ? Do you get that ? How about we use our efforts on something 1) that is actually important, or 2) has ANY chance of happening ?
Or, hey, lets rail on and on about movie “filth” in the downtime between our wars on “low life” sperm donors and “mentally ill sexual deviant” lesbians.
deadrody on January 8, 2013 at 8:10 AM
Our crummy pop culture is alot like the abortion issue – it reflects who we are and requires a moral renaissance in the hearts of the Americans people to solve. Sadly, such things can neither be legislated nor regulated into existance.
abobo on January 8, 2013 at 9:04 AM
I agree, but it’s ironic that some of the greatest movies ever were made during a time when there was pretty strict self-censorship at any rate. How much sex was there in Casablanca?
ddrintn on January 8, 2013 at 9:18 AM