Gunman opens fire on TDKR cinema audience killing 12

I don't deny that I have a problem with the violence in the more recent films, particularly TOMORROW NEVER DIES and CASINO ROYALE.

Yeah, it seems that Bond running around the stealth boat blazing away with a machine-gun came across as more like the Terminator/Rambo to some, and the 'with bare hands' kill at the end of the stairwell fight seemed to shock some people ... although I think it's fair to say that the scene afterwards of Bond in the bathroom shows that he WAS affected by it. Think the torture scene disturbed some, too.

Largo's Shark wrote:

That's the standard argument (misdirection) against filmmakers and videogame designers/developers having responsibility. "Blame it on the individual and his circumstances. He's just a small statistic. He was bound to crack anyway."

It's too easy, and deflects attention away from a more difficult question.

Far from it imo, any consideration of the individual poses a much more complex consideration than the simplistic broad brush of 'blame the media'. While it may indeed be legtimately blamed for being the trigger in a particular instance the inability to account for why many many others, myself included, felt no such inclination to comit violence given the exact same stimulus is more than evidence a real understanding of the problem has yet to be found. Our desire to generalise is an attempt to simplify and thats where we often end up missing the most important points.

lachesis wrote:

While it may indeed be legtimately blamed for the trigger in a particular case the inability to account for why many many others, myself included, felt no such inclination to comit violence is more than evidence a real understanding of the problem has yet to be found.

Obviously the problem is multi-dimensional, with media desensitising and the effect of the internet on human behavior, being but one, and one that not just erodes the psyche of these susceptible individuals, but also erodes our society and culture as whole. It's a broad question but not a simple one, since the answers are very challenging. Obviously we don't want media censorship in the form of another Hayes Code, so what do we do?

Beats me, but I think Bogdanovich's focus on gun control is missing the point. Take away guns, and they'll use knives, chainsaws, bolt guns, blow torches, or whatever.

It's the responsibility of filmmakers (I won't say artists, since Chris Nolan sure ain't one) to ask and attempt to answer these questions. Leave the Second Amendment tug of war match to the politicians and gun activists, and the individual case-by-case analyses to the criminal psychologists, doctors, families and courts.

Largo's Shark wrote:

but I think Bogdanovich's focus on gun control is missing the point. Take away guns, and they'll use knives, chainsaws, bolt guns, blow torches, or whatever.

I do agree with the possibility to buy automic rifles what purpose do those really serve?

And yes they'll use knives etc. but for those some skill is required unlike a gun that is basicly pointing it somewhere and pulling the trigger. And in a crowed place it is shooting fish in a barrel. While with a knife or sword or even a chainsaw it aquires a far more personal nearness and some skill. Otherwise you get your ass kicked. imho

Largo's Shark wrote:

More about movie violence deadening our senses. He's a draws a good example to a scene in a recent Andre Techine movie that is a hell of a lot more violent than anything Nolan's ever shot, yet presents real consequences for it. That's the difference, and why he brings up that Pauline Kane quote about how Arthur Penn's BONNIE AND CLYDE brought a "sting back to death." Nolan's films lack that sting, and therefore the violence becomes trivialised.

A film critic may be perceptive enough to make the distinction, but we have a significant portion of the populace that lacks the ability to distinguish between the violence in, say, TAXI DRIVER or the violence in a Tarantino film, and receive them mostly in the same way. That's the deeper, more troubling issue here.