MEST 4: January 2016

How is Violence Represented in Hollywood films such as The Dark Knight Rises?

"Violence is one of the greatest things you can do in cinema; Edison invented the camera to do violence, all right?”[1] .Quentin Tarantino has unsarcastically said this in relation to violence in the film industry. This accentuates how a well-known content creator feels that violence is more important than anything else in films. Although 2012’s great blockbuster films The Dark Knight Rises has increased its revenue dramatically it also undoubtedly has been criticised for glamourising violence, within our society. Despite having massive Hollywood movies such as The Dark Knight Rises becoming profitable, people are supposedly criticising movies for making people being desensitized with violence? To justify this critical investigation on how violence is represented in movies is that there have been many cases in the recent years that signified the influence of violence from movies. In contrast there are findings that suggest violence does not increase the number of violent cases. We can also witness the use of violence in historical films such as Natural Born Killers to have supposedly influenced violent cases amongst society. Even though there are many factors that contribute to violent cases. I found that during the course of my research, killers have been represented as media celebrities in the news, which could be a reason as to why many people commit these crimes. However, this cannot be the sole reason as to why people commit violent crimes; it could be certain aspects within movies. This is why I have decided to carry out a critical investigation on my primary and secondary texts.

When researching how violence is represented in Hollywood films, one film that has steered up controversy in the past is my secondary text Natural Born Killers. Oliver Stone directed this movie and Quentin Tarantino wrote the screenplay. The sole reason there has been controversy regarding Natural Born Killers is that there have been many violent cases linked to the movie. Natural Born Killers story is about two lovers who go around killing people and leave one victim to tell the tale in which they become a media sensation because of the killings being reported. This lead a book to suggest, “Natural Born Killers focuses – often ironically – on the promotion and popularisation of charismatic young Americans who murder and commit violent crimes”[2]. From this quote by Annalee Newitz, we can infer there have been copycat violent cases with relation to Natural Born Killers so that people can become celebrated for as the characters within the movie were. Also the book went on to suggest this: “In movies like Natural Born Killers, Americans look critically at their pleasure in murder as much as they celebrate murder itself”[3]. This could be a reason as to why there have been cases of copycat violence.

The writer of Natural Born Killers Quentin Tarantino is also a director in which has stated “violence is so good” and further carried on to say, “I feel like a conductor and the audiences feelings are my instruments. I will be like laugh, laugh now be horrified”[4]. A reason as to why Quentin Tarantino has been increasing the level of violence is because of the growing budget of the movies he directs. One his previous movies ‘Django Unchained’ had a budget of more than 100 million dollars[5]. Also the article had to say “If you want to jolt audiences on the cheap, you do it through swearing. If you want to do it with a budget, you slice people in half”[6]. There is a bigger budget for directors to work with than years ago because of the profits from the mass audiences watching movies such as The Dark Knight Rises so directors use violence to engage audiences rather than verbally which may not grab the audience’s attention.

Furthermore a primary text researched was a Hollywood blockbuster The Dark Knight Rises that was released in 2012, directed by Christopher Noland and starring Christian Bale as Batman. This movie has also been scrutinised in the media for having an effect on audiences due to the violence presented in the film however from a few violent cases we cannot argue that The Dark Knight Rises violence influenced this. In July 2012 there was a mass shooting at a theatre in which James Holmes went into the theatre showing The Dark Knight Rises and killed 12 people and leaving 50 others injured. Amongst the people in the theatre there was a three month old baby, child aged 6[7]. From this tragic event there were questions raised as to why a three month old baby and six year old were allowed to watch such a film with a PG-rating of 13.

This shooting also had been linked to The Dark Knight Rises as James Holmes wore a gas mask like bane seen in the movie. However other research concluded that James Holmes had a mental illness and in fact was schizophrenic and had an episode at the time of the shooting[8] and could be the reason for carrying out one of the worst considered mass shootings. In addition to James Holmes being schizophrenic and prior on this tragic event, he was studying for a PHD in neuroscience[9], which suggest that James Holmes was normal but then what could have made James to go into a theatre and carry out a mass shooting. James Holmes was also a frequent player of video games which may lead to suggest that video game violence played a part in this mass shooting[10].

Also another violent case took place in the screening of The Dark Knight Rises in which a police offer beat up a mentally ill batman fan[11]. From these two cases within a The Dark Knight Rises theatre screening, this leads to wonder whether the violence in the movie has triggered these actions. When The Dark Knight Rises was playing in that theatre, there was a three-month-old baby. Questions are raised as to why a three month old baby was allowed to watch a movie with a certain degree of violence in[12].

Moving aside from mass shooting linked to The Dark Knight Rises, the movie did extremely well in the box office as the movie made 1 billion dollars globally making the movie one of the highest earners of that year[13]. This means there is a mass audience who see this movie as a source of entertainment to maybe relieve stress. In addition to the positive from The Dark Knight Rises, there was an early premiere for bloggers who only had positive things to say about the film in which they shared onto their social media[14]. From this we can learn that majority of mass audiences have enjoyed the movie and has been criticized due to few tragedies linking to the movies.

When looking at the first fight scene in The Dark Knight Rises, there were certain aspects that portray Bane who is the villain as more powerful. The villain Bane has a height of 5'9 so shots for this scene had low angles for Bane which made Bane look more superior and powerful to Batman. In addition, diegetic sounds can be heard as Bane’s punches can be heard as very loud and adding more powerful dramatic sound effects to make bane look superior. Ultimately, Bane defeats Batman which demonstrates to the audience that the villain is more controlling. As a result this is why James Holmes may have decided to commit a mass shooting. Christopher Nolan who is the director of the movie has said he wanted to change the norm to excite audiences[15].

Violence in movies is now seen as a moral panic by some people that reinforce Stanley Cohen’s theory. This means that people believe others who watch violent movies are seen to believe what is represented on screen and then encourages audiences to commit violent movies. However the academic research does suggest otherwise. One more theory which relates to mass media being influenced by violence is the hypodermic needle theory. This relates as some people watching movies such as The Dark Knight Rise may result in committing crimes.

Questions have also been raised on the social responsibilities and whether more needs to be done by parents to restrict children to watch violent movies and commit copycat violence[16]. People also believe that the media always blames the film industry when any isolated act of violence occurs as an article stated “Every time some isolated act of violence occurs, the media and the left look for a societal problem to blame”.

There are many academic studies that had argued for and against violence in moves such as The Dark Knight Rises having an effect on people. A result for a study was that watching violent movies makes people more aggressive. This could then influence people in committing violence as seen in these movies and supports the fact people commit violent crimes through the influence of movies such as The Dark Knight Rises. Also the article stated “watching violent movies really does make people more aggressive – but only if they have an abrasive personality to start with”[17]. From this we can learn that peoples personality can also cosign why people commit copycat violent crimes and not from a movie showing violence. A continuation into my research another study showed those parents that are exposed to content become more accepting of the content. This study also showed that parents who viewed short clips repeatedly become more accepting and reduced the age ratings for those movies each time. This means that movies that may have been seen many times by parents may have allowed their children to watch violent films who then shouldn’t have done so. Also when discussing parents and their social responsibility of restricting their children to watch violent films to make sure they are not easily influenced in committing copycat crimes. There has been a study that revealed parents are more concerned with sex than violence. A staggering 80% of parents are more concerned about sex rather than violence in which only 56% of parents are worried about violence[18]. From this study we can say that because parents are more worried about sex, parents may allow their children to watch violent movies that do not have explicit sex scenes which fit the PG-13 ratings or 12A in the case for The Dark Knight Rises. Also children are seen as vulnerable and may not be able to differentiate between reality and movies.

Another study has portrayed violence in movies to make people more likely to cheat for monetary gain as well as causing aggressive behavior[19]. This is a negative impact on society in which could result in reality crime increasing. Crime rates in cities of America including Los Angeles is increasing[20] however some argue that movie violence does not influence this. People that do not agree with movie violence influencing crime may believe other factors such as chronic unemployment, poverty and the Ferguson effect[21]. An FBI report from 2014 said that from 2007 to 2013 there was a 16.4 active shooter incident average in the USA, every year which is more than 150% from 2000 and 2006[22].

However crime rates have also been at an all-time low since 1978 in America[23]. This leads to suggest that violent movies do not have an impact on audiences because movies are becoming more violent in which statistics do not have any correlation to crime being as low since 1978.

A report published within a book suggested that mass media violence is desensitising people which makes them more hostile and aggressive to perform violent acts[24].However the outcome was that there was no overall violence effect onto people and perhaps even reduce the level of violence in society[25]

One more study has been published which looked at the most violent movies with the ages of people that have seen the movies. From the study, the results showed "The 40 violent movies were seen by a median of 12.5% of an estimated 22 million US adolescents aged 10 to 14 years"[26]. This study shows that the percentage of children consuming the most violent movies is not that high, which can be a positive to show that violent movies do not influence children of aged 10-14 to commit copycat violence as the media blames.

Important factors that control what audiences access different types of films is the censorship and regulation. Others may argue that certain aspects in movie violence influence violent cases in reality. Of all movies in 2014, an article stated that 93% of them included at least one gunfight[27]. This statistic may distinguish the reason that gun violence within movies is the reason of violent cases amongst society. Also the article that went on to state that a study from 2013 showed that there was more gun violence in PG-13 rated movies then R rated movies. This study questions the regulation within the censorship boards and whether they need to be doing more to prevent children watching violence that may cause violence influence.

In America guns are seen as readily available, this may be also another reason for frequency of violent cases. There was a case linked to violence movies in which Hollywood blamed the guns available at a gun lobby in which the gun lobby blamed the movies for glamourising violence[28]. We cannot neglect this factor for violent cases in America so the real question from this that needs to be answered is what is America doing to help restrict the access to powerful weaponry that may influence violent cases? If it was made more difficult for people to gain access to guns, then this may reduce the level of violent cases in America. Recently, the president of America Barack Obama has “US President Barack Obama has strongly criticised the most powerful US gun lobby during a televised public forum”[29]. From this we can understand there is a moral panic which America are trying solve in which making fire arms much less accessible.

An alternative view is that people watching violent movies, helps to reduce the level of crime. The study: "From 6 p.m. to midnight on weekends — when the largest numbers of people are in theaters — violent crimes decreased 1.3 percent for every million people watching a strongly violent movie, the study found"[30]. As a result violent movies do have positives such as reducing crime rates and do not account for all negativity as represented in the media.

Children’s movies also have an extensive amount of violence and should be regulated by the BBFC. This includes shootings in children’s movies such as Bambi, Peter Pan and Pocahontas. Also there is stabbings presented in Sleeping Beauty and The Little Mermaid[31]. With violence in these movies there are chances of children being influenced and reenact these types of violence’s as children are seen as vulnerable and cannot distinguish between movies and reality.

From reading this critical investigation the perception from the Quentin Tarantino mentioning this: “Violence is one of the greatest things you can do in cinema; Edison invented the camera to do violence, all right?”[32] has probably changed your opinion. This is because of the many factors that are not accounted for in which could trigger violent cases in reality. In this essay I found there are positives as well as negatives from violence in films such as The Dark Knight Rises. These factors include other reasons for violence crimes such as the availability of guns, chronic unemployment and the Fergusson effect. In contrast there is academic research that argues for violence influence from films. Also there is academic research that argues against violence influence from films. In addition to other factors, the censorship and regulation board plays may play a part in the content being shown to certain audiences. Even when people have argued that crimes increasing due to violent movies, there is a report that crime has been the lowest since 1978. Although this is an ongoing debate as to who to blame, there are several factors from and outside the film industry.

Word count - 2829

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[2] Newitz, A. (1999), page 65

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[4] Telegraph, T. (2010, 01 12)

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[6] IBID

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[8] Martinez, M. (2015, 08 5)

[9] SCPR. (2015, 06 16)

[10] Hicap, J. (2015, 10 18)

[11] Shammas, J. (2015, 06 29)

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[15] Turner, P. (2013)

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MEST 4

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