Through the Looking Glass: The World of Movies

This discussion is a continuation of my post "Movies through the Looking Glass" from 8/9/09. Violence in movies is addressed here, with its implications.

I will be discussing movies, in this series, Through the Looking Glass, and other areas that pertain to how we perceive socially acceptable versus socially unacceptable, and how important success, fame and money is in this society. I also will be looking at the phenomenon of the average person, and how the average person is continually overlooked or underestimated in society, in another post to come.

If you look at Movies Through the Looking Glass, you will find that I talk about the phenomenon of how we view success, and actually ignore or downplay average, normal life. I talk a lot about movies, because that is a main vehicle, whether one likes to think of it that way or not, for imparting values, and viewpoints to people. Movies make impacts on people, and they may talk about a movie they saw years ago, or have seen over and over and over again. Cults have grown out of certain campy movies that were produced, for instance zombie movies from the 70's. Like "Night of the Living Dead" and "Rocky Horror Picture Show".

I talk about heroes in movies that are exalted if they are Rambo types, or very successful. Even the deadbeats in movies end up successful at the end, if they are viewed as heroes.

In this segment, I am discussing violence and evil in movies. Violence has gotten worse, as we depict futuristic movies in which people have diabolical natures, and may try to wipe out alien societies, as in Avatar, or each other, or even aliens that come to earth that will test the nature of man, like in the movie The Box. And in some of these societies, the diabolical types rise to power. Evil societies plant brain chips in people's minds to manipulate them, such as in the new movie with Cuba Gooding called Hardwired, which is a very good sci fi movie. One only has to ask why, since in real life, do we even want to talk to people like that, let alone give them power?

Also, there is a lot of violence, and shoot em up scenes in which people are shot at through a line of fire that sounds like popping popcorn, with rock music to boot, and people fall like flies, with no consideration for their lives whatsoever. I think that when a movie is made, the writers or producers feel that ok, since we didn't get to know the character in the movie, it won't be that traumatic. That in itself is horrifying, since it devalues human life just from the sheer quickness and lack of attachment with which this happens. Just look at the spy movies, like the James Bond series, or futuristic movies, such as Mad Max from the 80's, or the very depressing and stark current movie, The Road, or war movies, gangster movies, or any movies which show gunfire. Even the comic book movies, such as The Dark Knight, in which the late Heath Ledger delivered a brilliant performance of a deranged, psychotic character called The Joker. He was so dark and realistic, that it was hard to watch. Not to mention, many young people, including teenagers, attended this movie.

Slasher movies, such as the multitude of Halloween series with Michael in the mask, Pumpkin Head, and other types of serial killer movies are very popular, as they are so horrific. Hannibal Lechter from the Silence of the Lambs is a morbidly intelligent and horrifying character that made everyone know Anthony Hopkins as having branded that role. The evil is so exaggerated and so overt, one has to wonder why this type of character is even in the minds of the people putting together the movies, the writers, the producers? Evil sells, and so evil is depicted in movies, while people will munch on popcorn in the dark.

There is a morbid fascination for people to see vampire movies, such as the Anne Rice Vampire Chronicles, from the 90's, with a sullen main character that perpetually tries to flee his original "maker", or more recently, Twilight, in which vampires are likeable and are "vegetarian". I'm not exempt to finding some vampire stories fascinating, since I also like the movie Twilight. Perhaps I like the movie because it shows some good vampires that don't really have a choice in their fate to walk among the living, and that try to eradicate bad vampires that prey upon humans.

There are some inspiring movies that came out recently, such as Blind Side, with Sandra Bullock, that plays a spunky Southern mom that takes in a very mature teen into her home that was homeless, showing compassion and humanitarianism. There are other movies too, such as Extraordinary Measures, in which a father will go through giving up his job and recruiting a biochemist in his quest to find an answer for a horrible neurological illness that two of his three children have. Precious is another movie worth seeing, that shows an underprivileged and abused girl that had very low self esteem that was able to break away from the abuse cycle that she had been experiencing since her very early childhood.

There are a few redeeming movies. But for the few redeeming movies that show the compassionate, and kind side of human nature, there are more than tenfold of the violent and dark movies that show evil and lack of compassion.

I'm going to see Shutter Island so I will let you know my impressions of that. It's supposed to be a dark thriller.

In future articles from Through the Looking Glass, I may only review one movie, address issues, or talk about some of the other topics that I mentioned at the beginning of this article.

Have a wonderful week!