Society has been subjected to many violent acts over the course of its history. Although violence is immoral and wrong, somehow people everyday condone and commit violence for countless reasons. Many Hollywood films glorify mindless violence to their advantage and captivate audiences through its entertaining shock value and rake large box office profits. Car chases, crashes and glorified gladiator sword fights are all familiar scenes in which violence is portrayed in an unrealistic glamorised manner.
Alternatively, many directors aim to portray violence in a far more realistic way as it aims not to condone it. Instead, they seek to show the true repercussions of violent acts among society. Hany Abu-Assad (Paradise Now) and Tony Kaye (American History X) intend to challenge and create an alternative view to violence through the way they portray it. They all demonstrate the vicious and futile cycle of violence and how it is a useless notion that only sparks more terror and misery. Further, they seek to show an understanding to the audiences of just why people succumb to such violent acts, opening a window into the world of the perpetrators and how they perceive violence as an answer to their struggles. Both films deal with different issues of violence, however, fundamentally sustain the same profoundness. They all seek to teach peace through violence in the way they depict violent acts and hateful behaviour as senseless and wrong, aiming for the moral message to transcend
Humans are drawn to acts of a primal nature. Raw, passionate, and vastly entertaining; primal instincts have always been at the root of human behavior. Archeologists say that the first humans were found with spearheads embedded in their ribcage. Mankind’s curiosity will always be sparked by the thought of bloodshed. Just look at the entertainment we as a species hold most dear; violent action films, movies about war, videogames based solely on the concept of killing the opponent, the list in never-ending. The fascination around violent acts is understandable. Since the invention of society, the act of killing another human has been frowned upon by the rest of society. The contrast of the acts of violence to the norms of everyday life are hard
At a young age, I learned that violence is not okay. I did not live in the nicest neighborhood but I did not live in the worst neighborhood.
In his book, More Than a Movie: Ethics in Entertainment, F. Miguel Valenti examines nine “hot buttons” of violence – “creative elements that filmmakers use to manipulate viewers’ reactions to onscreen violence.” (99) These elements, posited by researchers conducting The National Television Violence Study (Valenti, 99) are “choice of perpetrator, choice of victim, presence of consequences, rewards and punishments, the reason for the violence, weapons, realism, use of humor, and prolonged exposure” (Valenti, 100) .
What has America come to? Although the articles, “We’re No.1(1)!” written by Thomas Friedman, and the article “Violence is Who We Are,” by Steven Crichley, have different overall subjects, they have a similar arguments. The world isn’t as great as it used to be, we are lacking good leadership, and we happily invite wrong doings into our lives.
Acts of violence are detrimental when regarding its effects on human emotion. When exposed to too much violence, a person’s perception on society and even themselves begins to be altered. Nevertheless, just as violence can be disadvantageous to people, it can also be seen as an advantage as it causes citizens to realize that change needs to occur. In “Great to Watch,” the author, Maggie Nelson, discusses how society, especially Americans, have become desensitized to violence. Nelson also goes into depth to explain how society has become accustomed to violence due to the fact that people are exposed to it on a daily basis. In addition, Beth Loffreda discusses and explains the effects that a violent hate crime had on the town of Laramie, Wyoming
One popular theory suggests that many murderers are the product of our violent society. Our culture tends to approve of violence and find it acceptable, even preferable, in many circumstances (Holmes and DeBurger 27): According to research done in 1970, one out of every four men and one out of every six women believed that it was appropriate for a husband to hit his wife under certain conditions (Holmes and DeBurger 33). This emphasis on violence is especially prevalent in television programs. Violence occurs in 80 percent of all prime-time shows, while cartoons,
Richard Rhodes the author of “Hollow Claims about Fantasy Violence” expresses that the media’s portrayal of violence has no influence on those that view it. One of the first tactics that Rhodes used was by attacking the flaws of Organizations who blamed entertainment for the issues of violent behaviors. He claims that due to increased social control over the years has caused a decline in violence. Rhodes’ used thought-provoking tactics attempting to disprove that violence is influenced from the media instead he believes that violence is stemmed from personal violent encounters. Although Rhodes brought about very good points to dispute that violence is not caused by entertainment, it is not convincing.
Sissela Bok opens a controversial topic on violence as entertainment which explores the effect of the increasing of violence both in fiction and in real life. Not only do films, television shows, and video games evidence an escalating level of graphic violence, but daily news of war and other human brutality are as bad as well. As less time pass on doing physical activities and an increase in using electronic devices as increases, particularly by teens, there is growing concern about a possible link between violence viewing content and actual behavior. Bok draws a balanced image, naming some possible benefits from violence. One of the benefits could be the redirection of human physical and verbal aggression and the confrontation of fears in
On average, nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner in the United States. During one year, this equates to more than 10 million women and men. 1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men have been victims of some form of physical violence by an intimate partner within their lifetime. When judges come across domestic violence cases, they are often frowned upon. Because we live in a world there are huge double standards when it comes to domestic violence and our men are on the bad end of the deal. When a man commits domestic violence he is punished very harshly. But when a woman commits domestic violence she gets cheers, chuckles or is all too often ignored.
The author introduces the topic by addressing people’s tendency to be addicted to violence in movies, as well as Hollywood movie makers, yet mass shootings are basically nonexistent on screen, which seems strange “considering how much money Hollywood contributes toward depicting violence.” A reason for that would be that film makers wouldn’t make money out of subjects people feel uncomfortable with. Hollywood glorifies
Violence in movies needs to be decreased. When has it been okay to promote violence? We want to teach our kids that violence is never the answer. Then why have children watch movies that show violence in a presumptuous way? Statistics show that violence has reduced in the last 10 years, but the rate of violent crimes is still too high. Kaplan says, “Nearly two-thirds of TV programs contain some physical violence”(Kaplan). Any type of violence can play a role in the mental corruption of a person. The physical violence can take the biggest toll on someone. If someone watches physical violence from a movie, they could
The adversarial process protects people from harm and violence because of how the system itself is set up. Thus, the law cannot hurt the plaintiffs and defendants more than it can help them because there is an entire process that includes jurors, lawyers, and witnesses who ensure one person does not have too much power to harm them in the first place. Think of the law as a contract between the people and the government on how to live together. If we break a law we are accepting the consequences that are made to protect the general public. The law is actually supposed to help solve the inequality and violence that happens in our modern world. For example, someone who ends up in the court system is usually believed to have violated someone else’s rights or broken rules in which we agree to live by in this society. The judge, lawyers, and members from the community help decide whether or not the defendant receives any penalties. We need the system to aid the community, therefore when we find an inequality or loophole in the system, we work as a community to change it.
Violence depends on the personality and character traits of young adults and children. A child or teenager who has been brought up in an abusive family and has been hit as a child will be more likely to act out against other people especially if they have just seen a violent film. The character’s of the movie will eventually get a huge number of fan followers and the attitude’s portrayed by the heroes in the film will be followed by someone since they feel identify in there real life situation’s. The worst part is when a fan will copy the act performed, although they will risk their own lives.
and shows as well as advertising on television do perform the examples of violence and physical
In the book Critique of Violence ,author Walter describes Violence as "The intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, which either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, male development, or deprivation .The violence that is portrayed in the media has been debated for decades ,and it has rose a question about how does it influence the youth?. From movies to video games society has been accustom to seeing violence in their everyday entertainment. Since children are easy to be influence by their environment, it is safe to say that violence in the media can and will contribute to violent behavior.