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What are you feelings about violent movies? (1 Viewer)

AaronNWilson

Second Unit
Joined
Jan 28, 2001
Messages
451
I personally really enjoy them and think that there should be more of them. Those basement fighting scenes in fightclub were really gripping and I can still see the blood flying from jared letos face.
Aaron
 

andreasingo

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Jun 9, 1999
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81
I don't enjoy violence but I enjoy violent movies. Not for the violence itself but for the thrill and tension the threat of violence creates, the things we can learn from it and the questions raised.
 

Roland Wandinger

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Feb 13, 2000
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I think it's good for movies like SPR to show all that violence because it really happened that way.
I don't like movies like Pulp Fiction (or any other Q. Tarrantino (sp?) movie) at all because there, violence is show as a "cool thing".
On the other hand I'm not bothered with violence in movies dealing with supernatural themes like Hellraiser or Evil Dead.
 

Dave Morton

Supporting Actor
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Oct 19, 2000
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Dave
I don't mind violent movies because I can differentiate between movies and reality. There are some movies that the violence bothers me, such as Boys Don't Cry, but others that I think it is appropriate, like SPR.
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Neil Joseph

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I used to be kind of into them, now I am not. That's what having kids does to you. I own a few films that could be considered somewhat violent but they are mainstream. I don't like stuff as violent as Robocop and such (yet I have Gladiator and Braveheart).
 

Grant B

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Cartoon Violence/ JAmes Bond(Nobody bleeds in JB, ever notice that) doesn't bother me
Gladiator Braveheart has a basis in history (if anything santized for our protection) - they tell a story which violence is a part of
Saving Private Ryan,which is very difficult for me to watch, `is great because it doesn't glorify war for young people. It shows how random death can be.
Then there is Se7en Diary of a Serial Killer; which really bothers me...sick crap
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Darren H

Second Unit
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I've developed a real sensitivity to screen violence in the last few years. In fact, after reading such rave reviews of Michael Mann's Heat, I bought it unseen, then couldn't stomache it.
My reaction seems to be different from most around here. I think screen violence is only acceptable when the film is, at least in part, about the human consequences of that violence. Since others have mentioned SPR, I'll recommend it as an example of a film that respects the consequences of its images. Violence isn't gratuitous, or exploitative, or entertaining here; it's brutal and (excepting a few trademark Spielberg moments) uncompromising. The same could be said of Boys Don't Cry, a film designed to disturb us. If an audience is able to maintain its emotional distance throughout that film (or Straw Dogs or The Deer Hunter or Taxi Driver or . . .), then the director has failed.
There are obvious exceptions, of course. Satire, for instance. I'm always a bit disturbed to read of people getting "pumped up" by the violence of Fight Club, or A Clockwork Orange, or (to a lesser extent) Fargo. You're really kind of missing the whole point, then.
But I'm steering this dangerously close to another, useless "it's only a movie" thread, so I'll shut up now.
 

Inspector Hammer!

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It's funny, I don't really mind violence in films, with the exception of one particular act of violence, decapitation.
I think that is the most terrible way to die, even seeing it in movies where I know it's fictional. Their was a scene early on in Urban Legends: Final Cut where the killer decapitates a girl with a shard of glass from a broken window, and it really disturbed me for days!
Give me disembowelment, amputation(except the head), gunshot wounds, impalements, whatever, just don't show me decapitaions.
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Bhagi Katbamna

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I don't have a problem with violence in movies but what I can't stand is making criminals look cool(like HEAT, HANNIBAL, etc..).
 

Richard Kim

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I don't have a problem watching action or war movie violence, but I get pretty squeamish watching women getting brutalized in films. I guess that's why I'm not a big fan of slasher films. I had a hard time watching Richard Kimble's wife getting murdered in the beginning of The Fugutive movie, and I was disturbed by the serial killer subplot in Frequency, and these are PG-13 films!
 

KyleK

Second Unit
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Jan 11, 2001
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438
John,
If you don't like decapitations, never watch Highlander.
Actually I have heard it it supposed to be a painless way to die.
Kyle
P.S. Also, never watch any documentaries on early airbag technology.
smile.gif
 

SteveGon

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Depends on the movie. Violence in war films is fine. If it's used to comic effect as in Bad Taste, that's fine as well. Also, violence in satirical films like Robocop doesn't bother me. I used to be into slasher flicks, but no more. Guess I outgrew them because now I can't see the allure - it's all pointless violence. I also don't like it when villians are glorified - there's no excuse for that...
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Chad R

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I think the distinguishing factor is gratuitous violence. When does violence become gratuitous or even glorified? That's the line that filmmaker's have to be conscious of.
For instance, as mentioned, SPR while horifically violent isn't exploitive. It's history, it's immutable and therefore necessary for others to see to appreciate that history.
But in movies like 'Total Recall' where the violence is just heaped on specifically to be violent, that's crossing the line.
'Seven,' is about violence in our world, so it's horrifying but again relevant. It holds a mirror to ourselves and we shouldn't like what we see.
One of the best reviews I'd ever read for Stone's 'Natural Born Killers' said that the film got off on the vioence it condemned. I thought that was brilliant, and indeed Stone did cross the line with that film.
Actually I have heard it it supposed to be a painless way to die.
And who did you hear this from? I always thought the experience left one rather speechless.
 

Brad_W

Screenwriter
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I think violent movies are a great outlet for our primal violent nature. It allows us to see what we won't do. I enjoy them very much and I'm an extremely passive person. I think that when people blame violent movies for violent acts, people are just ignoring their own responsibility, but that's another thread at another time.
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Inspector Hammer!

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Not to get too morbid here, but I heard that a severed head is still fully functional for about 20 seconds. It can still see, hear, smell, think, and worst of all, feel.
I saw a documentary on the History channel about the Guiatine(SP), and they asked a man condemmned to death by Guiatine if he would blink his eyes 10 times afterwards to prove that he still had all his falculties AFTER decapitation. Well after the head came off, they quickly lifted it up, and sure enough, the guy blinked his eye's 10 times.
So I would think that it would be the most aweful way to die if the head can still feel.
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Sandra

Agent
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Jan 22, 2001
Messages
27
I don't mind violence in movies apart from the most extreme graphic one, and then even this one is justified if showed to condemn it not glorify it.
in clear, I don't mind medium gratuitous violence or hard one with a point (as in Midnight Express for example).
Yet I'm extremely sensible to real violence: on the news or real life; few years ago, I spend 24H in Belfast and left because seeing soldiers with guns in the street was making me too uncomfortable so the argument that violent films (which growing up in France I've been legally watching since a teen) makes you more violent or de-sensibilised to violence seems ludicrous to me.
Kids can tell the difference between fiction and reality from a very early age (which is recognised by cartoon-makers: lots of gratuitous extreme violence, yet no-one complain)
 

Morgan Jolley

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First of all, violence in films is fake (except for the ox thing in Apocalypse Now) and shouldn't be taken that seriously. To me, its like saying that Super Mario exists and that he is really hurting those poor turtles in the videogames. Even if a movie has some violence in it, it shouldn't detract from the film, nor should it add to it (unless that is the reason for it being there, like in SPR).
Actually, some people say that violence is more than blood. A character being hit on the head in an animated movie is construed as violence, even if its a light tap and the character is unaffected a moment later. This all falls under a free speech type thing, so I think there is nothing we can do about it (besides boycot). Then again, the studios should understand that some people like violence more than others.
This issue will go on forever, kinda like the OJ trial.
 

Alex Spindler

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My feelings about violence in movies are no different from comedy, passion, or irony in movies. It's an action or emotion that can be handled well or handled poorly. There are no basic situations where I find violence unacceptable. Hannibal makes a villan's violence acceptable, the same as Nightmare on Elm Street 7. However, Hannibal (IMO) does this in service of the story and is used effectively, while Nightmare doesn't. I personally believe Heat handles the consequences of violence to some degree, but more accurately showcases the life and relationship of those on both sides of the law. I think SPR is an oft cited example of the consequence of violence, and it truly does build fleshed out characters whose survival is uncertain and the demise of people is not glorified or sanitized. But in my eyes, that doesn't mean it's the only acceptable violence. There are plenty of examples of comedy that builds it's humor carefully and with great care (example being Rushmore), and should be appropriately lauded as high comedy. But others do so bluntly and often with crude sensibilities. However, these movies aren't necessarily less funny (Something about Mary comes to mind). I think both are valid examples of comedy and represent the best of their examples.
So, to sum up my rambling, I can appreciate violence in movies if it is done well, or in service of the tone or story in a movie. If it is done poorly, then it's in just as bad taste as a Pauly Shore movie.
 

Jack Briggs

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As long as violence is a valid component of the plot, then no problem. It's the gratuitous stuff that causes concern. (Has anyone here seen the final act of Zardoz?)
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