Does society tolerant violence which is why violence is so prevalent? There is countless violence movies made available to the public. Some notable violent movies are Eden Lake, Saw, the Good Son, and a book: Crime and Punishment.
A book which has an interesting perspective on violence is Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky. The story is of an intellectual man, Raskolnikov, who is very poor and is tempted to rob money from the landlord. He succumbs to his temptation and commits murder. No one finds out about the murder but he psychologically suffers for his violence and crime or is mentally punished. On the other hand, another character, Sonya, is also very poor and in order to feed her family she submits herself to prostitution. She engages in a lowly job but does not really commit any crime. In this story, violence is a crime and is shown to be wrong no matter what the circumstances. Sonya’s example proves to be an alternative to crime. She serves as a model in contrast with the man to show that there is no excuse for violence. Thus, this is an educational book about violence.
On the other hand, the movie Eden Lake is about a couple who goes into the woods to enjoy themselves but is attacked by a local group of violent teenagers. They play a game of cat and mouse where the woman is hunted down for kill, after her boyfriend is tortured and murdered. After she desperately escapes the woods and the grasp of the teenagers, she collapses on the property of some local adults. These adults turn out to be the friends and family of the violent teenagers. While trying to escape she killed one kid and one teenager from the group. The parents do not care what happened and they blame it all on her because she is an adult and they are “kids”. Many die and nothing gets solved. The violent movie has no meaning. A couple is killed for no good reason. Plainly they die because they were in the wrong place. The parents are violent and thus, the kids are violent. What message does this violent movie bring? Is it to not travel to unfamiliar places or to stay out of the woods? This leads to the question of should parents punish their child when he does wrong? If these kids learned violence from the parents then are who is to blame? Are there enough educational movies to show that violence is bad and enough clinics to help kids learn the correct way?
There is an educational movie that depicts the right way parents should deal with children who are violent. In the movie, The Good Son, the son is jealous of his younger sister and the new boy who comes to live with them. First he kills his baby brother, then his baby sister and then tries to get rid of the new boy who knows of the evil son’s evil nature. Mark or the psychopath son also tries to kill his mother who is starting to doubt her son. The new boy tells the evil boy’s mother and she at first does not believe it. Clues led her to suspect what the new boy says is true. In the end when face with a hard decision in which she can only save one child either her own son or the nephew, she chooses the nephew. Although the movie has a violent aspect to it, the mother chooses the correct way which is to save the one that is not violent or deserves to a chance to live even though it means letting go of her son.
Yet, while there are educational movies of violence like “the Good Son”, there are far more movies depicting plain violence such as the Saw Series. The violent “Saw” movie is very popular that it is already a trilogy but it does not seem to end there. The end of the movie hinges on the release of fourth part. The series does not carry deep meaning or depict justice showing the bad guys getting caught by the good guys. Instead its main imagery is plain violent, gruesome, and cruel. The movie shows many violent images of people getting tortured by traps and kills each other to remain alive. They have to hurt themselves to survive or hurt others. What is the purpose of violent movies like this? Why does society tolerate these movies and allow it to be produced again to become into a popular series?
Another movie which takes a psychological angle to violence is “The Uninvited”. A girl, Anna, kills her father’s girlfriend blaming her father’s girlfriend for the death of her mother and sister. The movie is shown in a way in which you do not find out that she is the killer until the end and that all along she knew what she was doing. Yes, the her father cheated with the nurse while her mother is sick in bed and after her mother dies, this same nurse becomes the girlfriend and almost her stepmother. However, Anna is only placed in the mental institution and ultimately achieved her goals with no consequences. What message would this send to other children? Should not a movie like this which depicts young children being violent show a cry for society to look into the matter of the prevalence of violence in society and that there is too much tolerance of violence?
Violent movies without an educational message only beget more violence. People will learn from these meaningless violent movies thinking that it is fine to be violent. There are more and more movies depicting children as violent. The movies: “Saw,” “The Uninvited,” and “Eden Lake,” shows that there is a need for institutions to address the issue of violence and show that violence is wrong and will be punished. There should be more help for those who are suffering in violent families so that they will not follow in the same footsteps.
There is so much to do to try to fight violence but the effort will be worth it. The reason why violence is so prevalent and violent movies are so popular is because society tolerates violence. There is a huge difference between horror movies and violent movies. The distinction between them should be made clearer. Whereas horror movies aim at depicting fantasy scenarios and have some meaning to it, violent movies target on being gruesome and show imageries that should not be shown. There is no lesson to be learned and justice does not prevail. Mainly, the violent imageries and acts to depict for the enjoyment and violence should not be encouraged this way.
Society successfully tolerates and promotes violence so it should also be able to successfully do the opposite and promote the intolerance of violence so that violence will stop being prevalent. Recognizing the problem is the first step. Society needs to try and resolve the issue of violence. Only then is there hope violence will decrease and we will live in a safer environment and all our educational history will be used for better means than to create violent movies that show people harming others for no good reason.
Sources:
Crime and Punishment
The Good Son (film) The Uninvited
Written by blueage168
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