Monkey see, monkey…fight?

How many of you have ever seen violence in films? What’s that? All of you? Hhmmm, interesting. But far from surprising.

It could be as laughable as the Hugh Grant and Colin Firth ‘fight’ scene (for want of a better word) in Bridget Jones, or it could be as needlessly gratuitous as virtually any scene in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or the (literally) eye-popping torture scene in Casino…either way, it’s safe to say we’d all struggle to find a single film which doesn’t have some form of fisticuffs in (even Toy Story has a few fights in it!).

And if certain ‘experts’are to be believed, the scenes in these films are the driving force behind much of the violence in real life.

And I wonder…how much truth is there in this?

Personally, I’m not convinced by the cinematic conspiracy theories. Maybe that’s because I’m not so easily swayed, and maybe because I’m too ‘in control’ and won’t let Hollywood shove me over the edge into insanity. But ask yourself – seeing that all of us have witnessed countless examples of violence on the silver screen, and yet (as far as I know) none of you reading this have gone on to commit any atrocities or acts of hate…how much impact do these movies have?

I mean just because I’ve seen 'Catch Me If You Can', does that mean I'm going to become a world-renowned fraudster? No. Because I've seen 'Trainspotting', am I going to develop an insatiable heroin addiction? Or because I’ve seen 'Withnail and I' going to start downing lighter fluid? Or because I’ve seen 'Wedding Crashers', am I going to hit weddings to pick up girls? No, no, and...maybe.

But I should be clear; I’m not trying to belittle any of the incidents which the media are trying to lay at the feet of the red carpet. Events like the Fairfax (VA) murder in 2007 and the Colorado killingsin 2012 were horrible and my heart goes out to the families involved.

Truly.

But I can’t help but notice that in the history of Hollywood, of the hundreds of thousands of  films created in the last 100 years, less than 0.01% of these films have been reported to have inspired copy cat violence.

In fact come to think of it, I’d say that video games have a far greater influence by turning a passive viewer (cinema) into an active force of fighting and killing and maiming…y’know?

But it’s not a case of finger pointing between films and games and rappers over who’s had the biggest negative impact on its audience. But in the same instance, nor is it a case of finger pointing by ‘experts’ and other media institutes.

I mean what about the news? News reports bring some of the most horrendous things into our living rooms, and while it’s not glorifying these acts, it is introducing us all to the darker side of life, so while the media exists (and by that I obviously include the web), people will be open to violence and war and crime.

But then we can’t be shut off from the world, so what to do? Well it seems to me that people just need to learn to control their emotions better, and that when they go watch a Tarantino movie, or when they read American Psycho, or when they play COD, they realise these are works of fiction. FICTION! And if they do get you hot under the collar, go jerk off or hit a punch bag or something…y’dig? This ain’t rocket science.

But I’ve rambled on long enough.

The point I want to make is; are we justified in lambasting the oft vilified Tarantino, and are we right to say that the bloody red carpet is in fact to blame for the attacks over the year?

In short, no. I don’t think we are. I think in those unfortunate instances, there is a pre-existing tendency towards insanity – or at least instability – and that’s the kicker. Cinematic copy cat killings just happen to make a convenient scapegoat.

But then again, everyone knows that Hitler was a big Chaplin fan, and having two of the same terrible ‘taches can’t be mere coincidence…can it?