Rogues Rants - By The Rogue Cinema Staff

Articles & Profiles: Rogues Rants - By The Rogue Cinema Staff
Posted on Sunday, May 01, 2005 @ 00:07:50 Mountain Daylight Time by Duane

This month's topic for Rogues Rants is:

Do you feel that children who are exposed to violent films and video games will become violent themselves?

Danny Runion: In a few cases, violence in entertainment can cause some kids to act violently. The question is should something be done about it? Too many parents use the television as the perfect babysitter. Some shows kids shouldn’t watch. Is that such a hard idea to grasp? Violence in entertainment is the ultimate whipping boy. No one can defend it when someone's mother cries "what about the children?" Personal responsibility is taking a backseat to the "It's not my fault blame everyone but me" generation. You can scarf down 4 or 5 quarter pounders get massively overweight and sue fast food places. It is used more to try to assuage the guilt of the parents. If the parents are too busy to realize little Johnny has an arsenal that Charleston Heston would love to get his hands on, movies must be blamed. Like in the lyrics of the song "Blame Canada" from South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, ”We must blame them before someone thinks of blaming us...” Why should his parents actually spend any time with their kids?

However, the media loves to act like movies and television programs are the downfall of everything. News reporters love to talk about how twisted South Park or Beavis and Butthead are but neglect how violence in sports is glorified. Parents beat and even shoot coaches for not letting Little Johnny play on the team. I must have forgotten that Josef Stalin watched anime which warped him into ordering the murder of millions. Did the Aztecs watch the Texas Chainsaw Massacre until they were warped, too? Entertainment doesn't convert people into violent psychopaths. If it did, wouldn't there be a lot more sociopaths?

For the past 10 years, we've had numerous school shootings across the country. The country would rather not look at the reasons for the violence. Entertainment is a far better target to blame. The unpopular kids are mocked and ridiculed by the jocks, preps, or whatever the popular twerps are called. School administrators don't stand up to defend the unpopular that unite amongst themselves. A lot of kids are pushed, and they simply push back. I'm not saying open season on people who torment you. However, are they to be allowed to walk over anyone without a fear of being pushed back?

Japan is always mentioned about violent entertainment. The idea of Japan having such a lower crime rate with such violent movies should indicate there isn't a very good connection between violence and entertainment. If there were a direct connection between violence and entertainment, wouldn't Japan have a higher crime rate? Violence doesn't always require guns. If someone is going to get medieval on you, they'll find some way if just using a rock, club, etc...

The question is should all entertainment be controlled for a small minority. It seems the country wants a morality police. Censoring movies and television won't work. Freedom of Speech has been attacked if it is used by someone with a different perspective than you. However, it is perfectly acceptable to fine stations for showing what some consider being "indecent". Prohibition showed what happened when alcohol was banned. While the idea of some sort of Michael Bay moratorium can't be a completely bad idea, where would it end? Would violent entertainment becoming something like out of Videodrome be a good idea?

Dennis Grisbeck: My humble opinion: I think that violence in the media has a definite effect on the developement of children. Note, however, that there is a big difference between becoming violent and becoming enured to violence. I don't think that watching violence will necessarily cause kids to become violent, but I believe 100% that it numbs them to violence, and thus, they become more tolerent of violence later in life. This acceptance of violence, whether or not a child actually performs a violent act, certainly plays a part in the rising crime rates and other social problems that we struggle with today.

Jonathon Pernisek: There is nothing more equally fun and unsettling than seeing an activist group or one lone trailblazer condemning the entertainment industry. For those with too much time on their hands, making signs and picketing the films and television programs we produce every year is a good exercise. But are there attacks founded? Is Hollywood actually getting to the point where its images are corrupting the minds of our society? This is a question on many an inquisitive mind.

Of course, none of this outrage over violence, sexuality, and other salaciousitems is new to the public. Harold Hill made Iowans gasp at the idea of their children playing pool, for crying out loud. People burned Beatles records after an offhand comment about being bigger than Jesus was made by one of its members. So no matter what the period, no matter how our collective values change, there has been a consistent need to label entertainment as being somehow seedy.

As far as violence is concerned, I think Americans are much more accepting of guns and explosions if they’re not accompanied by a couple rolling around under the sheets. I grew up being allowed to rent such films as Robocop 3 in elementary school (admittedly not a good idea in hindsight), but for some reason sexuality was much more taboo. Maybe parents give their kids enough credit to not imitate violent acts they see in films and on television, but not enough to not be spurred by sex? Even in our modern world, when we’re supposed to be beyond the reserved and suppressed views of our ancestors, a silly thing like Janet’s nip or a bare back in a Super Bowl commercial can somehow send us into a scandalized tizzy.

I’m going to go out on a limb at this point and simply say it is the parents’ job to monitor what their children watch. As an example , I was once told a story by a theater employee about a complaint they received. It seems a mother, bearing her toddler-aged moppets, stormed the concession stand in a fit of rage. She apparently had not realized The Texas Chainsaw Massacre would be so gory and graphic, and was angered by the effect those elements might have on her offspring. What would your reaction have been if you had been this theater employee? Surely, to keep your job, you would have smiled and apologized for the inconvenience, but really, what was this woman thinking? Can the film be blamed for her complete lack of intuition?

Younger children sometimes have troubled discerning between fantasy and reality, that’s for sure. This is why it’s imperative for the parents to define those lines so their kids grow up with a stable view of the world. When this doesn’t happen, we are met with kids who watch The Matrix 20 times or break their sibling’s arm trying to be a latex-sporting Power Ranger. I realize parents can’t monitor their kids 24/7, but that doesn’t mean we should limit Hollywood to certain areas of entertainment. So stick in a Wiggles tape, put Bad Boys II on a higher shelf (or in the garbage can) and stop complaining.

Jordan Garren: I can rant all day on this subject but I'll try and focus on the question itself. I, personally, do not believe that violence in film and on T.V. causes children to become violent themselves. Movies, television, video games and the like have all become scapegoats for the real culprit: Bad Parenting! It's up to parents to teach their children the difference between right and wrong; between fantasy and reality, but nowadays it seems like parents have either lost that ability or rely too much on the media to teach their offspring "valuable life lessons." When I was growing up, my mother kept a close eye on everything I watched, but thanks to my siblings, I still managed to watch a healthy dose of horror films. To this day I watch dozens of insanely violent and gory films on a monthly basis (for reviewing purposes or just for fun) and I think I turned out just fine. I'm not violent, I don't go out and rape women, rob banks, do drugs, or commit any sort of crime. (Hell, I only have one traffic ticket on my record and I should've been let go!) So for the sake of your children, try actual parenting before you go out on a crusade to have our nation's movies, games, and T.V. programs censored more than they already are!

Duane L. Martin: How do I feel about it? Well, to be perfectly honest, it's a load of crap. People are always looking for things to put the blame elsewhere rather than looking at the real causes because it might expose their own shortcomings as parents or educators or whatever, and they just can't handle that truth. Frankly, as Jordan said, I believe that it all comes down to bad parenting. When you shuffle your kids off to daycare or to school, who's raising them? It's not you that's raising them, it's other kids. So basically, your children are learning their behavior from other kids rather than the parents they should be learning it from.

I'm going to go out on a limb here though and say that rather than being all upset over the violent behavior exhibited by children, it should actually be encouraged in healthy ways. People nowadays aren't tough anymore. All they do is whine and bitch and complain about anything and everything. I swear, if I hear one more person say they're offended by something, I'm gonna put the beatdown on them. See, I got in fights when I was a kid. Getting in fights when you're a kid is a good thing because it teaches you who to mess with and who not to mess with. It establishes a sense of a societal pecking order and your place in it. Essentially, it teaches you good behavior and how to get along with others, because once you've been beaten up a few times, you basically learn how to behave so you don't get beaten up again in the future. I guess the best way to put it is that it teaches you respect, because you never know who's gonna put a hurtin' on you if you get out of line.

When you're a kid is the best time to learn these lessons, and the best time to fight and be violent, because kids are a lot more resillient than grown ups. They can take a beating and get over it in a week or so, and the beatings aren't all that bad because kids don't have the strength or fighting ability that grown ups do.

Violence has it's place in society, and those that don't use it and learn their lessons from it as children will end up being nothing more than professional victims when they grow up, and who the hell does that benefit? Certainly not the child, and certainly not anyone who has to deal with their whiny ass all throughout his or her life.

One other benefit of showing kids a lot of violent movies is that it desensitizes them to violence. Now some people would say, "That's horrible! How can you say that!" Well here's how... When your kids are desensitized to violence and they are presented with a violent situation that they have to deal with, they'll handle it calmly and rationally rather than just falling apart and becoming another victim. There's also the added bonus that the lessons they learn in violent movies could help them out if they're ever abducted by someone. People who raise their kids to be wusses would just cry or scream or whatever, but if you raise your kid on violent movies, he's gonna have a better chance of fighting back and getting away.

That's all I really got to say because I'm writing this as I'm putting this month's issue of the magazine together and I really need to get back to work. I know it probably sounded rambling at times, but hey, if you've ever read some of my full on older reviews, you know that's what I'm best at. Anyway, for all you whiny people out there who are turning your kids into victims...STOP IT!