If anyone has seen the movie Elephant, then you'll know what I'm talking about when I say it is the most sickening, yet realistic film out there that relates to school massacres. I first watched this movie in film class this semester a few weeks ago, however I do remember hearing about it when it first came out a few years back. The creators of this film decided to use real kids, not professional actors, to be the characters. Also, all of the characters in the film go by their real names in real life. The film claims that it's not based on the Columbine shootings in the '90's, however many websites, as well as myself, beg to differ. I think it's great to have films that give messages or document specific events, but there are so many damn films out there over the massacre that it's ridiculous. The film is great, don't get me wrong. The sequences cause you to think so much that you become utterly confused in the film and you really just wanna get up and leave. At the end however, there is a twist and everything makes sense. But, are we really helping the situation by replaying it over and over? No. With all of these films portraying gory violence and bloody shootings, we are only putting more images into the heads of young people. I'm pretty sure the film is rated R, but think about, how many R films have you watched before you were 16 or 18 or whatever the hell it is, and how many times have your younger siblings done the same? Plenty, in my case. So, I guess what I don't understand is that the entire world thinks younger children and teens are angry and depressed and want to shoot up the world, but when the media is a powerful force in today's time, and all that is shown in the media is violence, how are we supposed to have an innocent-minded youth?
Picture: www.google.com
PS- The picture is a scene from the movie when the massacre is about to begin. No surprise.
1 comment:
interesting post =]
it frustrates me how so many films are violent
although I do think that it is important to make films like elephant that make you think
especially how they paralleled it to playing first person shooter games.
the media is a powerful influence.
movies, TV, gaming...all of that affects the minds of young people (or even older people)
Is it always necessary to put violence into a film to make it good? can't you have good films without all the violence?
thats why I don't like making movies involving guns/violence. there's already so much of that out there!
I loved the screen play "sophie's room" but I didn't vote for it because it was so violent. I thought it was amazingly well written though, but why do all good movies have to put violence in it?
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