Amy Welborn makes a good point about how we react toward movies based on their (perceived) role in the culture wars. In contrast to the hew and cry over “Brokeback Mountain,” we have heard little or nothing about the amazingly gruesome “Hostel.” (Even the TV ads are too disturbing.) Yet could we not say that the extreme violence of such movies would outweigh, in impact on impressionable youth, whatever kind of homosexual lifestyle advocacy that movies like “Brokeback” produce?
A few days ago, a blogger (sorry, but I forget who!) mentioned that an eighth grader at her parish told her that while his mom insisted on seeing “The Passion of the Christ” before he did because she had heard about its violence, the mom let him see the horror movie “Saw II” without a second thought. Between the gruesome violence of movies and the casual violence of video games like “Grand Theft Auto” you have to worry about the desensitization of youth toward violence. Hey, if we’re worried that seeing people smoking on TV and in films will make them want to start, why should depiction of violence not have a similar influence?
If we’re going to be consistent we should protest these films as well. Even if they sink at the box office, they will live forever on DVD where it will be very easy for kids to watch them.
Did you hear the news story a few days ago about the men who beat up the homeless men?
I blogged that I was not surprised, really, to learn that they were not men, but in fact teenagers. Teenagers who were “good kids” who “lived next door” and were “from good families”. Teenagers who thought that this would be a fun, recreational thing to do. Really, they were grinning on the video survellience that caught them.
It isn’t just the sexual morality that needs worrying about-its’ morality in general. It’s the seeing of others as valued, precious, even sacred by virtue of being created that has been lost.
But what would you expect from a society that cannot call sin sin except when they “feel” it is wrong??
Of course Hostel isn’t going to sweep the awards or elicit a gushing review from the USCCB. Ang Lee talked about hoping his movie helps to impact culture in allowing homosexual relationship. As sick as Hostel is is the director hoping for pay-per-view torture?
Some folk might be cornucopiae of outrage, but I’m not. There’s only a certain amount of disgust I can manage before I move on to other subjects.
Ang Lee talked about hoping his movie helps to impact culture in allowing homosexual relationship.
Where has Ang Lee said that?
Interestingly enough, Lion’s Gate Films, which produced Hostel, is also the distributor for Family Home Entertainment (FHE) videos, including Veggie Tales and Care Bears. How far should we go to eliminate support for corporations that produce violence, etc…should we not support them when they produce worthwhile work? I’m asking this without any agenda of my own…a true question…I realize that everything is so convoluted in today’s society that it’s almost impossible to separate entities by their moral actions, but is it important to try, in a case like this?
I disagree that there is a need for the same level of vigilance. Now grant, I am in favor of parents turning off the TV, getting rid of cable, strictly censoring the Internet, and only seeing movies that the whole family can safely watch—but this is because I think that TV, Movies, and Video games, while not intrinsically evil, get in the way of the commandment to love God and others. However if your gripe is just content based then it seems to me that there is an objective difference between violence and sexual content, especially in males.
The world has always been a violent place and kids do well enough in spite of witnessing live violence all around them. And while seeing a really violent movie may increase violent thoughts in children the sexual exhibitionism that you get in movies gets highly addictive sex hormones flowing in a way that, as I understand, violence does not. A recent study done in London demonstrated that sex hormones are more addictive than cocaine, and yet we toy with them every day in advertising, on TV, and in the way we dress! In addition, movies about disorder sexual attractions/habits, which present them as normal or even normative, quickly break down a child’s often unde- formed ethical system, allowing them to experiment with sexuality, which is risky (i.e. addictive) business. In contrast the risk of a violent movie breaking down a child’s natural aversion to killing seems less likely if only because murder does not provide the same type of pleasure and bio-chemical fix that sex does.
Though anecdotal, I think the fact that violent movies are much wider dispersed than movies with sexual content or innuendo, and yet while you only hear about a few cases in the news of a kid murdering someone, instances of teenage, and even pre-teen, promiscuity are almost no longer news-worthy. Although I don’t dispute a correlation between violent movies and violent kids my personal experience suggests that broken homes are more to blame for this phenomenon. Similarly broken homes and bad parenting are in part to blame for teenage sexual promiscuity and the break down of sexual mores, but sexual content on television combined with human bio-chemistry seems to stack the deck.
This being said it is my opinion that most movies these days are not worth the plastic disc the are copied on.
Lori,
It seems to me that boycotting their good products would send exactly the wrong messages to such companies. They follow the money.
If people spend money on products like Veggie Tales, they will continue to produce such products. If people misguidedly stop buying such products simply because the parent company is also involved in less savory media, what message will that send? They’ll continue to get money from Hostel, the Veggie Tales revenue will dry up and they’ll discontinue the line while continuing to produce the kind of stuff that is making money.
Vote with your money. Buy good stuff, support artists who are producing good entertainment. Don’t spend your money on drek. That seems to be the best course of action.
That blogger would be my lovely and talented wife, BTW—into her first year as a catechist for the older kids.
She’ll be delighted to know that she got a reference, so I just had to pipe up on that one.
http://domesticblissreport.blogspot.com/2006/01/channeling-larry-king.html