Are films to blame for society's decline?
Politicians know best, after all they are moral guardians always doing right, and know everything about anything inside out. They never cover things up, lie or cheat, oh no. So when the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, declared that films are causing violence in our society I immediately burned all my DVD's and shot the projectionist at the cinema.
Joking aside it does raise that age old question, do films corrupt our society? Are we so influenced by cinema that we change our behaviour according to our entertainment? Is Livingstone right, does entertainment make us murderers?
Livingstone launched a scathing attack on various things today, TV, films, gangsta rap and Margaret Thatcher, and he blamed them all for making Britain a more violent place.
He stated that the television series 24 justified torture, some areas of rap music were behind the moral breakdown of British society, and he then had a go at Margaret Thatcher and her time as Prime Minister saying that "she helped create a generation of people whose children did not have a moral code". How exactly she did that I have no idea.
According to the comments carried in This is London, he then pointed to Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill saying that the film...
"simply glorifies violence rather than showing people that use their brain power to achieve their goal"
Oh where to begin. Actually, let's turn to the words of on Quentin Tarantino that are carried in Starpulse News Blog from WENN.
I don't think graphic sex or graphic violence are harmful when it comes to movies. When it comes to children, that's not my business. It's up to the parent to show them or not. What if kids get it on their own? That's part of being a kid, looking at what your not supposed to look at, having that excitement of seeing the forbidden fruit."
There are reports and counter reports that state kids are or aren't influenced by entertainment, however on Livingstone's comments some things are plainly clear. He blames the television series 24 but makes no reference to real life actions and events carried out by our governments, he blames rap music and a Prime Minister from seventeen years ago for the decline of society in today's children and young adults. Neither is there any mention of a failing justice system and the creeping decline of punishment for law breaking.
Okay, so stupid politicians aside, the question remains, are films detremental to our society? Do films portraying violence, sex, anything that is considered negative in today's society, cause a decline in society? Is film, and indeed entertainment, responsible for the rise in violence and general rundown of society?
Or maybe you believe it isn't, and no matter what the film or the time in our history is, they are merely reflecting the society that we are in, taking real events and portraying them as entertainment, events we see in more graphic detail the news and courtesy of the governments and our respective societies day in, day out.
What do you believe, and what can the film industries do to help? Will showing nothing but films which meet the morale standards of each separate society make the world a better place?
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