Violence

[ProfessorPreciseaBug]

Why are so many films all about violence? Is it that producers lack imagination to come up with better stories, or do people actually like the idea of killing, hurting and smashing up things?,

Just curious?

I dont think I know what you mean : all about violence ?

People watch films to be manipulated - simple! We want to see humanity is all its glory, beauty, depravity, capacity for evil and cruelty.

People are attracted to things that frighten them. Also creative expression is a sort of an outlet. Act it out on screen and be nice in real life

I know what you mean. I hate violent scenes in films and by that I mean real stomach churning, brutality. Torture scenes too nope.

I can cope with horror but not the sick slasher stuff like saw etc

I dunno even some 12 rated stuff is getting a bit grim. To me I feel society is getting worse, it's everyman for himself and that seems to be reflected in a lot of films these days. I fully expect to be told I'm ridiculous and wrong btw :)

I too hate violence and cannot bare to watch it. I'm such a fraidy cat I can't watch Tarantino movies or the Wire, Sopranos etc. It makes me physically ill and gives me nightmares. But I don't want to see these things banned. Violence as a human impulse is a part of who we are. It has informed the greatest works of art that human kind has produced. From Carravagio to Shakespeare to the Godfather movies. Those films I mentioned are a part of that canon of work. But I just can't bare to see it. And have no desire to start.

To my impression, anything that comes from Hollywood, including Tarantino, is just flowers comparing to what you can find in independant/european/asian cinema, also some older films when there was less censorship.

Like many people on the thread I just dont like violent films.

There is enough violence in the World already without watching it on film.

I watched Saving Private Ryan and Gladiator both on airplanes and I have to say it really shocked me that such violent films were freely available where children and teens could watch them. I know the Jason Bourne films have elements of violence in them as do the Bond films but they don't explore violence as the main central element.

I think it's because the film industry is dominated by men (Bechdel test, etc), and men are actually quite violent.*

There is a lot of violence in the world - on a micro and macro level - and the majority of it is perpetrated by men. For men, violence is part and parcel of life.

For women outside war zones, it's not, so we notice it (in films) more, and don't relate to it. Well, unless we've been on the receiving end of it ourselves - in which case we (the collective we) find it even more off-putting.

*NAMALT.

I too hate gratuitous violence. There is just so much of it about. DP and his son see no problem with it. When they watch, I usually do something else

TheDowager - I don't disagree with you about men and violence but given that the film industry is there to make money I wonder why they don't make more stuff aimed at women? I know my MIL like old horror films so maybe there is market for violence among female audiences too.

DW likes romantic comedy (which I don't mind either), musicals.

I like intelligent science fiction which you don't get much of nowadays. Star Wars doesn't count really although the violence is fairly tame.

I think film makers tend to go for the lowest common denominator really.

I want to know what the OP means about *All about violence"? Which films are you talking about OP? Be specific please?

isn't it frustrating when the OP starts a thread and abandons it?

ABetaDad1
I wouldn't call SPR's violence gratuitous. The point of it being explicit is to show how horrible war and killing can be; it has an aversive effect and doesn't promote violence at all.
That's the reason it was rated 15 instead of 18 according to the ratings board, who said, "We felt that it told the truth about war and we didn't want war glamorised for teenagers".

I'm fine with violence as long as it's relevant to the film. I dislike mindless violence that has no connection to the story line.
I have quite a physical reaction to films sometimes, they're my equivalent of a roller coaster. I like to be shocked and I like to be on the edge of my seat.

I think it's a male thing, don't you?

Id like to know how OP is classifying films as violent or about violence.
For example, I think that a film like se7en is excellent
I couldn't sit through Texas Chainsaw or something

I do feel that many films are about love and kids etc and if you're not keen on those, then, as with books, you end up with a lot of murder mystery stuff, or war stuff, but I'd always choose that over the family type stories.

I thought Saving Private Ryan was superb but the man with whom I saw it thought some of the violence was OTT.

Iv'e asked the same thing lorelei9here. I'm not sure what 'All about violence' means. But the OP obviously feels out of his/her depth commenting.

SPR is a war film... It should depict the reality of war IMO. Otherwise some (stupid) people won't think war is that bad. I too don't like gratuitous violence but in a war film it has its place.

I don't mind seeing violence in films, assuming it's not overly gratuitous, but what I do have a massive issue with specifically, is sexual violence and the fact it seems to becoming more and more normalised. It feels like it's in so much these days and it stops me watching some otherwise, brilliant films\series. For example, I desperately want to watch Game Of Thrones, but have heard rape is featured heavily and throughout, so I won't watch it. Same with Sopranos. I started watching Breaking Bad and whereas I knew it was violent, I was assured there was "none of that" in it, so started watching it, but then at the end of the first series, there's an out of the blue, attempted rape scene and I stopped watching for a while. It made me angry, because I couldn't see the relevance.