![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
As many of you will most certainly be aware, pictures publicised of barbaric mass-murderer Cho Seung-Hui have drawn comparisons to the movie OldBoy. Here's what Nikki Finke had to say about it:
I find this to be an obtuse, misguided condemnation of what is an excellent multifaceted movie. I can't see how anyone watching the film with any real critical faculty could see it as being a celebration of violence, given its larger themes. There are, most certainly, plenty of better contenders for that title. Anyway, here is an excellent rebuttal of Nikki's opinion at Film Ick:
The result? Well, I've been in a real-life fight twice - once when I was 9 and once when I was 14. The former ended up with me crying all the way home and the latter was one of those silly eternal head-lock tussles that was eventually stopped by a teacher. I find guns terrifying and get disturbed by even the presence of a replica. I doubt I'll ever raise my fist in anger ever again in my life and no amount of watching movies like this is going to change that.
Incidentally, one reaction I had to the violence in OldBoy was to make a music video highlighting it, well aware that it was only a part of a greater moral story that I didn't want to tell in music video form (as I couldn't do it justice and I didn't want to spoil the movie). If Cho wanted to make a manual out of OldBoy, maybe The Gentle Art of Making Enemies would be it. The violence is depicted in the music video as the escapist fantasy of a disturbed man. Surprisingly, this video get the most hits on iMeem though I'm not sure it's one of my most popular videos outside of that network. Am I to blame for Cho's actions? Well, is Shakespeare to blame every time somebody chops a person up and puts them in a pie? Of course not. Violence is much older than the artforms depicting it and the issues that lead a person to violence are far more complex than finding out what movies they have seen.
Cho was a mentally disturbed maniac. What he did is beyond horrific and to enjoy such an evil barbaric vicious act is nothing short of demonic. I cannot begin to imagine how terrible it must be for those affected by this and they have my most solemn sympathy. However, the atrocity of this act does not validate blanket finger-pointing: the sooner critics start looking at the emotional triggers for these actions and stop looking at their superficial facets, the closer we will come to understanding how such tragedies come about. Pointing the finger at media like this is far too simplistic. Destroying every violent film, book or artwork in existence will not prevent violence and to do so simply scapegoats an easy target to make up for our own shortcomings as a society. We need to find out why violence is part of the human condition before we can eradicate it. On this regard, OldBoy is a wise informer and should be watched with careful comprehension and reflection.
"Wrote Carina Chocano of the Los Angeles Times: "It says something when you come out of a film as weird and fantastical as Oldboyand feel that you've experienced something truly authentic. I just don't know what. I can't think of anything to compare it to." Well, now we know to compare it to real life, don't we? I just don't understand how critics with even a shred of humanity keep supporting films that celebrate violence in all its awfulness. Makes me nauseous."
I find this to be an obtuse, misguided condemnation of what is an excellent multifaceted movie. I can't see how anyone watching the film with any real critical faculty could see it as being a celebration of violence, given its larger themes. There are, most certainly, plenty of better contenders for that title. Anyway, here is an excellent rebuttal of Nikki's opinion at Film Ick:
"Now we know to compare it to real life? First of all, Nikki, surely we can compare almost all films to real life. Even Eraserhead - just to take one example - is cleary a film associated with real life. Indeed, Eraserhead is more closely linked to David Lynch's experiences with baby Jennifer than Oldboy is to the Virginia Tech shootings - and, yes, this is mainly because it is a film made to relate to this moment in life, and Oldboy was not made to relate to any massacre that hadn't happened yet but - this is the key part - the massacre was not made to relate to the already existing film either."... (read the whole thing for some excellent points)Every time I read one of these "Music/Movie/Video Game was the cause of some horrendous violence" articles, I don't know whether to laugh, cry or just roll my eyes and carry on as normal. I've watched some of the most grotesque works of cinema violence put to film, I've played more violent video games than I can count - in terms of virtual kills I'd put them into the hundreds of thousands - I've listened to music that has been denounced as satanic, corrupt, degenerate... You name it, if it's objectionable media then at some point I've probably consumed it or something like it.
The result? Well, I've been in a real-life fight twice - once when I was 9 and once when I was 14. The former ended up with me crying all the way home and the latter was one of those silly eternal head-lock tussles that was eventually stopped by a teacher. I find guns terrifying and get disturbed by even the presence of a replica. I doubt I'll ever raise my fist in anger ever again in my life and no amount of watching movies like this is going to change that.
Incidentally, one reaction I had to the violence in OldBoy was to make a music video highlighting it, well aware that it was only a part of a greater moral story that I didn't want to tell in music video form (as I couldn't do it justice and I didn't want to spoil the movie). If Cho wanted to make a manual out of OldBoy, maybe The Gentle Art of Making Enemies would be it. The violence is depicted in the music video as the escapist fantasy of a disturbed man. Surprisingly, this video get the most hits on iMeem though I'm not sure it's one of my most popular videos outside of that network. Am I to blame for Cho's actions? Well, is Shakespeare to blame every time somebody chops a person up and puts them in a pie? Of course not. Violence is much older than the artforms depicting it and the issues that lead a person to violence are far more complex than finding out what movies they have seen.
Cho was a mentally disturbed maniac. What he did is beyond horrific and to enjoy such an evil barbaric vicious act is nothing short of demonic. I cannot begin to imagine how terrible it must be for those affected by this and they have my most solemn sympathy. However, the atrocity of this act does not validate blanket finger-pointing: the sooner critics start looking at the emotional triggers for these actions and stop looking at their superficial facets, the closer we will come to understanding how such tragedies come about. Pointing the finger at media like this is far too simplistic. Destroying every violent film, book or artwork in existence will not prevent violence and to do so simply scapegoats an easy target to make up for our own shortcomings as a society. We need to find out why violence is part of the human condition before we can eradicate it. On this regard, OldBoy is a wise informer and should be watched with careful comprehension and reflection.
