I’m not sure of my own opinion of violence in the media – I hate violence in real life – I couldn’t stand to watch either a bar fight or a boxing match, and violence in films, when realistic, affects me probably more than most people. 

But it has always been popular, looking back at the days of the Mayans or the Aztecs when human sacrifice was common, or the days of the Romans when Gladiators were fought inside an amphitheatre.  Until fairly recent times people were excecuted in public, and as far as I can make out from films, the public lapped it up.

 There has been violence in the media for a long time too; Punch, a form of glorified violence used for comedic effect, similar to modern action films.  On a different level, Francisco de Goya’s Disasters of War shocked people who saw them - the realisation of the fact that the country’s heroes were the victims of needless acts of horrific violence must have been devastating.  When I saw Goya’s prints recently I found them horrific, despite the cartoon style.

Disasters of War

I do think violence is an essential part of some films.  For example, American History X, or Harry Brown (if you’ve not seen Harry Brown, watch it!!) and Apocalypto, show the violence extremely realistically, but without it they could not tell the story.  Neither story is of glorified violence, and so I don’t believe either of them could encourage somebody to commit such cats of violence.  The violence in these films simply make you sympathise with the victims.

What I do hate is what I think Ivan called “torture porn”.  Films like Saw and Hostel I just cannot watch, and I don’t really understand people who like them, although I know that millions do.  I know the violence isn’t real, but the ideas of what happened won’t leave my head.  It’s violence for the sake of violence that I can’t stand.

It is only glorified violence in the media that could maybe encourage real violence, and this is the kind that we’re all addicted to.  People love holding the gun in computer games, and in films like Kill Bill every girl has a character she’d love to be.  We all love action and superhero films and fantasise that we’re the star.

A parody of all these kinds of violence is one of my favourite recent films; Kick Ass.  It has Super-Heroes, wannabe Super-Heroes, bullies and mobs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYQOZcMRruo&NR=1- Kick Ass!!!