What I read
In the article "Does Hollywood Need a PG-15 Rating?"(2018), Brooks Barnes tells gun violence has been increasing in PG-13 movies and some films even have as much as seen in R films. This is because creators of some PG-13 movies borrow some scenes from R movies, then just remove blood and suffering. A research suggests, even though some of the gun violence seems justified, parent do not see it appropriate to 13-year-old kids and they probably want a new rating that fit the level of violence better. PG-13 was first used in 1984 because some movies like “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and “Gremlins” were too strong for PG rating.
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My response
It appears to me that the violence American people concern was specific to gun. As an audience, the difference of gun violence between PG-13 and R seems subtle to me. If I do not see the rating description, I will not notice it. Due to the care to their children, some parents might be more suspicious. I tried to recall when I was a young teen, though I had seen a lot of movies including the most memorable, Die Hard whose rating is R. Die Hard stand out in my memory because it was my father who brought it to us, I and my three siblings. We saw the movie countless of times and thought it was awesome. I don't feel the movie make me more aggressive (than I was supposed to be without watching it) and my thought of gun is so imaginary. I never saw real gun and in Thailand it is quite rare because of the law.
I was born to quite indulgent parents who, when it come to free time, are pretty much generous. We are allowed to play Nintendo video games (any possible games) and watched all mainstream movies, and are free to go anywhere if we know how to go (I had taken bus to school with my siblings since I was seven. At that time I knew only one bus no.). Ironically, I had never used that valuable freedom to deviate from their little expectation, no skipping school, for instance. To be fair, at the time there were not much violent games, only fighting and character shooting, and the graphic did not look as real as console or PC games we see today. The worst that the young Kan became with the video game was that she got pissed easily when she was interrupted during playing.
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I was born to quite indulgent parents who, when it come to free time, are pretty much generous. We are allowed to play Nintendo video games (any possible games) and watched all mainstream movies, and are free to go anywhere if we know how to go (I had taken bus to school with my siblings since I was seven. At that time I knew only one bus no.). Ironically, I had never used that valuable freedom to deviate from their little expectation, no skipping school, for instance. To be fair, at the time there were not much violent games, only fighting and character shooting, and the graphic did not look as real as console or PC games we see today. The worst that the young Kan became with the video game was that she got pissed easily when she was interrupted during playing.
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My question
As an adult, do you think violence in movies affect you? How?
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Reference
- Barnes, R. (2018, May 14). Does Hollywood Need a PG-15 Rating?. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/14/business/media/hollywood-rating-pg-13.html
I don't think violence in movie affects me as much because some weapons used in the movie are not legal in real life and not easily found. If I were a man, I might be more aggressive after watching this kind of movie.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, I think the violent movies can affect my feeling because when I watch the violent movies I feel like the movie lead me to the danger situations which have the excited place, interesting weapons, lots of strange people and lots of adventures. Otherwise, if after watching the violent movies we should realize what should we learn from them, don't just watch for entertainments but we should think that which parts of the movies(good - bad) should we follow and adapted it to our lifestyles.
ReplyDeleteI agree that violent films affect my feelings - that's why I watch them. But I don't think they make me any more likely to commit actual violence against real people.
DeleteYes, I also heard countless news from the USA about violent shoot many american high school students. It is really sad. I just notice that when it has one, others will follow. I just think that not only films and video game, but also news report. It seems like people who are sensitive or metal problem effect their lives. For example, Suicide case like jump out from high bridge, many people follow. So, it might effect partly. When we heard the news, it effects directly to our emotion. So, some people say that we are what we perceive most.
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ReplyDeleteViolent from medias are a big problem as we can see, not just in US but does anyone remembered the news in Thailand that about a high school student killed a taxi driver and he told that he done it like he did in a game called GTA? Since that news, video games seem to be a scape goat for the violent but for me, I think the violent in each person is depend on many factors such as family, their thought or maybe how their surrounding society behave to them.
ReplyDeleteI would agree if there will be PG-15 or PG-16 for movie. For example, video games are also rated by ESRB into E,13,16,18 and 20 based on the game's content. But for a movie, PG-16 would be a mixed between strong language and violence but not involved drugs or sexual content like PG-18 just like PG-13.
I'm inclined to agree with Kan and Ins that violence in video games and movies is not a cause of violence in real life. If entertainment violence caused real-life violence, we should see the same levels of violence in all societies that have violent entertainment, but we do not. Japan has some extremely violent media, but is much less violent as a society than the US is. Thailand is probably about the same as the US for violence in media, but is more violent than the US as measured by murder rates. And Australia, which also has plenty of violent movies and games, is less violent than both, as are most Western European countries. I don't think any good evidence supports the idea that violent films of games cause people to become more violent.
ReplyDeleteLike Kan, I thoroughly enjoyed Die Hard and I still like mindlessly violent films. They are fun to watch, but I don't think I'm any more prone to violence than I would be if I had never watched them, and great literature has always been full of war, rape, murder and so on - just look at Homer and Shakespeare in Western literature. (I can't speak about Thai literature, with which I'm not familiar.)
In fact, I think it's the parents' business what their children watch. I can understand that some parents might not like their kids to watch fun violence, but I'm not sure that the parents have any very solid reason for that. If you are going to ban kids from watching violent films like Die Hard, you should also ban Shakespeare, Homer and of course the Bible, which is full of violence, and much other great literature.