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Is Quentin Tarantino part of the violence problem?

January 11, 2013 @ 12:41 pm (Updated: 5:17 am - 1/14/13 )

 

With his new Academy-Award nominated, ultra-violent hit film, "Django Unchained" storming the theaters, Quentin Tarantino has become case-in-point when it comes to the prevalence of violence in entertainment. While much of the media debate has been on gun control, there is also the question of how much responsibility filmmakers (and audiences) have for the violence in our culture due to the popular entertainment pumped out and consumed by Hollywood and the video game industry.

Two recent columns have specifically hit Tarantino. The first pointed out the incredible success of Tarantino's films, while the second concludes that Tarantino IS at least a part of the problem. Author Jim Bennett concludes that art such as Tarantino's may not be the primary cause for psychopathic violence, but it surely influences behavior. His stance will likely be seen as semi-controversial, but it's a manufactured controversy.

We all know that what we watch and what we listen to affects behavior. That's why businesses advertise. It's why you smile at a happy song or bang your head to a rockin' tune. It's why Top Gun sold a LOT of sunglasses and why a beer company paid millions to have Daniel Craig as Bond drink their brand. What we take in, changes us. It does not control our actions, but it influences them.

Our culture once knew this. It's a biblical principle.

It doesn't mean that Tarantino is uniquely responsible for violence in our culture. And frankly, I don't think all violence in entertainment is evil (can you really say that if the death toll in Saw 4 were the same as the deaths seen in Saving Private Ryan that both films were equally prone to encourage social ills?)

But if we acknowledge the influence we acknowledge a moral responsibility-- maybe that's why we pretend there's NO influence.

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Comments (44)


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  • maplefish wrote...
    Yep, he is....
    January 11, 2013 5:13 pm
    And Django unchained SUCKS. It started off with potential and then just got worse and worse and worse. I love the Hollywood hypocrites that make movies so violent with shooting that they're almost sickening, then they come out and tell us guns are bad.
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  • zounds wrote...
    Who said?
    January 11, 2013 6:15 pm
    "no reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons.”"?

    Pop quiz time fish.

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  • hpygolkyone wrote...
    My Boys Drug (ged) Me To That Movie..........
    January 12, 2013 10:04 pm
    Nothing about the previews made me the least bit interested in seeing this movie, but after some: "you're the greatest dad", BS.....I folded faster than a cheap lawn chair. On the way, they told me it was almost 3 hrs. long and if I wasn't such an agreeable b$stard, I would have turned around!

    You're right, it started off well and I was pleasantly surprised....but it ran it's course with the gratuitous violence near the end (and the end of my patience).

    Oh......this thread isn't a movie review?!?

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  • Howdy wrote...
    "We all know that what we watch and what we listen to affects behavior"
    January 12, 2013 7:30 am
    So I can just blame my hangover on Daniel Craig
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  • gaymarriedchristianfromhollywood wrote...
    I blame Mel Gibson
    January 12, 2013 8:06 am
    Ever since he made the S&M movie about Christ movies have gotten bloddier, gorier, and just about anything goes now.
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  • irony wrote...
    so you think these mass killers saw it...
    January 15, 2013 3:06 pm
    really. not only did all these mass killers not see it, but neither did hollywood. the mass killers in each case DID play violent video games and WERE on anti depression meds, AND used different violent devices to do their crime. columbine 90 explosives and 2 failed propane bombs.
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  • Snout wrote...
    No he's part of the
    January 12, 2013 7:28 pm
    recycled script and dialogue problem. The 90's are over. Come up with some new material, Q.
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  • sportsguru wrote...
    So we fight to the death
    January 13, 2013 7:22 am

    About our second amendment to carry a firearm, but are willing to lose our right to the first amendment to "FREE SPEECH". I wonder if the NRA will come to the defense of free speech?

    Oh wait, they have not financial interest in free speech unless it limits there ability to lobby for more firearms in the community.

    I am surprise Mr. Boze that a neo-con jackbooted republican will consider giving up there first amendment right just to be able to carry high casualty weapons? Republican Tea party groups are always harping about the constitution and living by it, but in reality they only care about parts of the constitution that they like and screw the rest.

    Hyprocrissy at it's finest.

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  • maplefish wrote...
    Free Speech is one thing
    January 14, 2013 4:38 am
    Blatant hypocrisy is another. Hollywood makes & promotes 100's of gun violent movies every year. Some are great, some not so much, but when they make TV commercials, with movie stars whommake gun violent movies, telling we the people that "Guns Are Bad", well they come off as clueless hypocrites ....
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  • Cigarillo wrote...
    @Sporty
    January 15, 2013 11:53 am
    Where's the hypocrisy here? I didn't see anything about abusing the might of the state to put the kibosh on something they view as "icky". The fact the the left has singled out the second amendment alone for debate and misinterpretation proves who the real cherry-pickers are. The irrelevance of your post only demonstrates your inability to contain the urge to reflexively cut and paste from that short, self-repeating inner monologue that is the leftist mindset.
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  • rational wrote...
    Racist left
    January 13, 2013 9:12 pm
    He's just part of the racist left that is honest about revealing his racism.
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  • Mavila wrote...
    I wouldn't blame Hoolywood outright...
    January 14, 2013 6:36 am
    but it's difficult to imagine that violence in movies doesn't have an impact. Advertisers spend a lot of money trying to influence buying habits and the Center of Disease Control finds that actors smoking cigarettes in movies encourages the behavior among young people.
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  • It's me! Ha ha! wrote...
    Funny thing here
    January 14, 2013 7:15 am
    how Left wing Parrots will scratch and squawk in their cages like mad about how we need to get rid of guns and yet simply refuse to entertain the idea that violence that is packed into our heads on a daily basis cannot possibly have anything to do with any of the increase of evil acts in our nation.
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  • Rikki Doxx wrote...
    Violent Tarantino
    January 14, 2013 7:17 am
    Of the several movies of his I've seen they are the most violent I've ever seen. I won't go see any more of his. Inglorious Bas**rds was good only in the acting of that German SS guy. Now he was good. OTT the film stank.
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  • roomtemp wrote...
    "Is Quentin Tarantino part of the violence problem?"
    January 14, 2013 7:17 am
    Dunno, I've never watched one of his movies. Why would I want images like that running around in my head?

    I have to wonder what kind of sick puppy it takes to enjoy movies like 'Saw' too.

    Do I want to ban them? Nope, but they're not getting my money.

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