How does one explain the horrors of the Virginia Tech massacre? Racism? Inequality? Bigotry? Mindless Rage? Take away the context of the story, present the headlines and you might be forgiven for mistaking it as motivation of another terrorist act.
How did we get here? Questions are flowing across all US papers and President Bush today still does not see any problems with their gun licensing laws. He just wants to make sure these "weapons do not fall into the hands of bad people". Now, wouldn't it be great if we can identify bad people just based on their looks? Do they have "Bad person" tattooed over their foreheads like an imaginary headband? How would we define bad people here? In his definition, does it narrow it down to basically skin colour or other physical attributes like tattoos (which were originally used to identify gang members rather than a fashion accessory)? I don't want to sound cynical and biased but if we are going to judge a book by its cover, then we have to be specific on how the gun salespeople are going to evaluate. Are we going to give them X-Ray vision?
"Bowling for Columbine", the Michael Moore Oscar winning documentary didn't do enough to change the minds of the government nor the people. It was the highest grossing documentary in history till his successor "Fahrenheit 911" took over the honours. Even though it depicted similar horrors at Columbine High School, many Americans who strongly believe in their gun rights had no problems with the suggested reasons for the then massacre. I particularly like the description give on Amazon for this movie that reads "The United States of America is notorious for its astronomical number of people killed by firearms for a developed nation without a civil war."
The total US domestic box office gross for "Bowling for Columbine" is US$21,576,018, not much considering that most of the weekly No. 1 box office winners gross more than that over one weekend. Looking towards the Oscars, here are two good movies "Brokeback Mountain" (domestic US gross: US$83,043,761) and this year's popular winner "The Departed" (domestic US gross: US$132,384,315).
Now let's answer this question "Which movie is more controversial and why?" The common answer would be "Brokeback Mountain and because it is depicts gay love". Love is controversial if it is between two men, and we know all the gay cowboy jokes that came out of that. What impact has it made on the world? People finding the courage to come out (Sydney's own cowboy's coming out story), acceptance, increased awareness of the discrimination we face etc ...
On the other hand, no controversy about the movie "The Departed" except that Scorsese has found his "mojo" back and finally won his Oscar. In a movie that is both popular with audiences and critics, no one seemed to have a problem with the amount of violence depicted in the movie (amidst the clever script which I have to give it credit for - or rather the original "Infernal Affairs"). People have more problems with the gay sex in the tent than the pointless gore and violence. The glorification of murders and the art of getting away with it, and don't get me started on the real gore. That is what "inspires" people to oppose such objectionable behaviour if it happens in reality but they have no problems if it happens in movies.
"The Departed" is not alone. There are truckloads of horror movies, not the ghostly and spirited ones, but those glorifying violence in the most stylish fashion. The endless remakes and sequels to films like "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", "Saw", "Blade" and the Japanese movie "Battle Royale", all of which I absolutely refuse to watch. They are the ones that end up at the top of the US domestic box office every week, and motivates gangloads of impressionable young people, especially men to watch them. They'd rather watch these than the socially conscious movies like "Babel", "Crash" and "The Lives Of Others" or good romance like "Brokeback Mountain", which educate about the importance of human rights, respect and acceptance.
The US is not alone in this trend, but if the most significant country is going to set these standards, then we must ensure that we are moving in a right direction. With the younger generation more interested in individualistic hedonistic pleasures than the common good for the world, we need to spread the word of love, respect and the importance of human rights in our world. Let us not be dumb and swayed by popular culture and resolve to make educated decisions about who we choose to lead our world and the choices we are presented with. We can make a difference, you can make that choice!
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