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| apparently the shooter, 24-year-old James Holmes was dressed as Bane, played in The Dark Knight Rises by Tom Hardy |
I'm sorry but I am so shocked and saddened by this news, that I might come off is a self-righteous prick but I don't care. I'm sure you have all by now heard of the senseless violence that killed 12 people in a Colorado movie theater, some as young as 3 months when a 24-year-old superfan of The Dark Knight barged into a crowded movie theater dressed as Bane and started popping caps in people's asses. This right on the heels of 'superfans' sending death threats to New York critics who gave The Dark Knight Rises (2012) poor reviews, because that's their job, to give their objective opinion, god forbid they have the wrong one.
Christopher Nolan thinks himself to be a batman poet and aficionado that has completely re imagined the genre, by which I mean made it way more violent than it needs to be and basically made it up to par with disaster films, most of the spectacle coming from over the top explosions and destructions of public buildings and landmarks. Which is actually nothing like it was when DC Comics first envisioned it.
Christopher Nolan thinks himself to be a batman poet and aficionado that has completely re imagined the genre, by which I mean made it way more violent than it needs to be and basically made it up to par with disaster films, most of the spectacle coming from over the top explosions and destructions of public buildings and landmarks. Which is actually nothing like it was when DC Comics first envisioned it.
What's most infuriating is that The Dark Knight Rises, despite its gratuitous and endless violence, the film was able to fenagle a PG-13 rating. Thanks for nothing MPAA. When we actually need you to do your job, it's nice to see you can be paid off by a basket of mini-muffins from Warner Bros. I can't believe I'm actually going to say this, but it's about time we adapted the system in Europe, where it works quite like the opposite. If the film is heavy in violence, it gets the equivalent of an R because they are afraid of this violence becoming something young and impressionable idiots latch on to and subsequently use on others. Oh! Just like what just happened in Colorado, it's all coming together! While if the film is heavy on sex and sexual content, they usually let it slide, because what is the worst that could happen? Someone who sees a film overloaded with sex will go on to have too much sex with people?
I'm not blaming it all on the MPAA, nor Christopher Nolan, nor Warner Bors. I'm just saying that with making a series of such blatantly violent films that are marketed basically on that very angle; the sensationalized, the hyper-real, the loud and explosive, a certain level of responsibility and accountability comes with it. I think we as the public have proved we can't handle it, and it's time to take a big step back from the precipice and really think harder before we make such creative and marketing decisions.
In Russian film, there is a term for this. It's called 'Zhyelezo' which translates into 'metal'. A film with too much 'metal' is not a good film. 'Metal' in this case meaning anything that doesn't pertain to humanity, and in the last analysis every film, even something like 2001: A Space Odyssey (1969) is about humanity or the lack thereof. Metal just has to do with how much action you can cram into one film without it becoming gratuitous and total sensory overload. It's a film that is trying too hard and doesn't have enough actual content so it attracts viewers through violent spectacle.
In Russian film, there is a term for this. It's called 'Zhyelezo' which translates into 'metal'. A film with too much 'metal' is not a good film. 'Metal' in this case meaning anything that doesn't pertain to humanity, and in the last analysis every film, even something like 2001: A Space Odyssey (1969) is about humanity or the lack thereof. Metal just has to do with how much action you can cram into one film without it becoming gratuitous and total sensory overload. It's a film that is trying too hard and doesn't have enough actual content so it attracts viewers through violent spectacle.
I'm not even going to get political about this and talk about gun control or violence in the media, but I am just going to say that Nolan went too far, and he should have foreseen that accentuating and celebrating gratuitous violence was going to lead to nowhere good. This is just such a shame, and a horrible tragedy, and perhaps Nolan will take a big step backwards and focus on his narrative more than how big his explosions are going to be. Just saying....Tim Burton would have never had something like this happen.
Here's the bottom line. And I want to be absolutely clear about this. I am not putting blame on Christopher Nolan or Warner Bros. No one has blood on his hands today except for James Holmes. And no one yet knows what his motives were that night, but authorities recently have found out that his hair was dyed green and he told the police that he was The Joker. But what I am saying that in an age of such aggressive and aggregated violence, I think we all need to be more responsible with the content that we present to the public. With a franchise like Batman where you are going to have many fanatical people, it is good to play it safe and not go balls to the wall with marketing it as the most violent film to come out for the year, there is some responsibility that goes with it.
Here's the bottom line. And I want to be absolutely clear about this. I am not putting blame on Christopher Nolan or Warner Bros. No one has blood on his hands today except for James Holmes. And no one yet knows what his motives were that night, but authorities recently have found out that his hair was dyed green and he told the police that he was The Joker. But what I am saying that in an age of such aggressive and aggregated violence, I think we all need to be more responsible with the content that we present to the public. With a franchise like Batman where you are going to have many fanatical people, it is good to play it safe and not go balls to the wall with marketing it as the most violent film to come out for the year, there is some responsibility that goes with it.
Here's the link to the story 12 Killed in Colorado Movie Theater
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