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As a youth I would go to the local cinema to see films This started as a child on Saturday mornings and that is when I started to store violent imagery in my brain. When I came out of the cinema I would fantasise about being one of the characters, assuming their walk or hands brushing my imaginary six-guns on my hips. Today one often sees people pointing imaginary guns, shooting imaginary bullets and then blowing the imaginary smoke away. Fantasy often gives birth in later life to imitation of the behaviour one has seen on the screen.

In the latest shootings in American the gunmen made a film of himself, pointing his real guns at the screen. Wearing underarm holsters the imagery reminded me of Scorcese?s Taxi Driver and the way he posed in front of the mirror. I feel that the scenario enacted by these shootings and the images are possibly an acting out of films seen in the past.

A man who is sexually repressed can transfer his sexual drive into violence: the phallic gun shoots, blood spurts instead of semen and the object screams in agony instead of pleasure. We know that watching sexual imagery encourages sex so surely watching violent imagery encourages violence in the susceptible.

As a director of films with a sexual subject matter I know that imitative behaviour can only lead to sexual pleasure. Conversely if I produced ?gun films? or gratuitously violent ones, then I would be wondering if my films could cause violence in the real world.
Mike Freeman.

' ..if I produced ?gun films? or gratuitously violent ones, then I would be wondering if my films could cause violence in the real world'.

Causality is one thing where you are proposing that x is the cause of y, contributory factors are something quite different. Violent films are often presented as causal whereas they're contributory and there are lots of other contributory factors eg socialization, individual pathologies and life experiences.

What is kind of interesting about the Virginia Tech 'spree' .. and it is a tragedy .. is that I think on two occasions this week there have been bombings in Iraq with high fatalities, but we are habituated to this. We barely think twice about it or think that the same human tragedy is happening to parents, brothers and sisters in Iraq. Okay, it's a war zone, but it's equally senseless and unnecessary.

Some people cannot seperate truth from reality, watching violent films, or playing violent games can definitely influence the way some people behave.
Large companies spend billions on Advertising, they dont do it for nothing, they know that some people watching will be persuaded that they should behave like the fantasy, or look like it etc.....having/owning a gun makes you a potential 'shooter' having/owning a knife makes you a potential 'stabber' that's not to say you ever will, but your more likely to if you own these things, Americans just dont accept that.

....Uh huh and porn will reduce you into a maniacal, slobbering rapist who will go out in an epileptic fit of an orgasm. Yes its all true but society cannot be responsible for adults who should be responsible for themselves.

This is why our government treats us like little children because we can not control ourselves. this is why the BBFC pulls the reigns in on what some porgraphers see as a natural healthy expression of their sexuality but may deprave and corrupt those who revel in their own perverse interpretation of it.

In truth, if adults acted more responsibly it would not give the authorities a reason to control it.

case in point: A satelitte station shows a flash of gash with a whopping great vibrator jammed in it and someone has to come on here and say 'Did I see what i think I saw?' and effectively grass. satellite station gets fined and tows the line and everyone moans about how boringly soft it is.

The problem with all this is, its just down to human nature. its always the minor few that spoil it for the rest of the majority.

Its a sad fact though Mike, porn, films entertainment in general where designed to be escapist fantasy from the start (or tell it like it is). If people didnt mimick them they would have found an outlet to do so anyway.

Violence has been with us throughout history, way back before TV's, games and cds etc. Frankly it was a lot worse then. Its way more contained now. A gun death seems a lot more pleasant compared to a ball and chain smashing your head open like a soggy tomato.

Personally if you are looking for a scapegoat,you should first look around at our government and parents of children. Thats where the initial guidance lies. We live in a selfish society where its considered the done thing to shoot a man in his face because he dissed me than reason ones disapproval.

The way i see it, If I was making a violent movie it would only be mirroring what I see in the world anyway. Its all symptomatic and a sign of the times dont you think?

What do we do? Make more "Its a good life" feel good movies? Frankly its all the schmalts that gave birth to the angry adrenaline fuelled stuff we are seeing today.

I'm not complaining though cos I liked Hostel and The Hills Have Eyes (Ist one not #2) etc but then I see that as pure escapist entertainment. LOL

Jonone,
The Iraqui youth is sexually repressed but has a different script to the English (who watch American gun films) and Americans. His script is that although he can't have sex on Earth he can go to Paradise where a harem of virgins await him if he dies in battle or as a suicide bomber!
Mike.

Alice,
I had my weapon in my hand and it was hard. The girls looked at me in admiration as I showed it off. I felt like a real man. I did not feel inadequate any more: I was a soldier with a gun!
Mike.

Lizard,

A good observation about advertising. However as a previous poster has noted it is not the guns but the shooter! In Switzerland every serves part time in the armed forces and has a gun in the house but Switzerland has one of the lowest gun crime rates in the world.

The image makers create the world and write the scripts. Plato in his The Republic wanted to banish them: Plato argued that art not only could excite disorder, but could fundamentally alter those who experienced it.
Mike.