Violence: Merely Entertaining or Mainly Evil? : ‘Violence Watchdogs’ Should Stop Their Naive Barking

Now that Los Angeles’ “thousand points of light” have been extinguished and the National Guard is moving out, it’s finger-pointing time and predictably, America’s self-appointed “media violence watchdog” groups trot out the old saw that television and movies are a contributing cause to public behavior, a subject examined in “Soul-Searching on Violence by the Industry” (Calendar, May 18).

The article says Marcy Kelly’s new Mediascope organization hopes to prod the movie industry into giving the world “more responsible presentation of conflict and conflict resolution.” Although Mediascope’s high-minded intentions make for good newspaper copy, there’s something hopelessly naive about it.

Ask anyone in the story business, from screenwriter to studio executive, and you’ll find one rule carved in stone: Conflict is Drama. “Responsible presentation of conflict resolution” sounds suspiciously like “a boring movie.”

Inevitably the watchdogs suggest that Hollywood should produce more “life affirming” narratives, with the unspoken assumption that if only we could get rid of “Miami Vice” reruns and “Rambo” sequels, citizens would miraculously stop shooting, stabbing and bludgeoning each other.

Such an attitude is presumptive, pretentious and moreover suggests that regular folks are so simple-minded that they will readily imitate whatever they see on TV or in the movies. This assumption is insulting to moviegoers and smacks of a New Age noblesse oblige: “If only we present the right role models,” the argument suggests, “then the natives will emulate that approved behavior.” No thank you.

As an avid moviegoer, I prefer to let the market set the rules. The same forces that are decried for catering to the “lowest common denominator” also have a wonderfully democratic effect: To some degree, TV and the movies give audiences what they want. It’s hard enough to find good entertainment as it is--audiences don’t want some high-minded oversensitive pantywaist running interference and filtering out shows that are considered “bad influences.”

The watchdogs can always find an example of a killer who learned his craft by watching TV, but they tend to forget that psychopaths draw inspiration from whatever is at hand. Albert Fish, who killed and ate children in 1920s New York, became fascinated with cannibalism by reading the newspaper. “Psycho” inspiration Ed Gein was influenced by stories of Nazi atrocities. David “Son of Sam” Berkowitz claimed he got the idea to shoot young couples in telepathic messages from his neighbor’s dog.

The point is that even if Mediascope was given full approval authority over every movie and TV show made in America, violence would continue unabated in real life. It is flattering to the entertainment industry that watchdog groups attribute to it such broad powers of societal influence, but the roots of real-life violence lie elsewhere: in poverty, in drugs, in the lack of opportunity for young people.

Hollywood’s proper role in America is to make entertaining movies and television shows that people want to see, not to preach proper living. Quality entertainment, with or without messages pushing a social agenda, is truly an important social contribution on its own. It’s also a big export industry.

Part of Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream was of the day when citizens of every color could sit down with one another in peace. Well, just two weeks after the Los Angeles riots, I went to a gathering in Hollywood where more than a thousand Angelenos of every color and persuasion came together for a special event that we had anticipated for weeks.

For more than two hours on a Friday afternoon we forgot all of our differences and just enjoyed watching “Lethal Weapon 3” together at Mann’s Chinese Theatre. That’s how Hollywood can bring people together. In spite of the carefully orchestrated mayhem on the screen, no one in the audience got shot or stabbed: We were all too busy having a good time. Maybe the critics’ whipping boy Joel Silver, “Lethal Weapon 3’s” producer, contributes more to “multiculturalism” than his detractors would like to admit.

Now, undoubtedly the Mediascope organization would have preferred that we had watched “Far and Away,” obviously a kinder, gentler movie with “more responsible conflict resolution.” Well, I happened to see it the following night at Cinerama Dome, and was shocked to discover an audience so lily-white that I wondered if a Tupperware party from Beverly Hills had chartered a bus to Hollywood.

Maybe “ noblesse oblige “ is the wrong term for Mediascope’s mission: Perhaps it should be called “the White Man’s burden.” Whatever it’s called, I don’t want some social scientist with a grant from the Carnegie Corporation telling me what I should watch.