Filmmakers Discuss Movie Violence and Fears of Censorship

Still reeling from President Clinton’s announcement of investigations into the marketing of violent movies and video games, prominent figures in the entertainment industry agreed Friday that, to head off government censorship, movie makers have an interest in getting rid of gratuitous violence.

“For parents all over the country, the fear is real and the problems of raising a family are real,” said Sean Daniel, producer of such movies as “The Mummy” and “Mallrats.” “If we in our industry try to shun that reality of life, then they are going to come down on us in a very negative way.”

Jack Valenti, chairman of the Motion Picture Assn. of America, warned an audience gathered for a panel discussion of movie violence that the current political assault on Hollywood could bring serious consequences.

“The perception is that we are a society that is going to hell in a handbasket,” said Valenti, who had spent this week in Washington testifying before a Senate committee on Hollywood and violence. “If I’ve learned anything in my career, it’s that the 1st Amendment is the one clause in the Constitution that guarantees all others. When a tyrant first appears, he always comes as your protector.”

The two-day conference on a variety of subjects was sponsored by the Writers Guild Foundation and was held at Loews Hotel in Santa Monica.

The panel titled “Guns Don’t Kill People . . . Writers Do” included screenwriters Steven De Souza (“Die Hard” and its first sequel), Brian Helgeland (“L.A. Confidential” and “Payback”), Callie Khouri (“Thelma and Louise”) and Miguel Tejeda Flores (“Revenge of the Nerds”), playwright William Mastrosimone, and Sy Gomberg, a television writer who founded an organization against gun violence after a high school shooting.

Friday’s session, however, had been scheduled long before the Columbine High School shootings occurred.

Earlier this week the president announced investigations by the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission into the marketing of violent video games and films. Later in the week, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) was quoted as saying there was a possibility studios would be subpoenaed to disclose marketing strategies.

Nearly all the panelists conceded that Hollywood targets teenagers with its violent movies because they are its most lucrative audience. But the panelists were careful not to attack one another for the kinds of movies they have made--particularly De Souza or Helgeland, whose movies sometimes have been extremely violent.

“We know that what we do has an impact,” Khouri said. “Let’s face it, we know that 13- or 14-year-old boys are being marketed to because they are the biggest consumers [of films]. This is a free market system, and what we are seeing are the results of an unregulated free market system.”

Still, all of the panelists agreed that without good parenting, strong schools and some kind of religious or spiritual teaching, society and its children will go astray, regardless of the kinds of movies they watch or the types of video games they play. They said the National Rifle Assn., video game manufacturers, Internet Web sites, Hollywood movies and local TV news all play a role in creating a picture of society that is increasingly violent and cruel.

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President’s inquiry on violence in media excludes TV--but that’s not expected to last long. F1