META NAME="description" CONTENT="the harm in watching violent movies; alternate perspective to the view there must be a link between the movies and real life violence ">

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Question of the Week 16 - I would never be violent, but I like to watch slash-em-up movies. What harm can it do?

Breakpoint Parents Guide 1

The BreakPoint answer is: No matter what those Hollywood executives claim, there is a link between make-believe murder and the real thing. Mass murder is not fun, as the movies suggest. Just ask the families of Littleton, Colorado.

I find it ironic that Littleton is mentioned here because Michael Moore used that very setting for his recent popular movie about violence: Bowling for Columbine. In that movie (which was distributed before the date given on the above answer's web page), Michael presented a different case than suggested above. Other cultures around the world are watching the same violent movies that our kids are watching and yet their levels of crime are far less than that here in America. There are web pages with more information about this movie, learning from it (link broken) and taking action.

The lesson to be learned here is that our culture offers many influences on our children (and on adults, etc.). We are becoming subjects in a culture of fear, which has many unwanted consequences for America.

While I am appalled at the subject matter of some films (and why would anyone pay hard-earned money to watch them?), the influence of such movies on our society depends on the cultural values. Stopping such violent movies or preventing kids from watching them will not remove violence from our society.

The original link in case the article ever returns to Breakpoint:

(http://www.pfm.org/Content/ContentGroups/BreakPoint/Columns/ Worldview_for_Parents/200311/Question_of_the_Week16.htm)


created - Dec. 2004
last change - 12/31/2004
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