Effect of Film Violence

Outline of the Study

The main purpose of this study is to understand the effects of violence shown in movies on different age groups. Violence-saturated movies are disturbingly considered entertainment. The frequency and extent of violence portrayed in film desensitizes people and gives children a false perspective on its seriousness and consequences (Sweet, 12). Use of technical artistry and advances in technology such as digital special effects brings rise to this disturbing circumstance.

Discussion

Films are written, produced, and released to the world to entertain and create ideas for everyone. There are different types of films such as: animated, action, drama, comedy, musicals, documentaries, etc. With these different categories of films why do most writers, directors, and producers feel the need to include violent and graphic scenes in their works of art. Films have become more violent as time has progressed (Osofsky, 112). A Virginia Tech film critic, Stephen Prince, makes a comparison between the 1967 movie Bonnie and Clyde and other movies today. The movie Bonnie and Clyde shows a scene in which the couple dies a slow-motion death. Prince states; “If one made a graph of the bar for violence from the time of Bonnie and Clyde to Taxi Driver to Natural Born Killers and Saving Private Ryan it would be an ascending line.” (Harris). This increment in violence is caused by the advancement in technology and is intended to entertain the viewers (Kalin, 123). This raises the question: If there is no limit or guide lines to how much or how violent a movie may be then what effect does this have on the people of this world?

You may think that those sexy sitcoms or violent dramas are just entertainment and shouldn't really have serious effects. For any single show that's probably correct, but for too many people, we're not talking about a single show every so often, and it is a problem (Hough, 34).

Child psychologist, Dr. Debra Kowalski, explains, "With children having so much exposure to the media, the messages that come across… are very important and they shape how a child sees the world and what a child sees as important. …A lot of the messages related to violence and sexuality can negatively impact a child."

The repetition of violence causes children to become desensitized. The same thing happens to adults, but children are more vulnerable. It also holds true for explicit sexual content. In fact, relatively little exposure to pornographic material at an early age can significantly disturb a child and interact with their sleeping and other behaviours (Groves, 556). It can also affect the way they interact socially with peers, as well as foster anxiety and fear in other situations.

Michael Suman, coordinator of The Centre for Communications Policy at the University of California at Los Angeles, is doing a three year analysis of the effects of violence on television. He makes the following observations:

"Violence on television, basically, has three types of negative effects on people."

There has been a great deal of debate about the possible ...