CW - discussion of violence, sexual assault, and link to encyclopaedic entry on a perversion
While I've been recovering from COVID (doing last week’s PWR [#0320] was quite a challenge), I’ve been watching a few movie series:
- “Star Wars”:
- the redemption character arcs are good, although the ways people “fall off the good and narrow” path are a bit simplified (“Hollywood-ified”, one could say - although that is, in part, the limits that apply to trying to fit complex concepts into a few hours of visual storytelling without “talking heads”), although the benefits of friendships and BPM relationships are accurate;
- seeing some sort of concept of magic on the big (and, later, the little) screen * was, in the 1970s, quite mind blowing (although I think the version of magic and reality in “Dr Strange” is closest to “real” that I’ve seen thus far - I haven’t seen the 2nd film as yet, so cannot comment on that one), although their awkward stumbling towards survival after death and their delayed appreciation of the existence of healing (which didn’t really crop up until the last film) were a bit grating - not enough to not watch and enjoy most of each film, though;
- they suffered from “Theme 2” discussed below;
- “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” film series:
- these also suffered considerably from “Theme 2” discussed below, which may have contributed to the problem the series reportedly has of attracting white supremacists;
- some individual character arcs show considerable growth - for instance, Sam and Frodo both grow, and Frodo and Gollum could be considered to model successful and unsuccessful ways of managing personal challenges;
- some of the created languages are fascinating (not enough for me to invest enough time and energy to become proficient), as are Tolkien’s versions of Elves, magic-workers, etc;
and - “Minions 2 - The Rise of Gru”.
Yes, I know “Minions 2 - The Rise of Gru” is a single film - I did watch the first one before the latter, but it was the second film when I started to crystallise the thoughts that would lead to this post.
The first part of that crystallising was the glorification/normalisation/misrepresentation of crime/criminals - which is something that has irked me in many series (particularly “The Blacklist”, which I consider undersold the level of commitment many police have to rules and laws), but also goes back to the glorification of Bonnie and Clyde (and I note that, in addition to both having been born into poverty [which is an evil social crime - a bit like this], Clyde Barrow's motivation may have been the abuses he received in prison - so they had causative factors that should not have existed ** , but they did murder 13 people - four of whom were civilians) in the USA, and also Ned Kelly here in Australia - and, as someone with a dash of Irish convict heritage, I understand the classist and racist abuse of the Kellys, and, as an activist, understand the need for powerful action against injustice, but planning to derail trains (plural - the first train would have been followed by a regular daily train, and Kelly had already made it clear no-one would be allowed to warn it) with civilians on it counts as attempted terrorism, not activism.
I also saw this in many pirate films - and pirates were, in fact, forms of democracy in a world that mostly, in those eras, authoritarian, brutal, and extremely unfair, but pirates were also brutal in ways that don’t get shown - just as the appalling brutality of slavery doesn’t get shown.
Our films are mostly sanitised, and many of the films which do show gory versions of injury and death are doing so for questionable purposes (on that, I found this [CW - link to encyclopaedic entry on a sexual perversion] quite disturbing - I came across it while researching the links for this article).
That leads into what I have alluded to as Theme 2: the glorification/normalisation/misrepresentation of violence.
When I am watching films, I choose to fast forward past gratuitous and/or inaccurate portrayals of violence (this used to irk a step-daughter, and others, who consider I should watch films as the film-maker intended - which I have done once, and then I watch the films that enable me to explore aspects in greater detail, or to get particular benefits I want from: film-makers can be adult and deal with it [similarly musicians and complete albums - if I have to listen to the whole thing every time, I wouldn't listen to any of it, as I have a life to live, and not all of the album - no matter how skilfully crafted - contributes to all of my life all of the time]).
The difference between realistic and glorified sexual violence was described in several reviews (e.g., here) which compared such scenes from “Outlander” and “Game of Thrones”.
Violence causes trauma to more than just the physical body of the victim - it traumatises the spirit of those killed, it traumatises the psyche of those who loved or cared for the victim or even witnessed the crime.
It traumatises the doer in ways that the doer won’t even realise for possibly lifetimes to come.
Such trauma slows the growth of those directly involved or indirectly affected. We need to take action to prevent such harm, and to heal those harmed, in both the physical (through laws, justice system, hospitals, and psychological support systems) and the non-physical (though healing the victims, and doing clearing and balancing of those who have done or may do such abuses - whether physical or nonphysical, and to also teach nonphysical health, strength and wellbeing and protection to those at risk of being harmed nonphysically [e.g., this]).
We are not only here for our personal evolution: we are here to learn how to make places better to live in. And that means we work at preventing abuses and evil, not just tending to the victims and “ascending beyond” it ourselves - those are cop outs.
Now, having written all that, I would like you, Dear Reader, to spare a thought for the millions, perhaps billions, of people who do not have access to entertainment such as I have been watching - partly due to technological limitations, partly due to the censorship of authoritarian governments, but mostly due to poverty.
Where do they get their illustration of values from - and can their BPM Guides offset the harmful modelling?
I've decided to do a few shorter posts - like this one was originally going to be - rather than the longer, better researched and thought through posts I try to do. As I age and deteriorate, I have to manage my energy and time more carefully, and this will be one such way I do so.
* for those who are not familiar with these terms, “big screen”refers to movie theatres, whereas “little screen” refers to television.
** This also applied to the abuses of Allied PoWs in World War (part) Two, a significant portion of which came from German PoWs getting even for the abuses they had experienced in World War (part) One.
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