If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.  Romans 12:18,19 (NIV)

Background

We are inundated with images of violence from the time we are able to watch a television program, or play a video game. According to a 1999 report for the U.S Senate Committee on the Judiciary entitled, ‘Children, Violence, and the Media’, an American child will see 16,000 simulated murders and 200,000 acts of violence on television by their eighteenth birthday [1].

‘Action’ films as they are often called, and cop shows, with a steady drip of fisticuffs, gunplay and explosions into the culture’s bloodstream, have dominated Western—indeed world-wide entertainment–for years.  If repetition is a marker of success, then violence in entertainment is undoubtedly one of the most successful business models in history, comparable, probably, only to the sex industry.  But there is a significant difference between the two. While titillating images of scantily clad women abound on film, on television programs, commercials, and even news programs –the ‘real’ sex industry, pornography, is still taboo, primarily consumed in the privacy of one’s home.   ‘Action films’ –I’m using the term to describe films that not only contain lots of physical stunts or car chases, but significant beatings, gunplay and/ or high body counts–are distributed openly in movie theatres and in your neighbourhood department stores, as acceptable forms of entertainment anyone can consume.

Why?

Why are we as a society so comfortable with a story template that shows an innocent man, woman or child being killed –‘offed’, ‘terminated’, ‘hit’—as a means of  pulling us into a story, and why do we experience such a sense of  satisfaction when at the end of the film, the bad guy gets his due, often in a manner just as gruesome as the initial event,  not to mention the body count that propels the plot to its back-slapping denouement? What is it about the retribution, the revenge, the avenging alien that we as an audience so love that we continue to pay billions of dollars every year to experience this vicarious thrill over and over again?

And how do the story-tellers—the producers, writers, directors, video game creators—pull us into their world for hours on end? How are they able to create such unforgettable heroes and villains, storylines that have become so ingrained in our culture that they have produced some of the most memorable lines in the history of entertainment?

Let’s take a look at the archetypal characters that drive many of these films.

The Good Guys

‘Bond. James Bond.’  – James Bond, Dr. No

The ‘good guys’ are likable characters who get the job done. At the top of this list is the inimitable 007, whose first novel-length adventure was in Casino Royale in 1954, and who leapt onto the screen in 1962 in Dr. No.

The Bond series is the fourth highest grossing movie franchise in history, making over $1.9 billion dollars to date [2]. Bond has taken a hiatus of a few years now and then, but always returns, as we are regularly promised during the credits at the end of the films.   Bond is suave, debonair, infinitely resourceful, devastatingly charming and often funny. He is not only a secret agent, but a very special one. His rarified ‘double-o’ number gives him the official status of an assassin—an agent licensed to kill on behalf of her majesty’s secret service. His missions are usually accomplished with the help—or despite the duplicity—of one or more of the famed ‘Bond girls’. He is the perfect mix of a ladies’ man and a man’s man.

For many of the adventures it was up to Bond to stop a megalomaniac from destroying the world—or at least a healthy part of it—a task which he always accomplished with more than a touch of class, ‘gee-wiz gadgets, and of course, beautiful women.

No one else comes close to Bond in terms of longevity.  However the affable John McLane in the Die Hard series does have some staying power.  He too has a signature line that has become a household term:  Yippee kay-ye motherf&!ker!’  Die Hard, released in 1988, cost an estimated $28MM to make and has grossed $137MM worldwide [3]. It was the seventh highest grossing film of the year it was released. Four additional films in the series have been released as of 2015.

The Outsider and the Vigilante

‘You’ve got to ask yourself one question: ‘Do I feel lucky?’ Well, do ya, punk?’  Harry Callahan, Dirty Harry

While we love to hang out with the good guys because we love their humour, the beautiful women, the fancy gadgets and fast cars, we look to the Outsider as the protector of the powerless and the weak. The Outsider is the guy who sees the injustice in his world– the weak and the defenseless, and a bureaucracy or a social structure that is either too corrupt or simply unwilling to correct it.   We never get to know him, truly know him, for he doesn’t reveal much.  He’s The Man with No Name, he’s the Outlaw Josey Wales, he’s Dirty Harry. He’s also Paul Kersey, the architect-turned-vigilante in the 1974 thriller, Death Wish.

In the Dirty Harry series, Inspector Callahan is up against a police department and a municipal hierarchy that, in his mind, is way too soft on criminals.  With the audience’s   de facto identification with Callahan the story implies that the audiences will share not only his worldview, but his unconventional methods as well.

Paul Kersey, the hero in Death Wish, learns that his wife is viciously murdered and his daughter is brutally raped, and left in a coma. The architect cum vigilante then goes out at night   and deliberately puts himself in situations where he encounters street thugs and gang members, whom he calmly dispatches with his .32 calibre revolver when he is threatened. Again, the audience accompanies him on his quest.  We are relieved at the end of the film that he not only lives but escapes prisons time. This in effect validates our identification him and his actions.

We are in awe of the Outsider for we know he is very able to protect us, but we are reluctant to know too much about him. We know that he has likely had a dark past, that he is someone who has come through   some traumatic experience that has never been (or will ever be) resolved, an experience that has made him a  social misfit, alienated from society—feelings  with which we as audience members, at some point in our lives,  have experienced. And so we slink behind the Outsider as he systematically eliminates those who would harm us.  And we feel entirely safe behind his weapons, whether it’s Paul Kersey’s  .32 calibre Colt Police Positive revolver  [4],  William Munny’s Spencer 1860 Carbine, or Dirty Harry’s  Smith & Wesson Model 29 revolver, chambered for the  .44 calibre Magnum cartridge. This gun has taken on a mythical reputation  in the popular culture since its debut in the scene in Dirty Harry where Callahan, with a chilling expressionless glare,  assures the bad guy bleeding on the pavement in front of him, that it is the ‘most powerful handgun in the world, and will blow your head clean off’.  So, yeah, go ahead, make his day. The Dirty Harry series has produced five films, released between 1971 and 1988.

The spirit of Harry Callahan is transported back to the nineteenth century to a number of westerns, including, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Pale Rider and Unforgiven.   In Josey Wales the outlaw teams up with a Native American and two women to take on a group of killers who burned down his farm and assaulted one of the women.

In Pale Rider a group of gold prospectors have their land taken away from them, and the mysterious preacher, a former gunfighter, comes to the rescue and calmly guns down the long-coated bad buys, one by one.

In Unforgiven William Munny, a former gunfighter, and his two sidekicks, track down and kill a group of outlaws who raped and disfigured a prostitute. When the local sheriff fails to mete out the appropriate justice, and torture and kill Munny’s best friend in the process, it’s up to the former gunfighter to take matters into his own hands and exact justice on the sheriff. Unforgiven, released in 1992, cost an estimated $14 million to make and grossed $159 million dollars worldwide [5]. It was number eleven on the list of highest grossing films of that year [6].

The Gangster

‘I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.’  — Vito Corleone, The Godfather

The audience experiences a vicarious thrill ride through the mob world when watching a gangster film. It offers a peak into a world constrained only be the rules created by the gangsters themselves—not society’s rules. We are imbued with the power of the mob boss, who, like the Outsider, is the guy who can erase a problem when he sees fit. He doesn’t have to rely on a societal structure—or, gasp!, God—to make things right.  We, through the eyes of the anti-hero, see a problem, and we fix it. Period. We are Michael Corleone, Tony Montana (Scarface, 1983), or Tony Soprano.

In order to be palatable the stories in this genre centre on the internal moral code of the gangsters, rather than the destructive impact of their activities on society. It’s as if they are saying to us, ‘look, this is the world I inherited. I’m doing the best that I can—and by the way, I’m not as bad as the other guy.’  In order to identify with the mobsters, we grade the gangster on the curve.  Michael Corleone, the anti-hero in the Godfather trilogy, is technically a bad guy, but he only massacres a corrupt police captain and a rival mobster after they they attempt to kill his father and try to muscle in on the family business.  In another sequence, one of the most memorable in the history of American film-making, his lieutenants visit his rivals and summarily execute them, individually, in torrents of gunfire, at the very moment he is at church—at a cathedral, taking the vow to become the godfather of his sister’s son.

And the audience loved it. The Godfather, produced for $6 million in 1972, was the highest grossing film of that year, [7] and has since raked in $245 million worldwide [8].

Horror

‘A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and nice Chianti.’ – Dr. Hannibal Lecter, The Silence of the Lambs

Ironically the horror film (or the psychological thriller) attains its impact by the threat of violence as much as showing that violence. While we do not identify with these characters, we are both fascinated and repulsed by them.  These films are our worst nightmares come true.  The evil with which Hannibal Lecter is capable of draws us into his sick, morbid world–a world so dysfunctional that he is capable of   extracting a human being’s organs and devouring them.  Released in 1991, The Silence of the Lambs had an estimated production budget of $19 million and has since grossed $273 million worldwide [9],  and was the fourth highest grossing film of that year [10].

The1970s, 80s and 90s produced several horror franchises that have become part of the culture. Here are the top grossing horror franchises of all time, according to CNBC. [11].

5 A Nightmare on Elm Street (9 films)
Adjusted for inflation (2011): $728,541,102.10
Total worldwide gross: $ 455,293,334

4 Friday the 13th (12 films)
Adjusted for inflation (2011): $876,562,404.20
Total worldwide gross: $465,239,523

3 Scream (5 films)
Adjusted for inflation (2011): $951,057,819.30
Total worldwide gross: $605,365,245

2 Saw (7 films)
Adjusted for inflation (2011): $1,014,195,828
Total worldwide gross: $873,319,880

1 The Exorcist (6 films)
Adjusted for inflation (2011): $2,255,431,170
Total worldwide gross: $661,478,540

War

‘Do we get to win this time?’ – John Rambo, Rambo: First Blood Part II

There are many different types of films about war, of course.  There are the action-adventure stories, where there is much automatic weapon fire, and where things blow up real good.  Many of these films are barely more than cartoonish shoot-em-up tales primarily aimed at young men.   A popular plotline involves a squad of special operatives who slip into enemy territory to rescue a high-value target, or blow up a strategic one.   The Rambo series, Delta Force, and the World War II movies based on Alistair Maclean novels (The Guns of Navarone, Where Eagles Dare) come to mind.  These stories have in fact resurfaced in today’s video game market, aimed at the young male demographic.

The 2000s

According to the Motion Picture Association of America moviegoers aged 25-39 have dominated ticket purchases since 2010 [12] p16. During that period films aimed at a younger demographic have topped the box office receipts around the world. The violence of the iconic western gunslinger and the urban Outsider/ vigilante of the 70S and 80s has been kicked into overdrive by the likes of Batman, Iron Man, Katniss Everdeen and Captain America.  While the older storylines hinted at some moralistic underpinnings, many of the current films are driven by special effects, robots and humans with super-human powers.  To put the commercial impact of these films into perspective, at least one of the Hunger Games, Avengers, Iron Man, or the Transformers franchises have all placed among the top five grossing films of each year since 2010, [13].

Video Games

Movies have found their way into the video game arena as well.  The James Bond film, Goldeneye, and the sci-fi thriller, The Chronicles of Riddick have migrated to the video games, GoldenEye 007 and The Chronicles of Riddick, respectively.  And the transformation has occurred in the other direction as well, the Lara Croft video game character has seen tremendous success in two feature films.

Nowhere is violence is as dominant as in video game market–specifically ‘shooter’ video games.  Shooter games were among the best-sellers of 2014, with Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Destiny, and Grand Theft Auto 5 placing in the top 5 [14]. According to the CEO of Activision Blizzard, the parent company of Activision Inc., the  publisher of the Call of Duty series,  since the creation of  the ‘Call of Duty franchise in 2003, [the] franchise revenues have exceeded $10 billion in sales worldwide, far exceeding box office receipts for such household movie franchises as Hunger Games, Transformers, Iron Man and Avengers, combined,” [15].

In Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare a first-person shooter game, the player is Jack Mitchell, a special ops soldier who undertakes commando type missions.  During the course of a mission the player (taking on the character of Jack Mitchell) may kill over 500 enemy combatants in as little as thirty minutes.  Your final score is based on such metrics as the number of enemy’s men that you’ve killed, the number that you’ve shot in the head, the number killed by explosion, among others.  To the uninitiated playing this game, the environment can be described as nothing less than surreal.  As you move though a combat zone you routinely shoot enemy combatants, some at point blank range, as casually as you would clay pigeons on a shooting range.

Thought-provoking and Inspirational Films

‘I love the smell of napalm in the morning.’  — Lt. Colonel Kilgore, Apocalypse Now

While the entertainment industry has used violence (sometimes gratuitous violence)  to push a storyline, there have been many instances where violence has been indispensable to make an important statement, to tell a story that makes you think, one that is ultimately edifying.

For instance there are films that attempt a serious examination of the horror of war. During the 1980s films like Oliver Stone’s Platoon, Francis Ford Coppola’s  Apocalypse Now, Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket and Brian De Palma’s Casualties of War use unsparingly graphic scenes to convey the horrors of the Vietnam conflict in which the Americans found themselves barely a decade before.  Other notable directors tackling the violence and brutality that is war are Stephen Spielberg with Saving Private Ryan and Terrence Malick and The Thin Red Line, both of whom set their stories in World War II. Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down, based on the U.S.‘s disastrous involvement in Somalia, and Kathryn Bigelow’s  The Hurt Locker, the story of a bomb disposal unit in 2004 Baghdad during the war in Iraq, are sobering examinations of the sacrifices that are made when a nation decides to take up arms against its enemies.

‘You don’t understand! I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I could’ve been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am’.  — Terry Malloy, On the Waterfront

Like the war films mentioned above, violence has been used for a serious examination of the human condition in other settings as well.  Films as diverse as On the Waterfront, Schindler’s List, Hotel Rwanda and The Passion of the Christ come to mind. In On The Waterfront, a washed-up prize-fighter, Terry Malloy, is forced to stand up for his principles and face down the corrupt boss of the local dock workers union, dock workers who are kept in line by threats, beatings and murder.  Oscar Schindler, in Schindler’s List, saves hundreds of Jews from the gas chambers during World War II.  In 1994, in the African country of Rwanda, wracked by civil war between the majority Hutu and the minority Tutsi populations, more than 800,000 people, primarily Tutsi, were murdered in what has become known as the Rwandan Genocide [16].  Hotel Rwanda documents the real-life story of Paul Rusesabagina, a Hutu and a local hotel manager, who saves the lives of internally displaced persons, by sheltering them in his hotel, while countless numbers of people are slaughtered in the streets outside. And Jesus, the Christ, suffers an unbearable flogging, and ultimately a graphic crucifixion, in The Passion of the Christ, a film of extraordinary power and hope for millions of Christians the world over.

Wrap Up

We live in a society where practically anyone is able to make a lot of money if they are able to produce a product for which people are prepared to purchase, to pay for with their hard earned money. Violence has been endemic in entertainment for centuries, for thousands of years: from the spectacle of the gladiators at the time of Jesus, to the genius of Shakespeare’s plays, to the shifting action genres of the 20^th and 21^st centuries. There is an unquenchable thirst within the human spirit, it seems, for battle. For revenge, retribution.   For the settling of conflicts through with the use of force.  To punish those severely who would harm us and our families.

Why?

Could it simply be survival? Survival of the fittest maybe? Could it be that we are all stumbling around in the darkness of the human condition, trying to find our way?  Maybe destroying those who would stand in our way is the means of escape?  And maybe these films give us hope, that we can effect change in our own lives, that we can determine our own path. This line of thinking doesn’t seem to be very effective though, for we are still unable to get along with each other, after millions of years of existence, and thousands of years of ‘civiliation’.

For those of us who are Christians the words of John cannot be more telling:

This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.  John 3:19-21 (NIV)

References

1 http://www.indiana.edu/~cspc/ressenate.htm
2 http://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2015/04/13/the-most-successful-movie-franchises-in-history-infographic/
3 https://pro-labs.imdb.com/title/tt0071402/
4 http://pro.imdb.com/title/tt0071402/synopsis
5 https://pro-labs.imdb.com/title/tt0105695
6 http://www.boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?yr=1992
7 http://www.filmsite.org/boxoffice2.html
8 https://pro-labs.imdb.com/title/tt0068646/
9 https://pro-labs.imdb.com/title/tt0102926/?ref_=sch_int
10 http://www.boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?yr=1991&p=.htm
11 http://www.cnbc.com/2011/10/21/The-10-Highest-Grossing-Horror-Movie-Franchises.html?slide=2
12 http://www.mpaa.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/MPAA-Theatrical-Market-Statistics-2014.pdf
13 http://www.boxofficemojo.com/yearly/
14 http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2015/01/19/the-top-ten-best-selling-video-games-of-2014/
15 http://investor.activision.com/releasedetail.cfm?releaseid=884070
16 http://www.britannica.com/event/Rwanda-genocide-of-1994

© Weldon Turner 2015.  All Rights Reserved.