IN DEFENSE OF OLIVER STONE AND THE FILM INDUSTRY
There has been much controversy in the last few years over the excessive amount of violence in movies, television, music, and even cartoons. In an essay condemning filmmaker Oliver Stone for the unnecessary use of violence in his movies, the well-known attorney, novelist, screenwriter and fellow (hypocritical) violent movie producer and self-righteous director John Grisham, accuses Stone of provoking and influencing two wayward teenagers to go on a killing spree, which unfortunately ended with the paralysis of a young mother and the death of one man (incidentally, a friend of Grisham’s). And although Grisham isn’t accusing Stone of actually pulling the trigger, he certainly implies that Stone is ultimately responsible for the crimes committed against those two people and their families when he states, “The film wasn’t made with the intent of stimulating morally depraved young people to commit similar crimes, but such a result can hardly be a surprise.” (Unnatural Killers, 698).
Grisham is apparently not aware that there is and always has been an excessive amount of violence, hatred and killing in every human culture and society since the time man crawled out of the ocean—which was quite a long time before the invention of radio, TV, movies, and other influential media. As tragic as this and all similar types of events are, it is not and cannot be the fault of a single individual or even one profession. It is sadly inherent in our nature, instinctive to our species, and whether John Grisham likes it or not, we are all “Natural Born Killers.”
The only difference between those who kill and those who don’t is just a slight variation in their temporal lobe and a few glitches in their psyche. And while it is true that visual images can be very stimulating to the brain, the majority of human beings genetically possess or have the potential of being taught appropriate morals, values, and rationale that would contradict, challenge or sedate those degenerative thoughts and actions. And even the individuals with a different or lower moral capacity at least have the fortitude to control the urges that result from that stimulation. Millions of men and women are stimulated, almost daily, by an abundance of violent, sexual, and even violent sexual images, while only a very few sickos are moved by their primal urges to reenact some of the scenes they have viewed (the key word here being “primal.”) They are acting on their inborn, natural instincts but, unfortunately for the rest of us, some of them have not evolved from those primeval stages, and because they do not possess the essential control and thinking capabilities as do the majority of us, it doesn’t matter if they watch it in a movie or read about it in the newspaper. The point is that most likely they are going to do it anyway, sooner or later because, as Grisham himself states about the two young people in the essay, they were “morally depraved young people” to begin with. The most interesting and ironic thing I discovered when researching for this essay, is that the movie “Natural Born Killers” was actually based on a true-life event which took place in
I, and many, many people I know have watched an endless array of movies, each containing a tremendous amount of violence. I have never been moved in the least to run out and shoot, stab, rape or kill someone. In fact, most of the time the feelings invoked by these movies are ones of disgust or a reminder of how terrible violence can be against another human being. But I am rational. When I view a movie, such as Natural Born Killers, that is so overboard on the violence and stupidity of some people, it becomes just a cynical joke and a parody of itself.
Do we also attack the actors and directors of such movies as Pricilla Queen of the Desert because it could potentially influence some men to become gay and start cross-dressing? I believe that if a man had that natural tendency, it would have already been emerging or at least manifesting itself prior to watching that movie. The true-life events illustrated in movies such as Roots and Amistad could easily contain some of the most violent and horrifying things I have ever seen in depicting the hatred and prejudice against the slaves. But all this really happened. This is what people were doing to one another before a more decent and civilized humanity stepped in and stopped them. There was no movie made prior to these actual events, and the slave owners were not influenced by any theatrical portrayal. They were influenced by their own sick, twisted, inborn and uncontrolled violent urges. And those particular movies did not make anyone in either decade of the 70s or 90s hang, whip, beat, enslave or kill Black Americans (with the demented exceptions of a few southerners and some psychotic KKK members, who did try, and unfortunately succeed, a few times.) But, as I’ve said, those people are not mentally stable to begin with.
What about the Bible? How many centuries of wars and death have been wasted in the name of God? Do we sue him? Or maybe just the writers? We certainly couldn’t blame the people responsible for the death and destruction caused by their own self-righteous, self-serving and purely evil actions. Or could we?
It doesn’t matter how often people use the excuse that “the devil made them do it,” it will never in our existence change the fact that every reasonably sane human being has the right to choose what he or she does. You choose every action you consciously make. And even if you don’t choose the thoughts that are sometimes introduced into your head, you choose what to do with those thoughts. And if you can’t, then it is only because you have chosen, whether suddenly or over a matter of time, to not listen to the rational thoughts, or you were never reasonably sane to begin with. There are rare instances where people have been so poorly influenced in their lifetime or have so severely abused themselves with mind-altering drugs that they have lost the ability to choose or to understand what is wrong or unacceptable behavior. That is why we put them away for safekeeping.
It is very sad that those two people were shot; moreover for their families, but it will not bring them back and it will not solve the problems of our society by randomly blaming and finding fault with anyone other than those two teenagers and to a certain extent, their parents.
Another thing to consider is the implications and escalating effects that a lawsuit of this magnitude would have on our Country, if not the world. The majority of U.S. citizens will not tolerate capitalism or communism in any form, and Mr. Grisham aka Senator McCarthy would be doing nothing more than inciting an unimaginable scene of blacklisting, protests, lawsuits, fights, and more violence than we could ever even predict. Instead of suing, blaming, fighting and trying to control every single aspect of life and the world, I think we all need to pick up a mirror, do some introspection, and start admitting and accepting responsibility for our own thoughts and actions, and the responsibility of teaching and raising decent, responsible children. As I heard a wise professor once say, “They can serve you food, cut it up, and even stick it in your mouth; but they can’t make you digest it.”
Work Cited
Grisham, John. “Unnatural Killers.” The Writers Presence, 3rd Edition. McQuade, Atman Eds. Boston: __________, 2000. 694-699.
Natural Born Killers. Dir. Oliver Stone. Perf. Woody Harrelson, Juliet Lewis. ____________, 1994.
Amistad. Dir. Stephen Spielberg. Perf. Matthew McConaughey, Morgan Freeman, Anthony Hopkins, Djimon Hounsou. Dreamworks, 1997.