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The Hollywood Dream Factory vs. Youth
A direct causal relationship between violent content [in fiction] and aggressive behavior [in real life] — the "stimulation model" — has been scientifically demonstrated in laboratory experiments. So has the "aggressive cues model" — the idea that media portrayals can suggest that certain classes of people, for example, women or foreigners, are acceptable targets for real-world aggression, thereby increasing the likelihood that some people will act violently toward people in those groups.
—Dr. Stanley J. Baran1
Have you ever seen this movie? A teenaged hero hits an adult, and the adult accepts it. The adult does not hit back, does not file charges, does not retaliate in any way, shape, or form.
No? I've never seen such a movie, either. But I've seen many, many films showing the reverse. Here are just a few of the films in which an adult hits his daughter or son or even some unrelated youth, and the youth accepts it.
- Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
- American Beauty (has 3 such scenes)
- Amityville II
- The Bad News Bears
- Before Night Falls
- Billy Jack
- Blade II
- Bless the Child
- Bonnie & Clyde
- Book of Love
- Born on the Fourth of July
- A Bronx Tale
- But I'm a Cheerleader
- The Candidate
- Carrie (has several such scenes)
- Citizen Ruth
- Cradle 2 the Grave
- Creepshow
- Defenseless
- Do the Right Thing
- Family Business
- The Fast and the Furious
- Footloose
- For Your Eyes Only
- Foxfire
- Gangs of New York
- Goodfellas
- Grapes of Wrath
- Great Expectations
- Hackers
- Hairspray
- Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers
- Heaven & Earth
- Heavenly Creatures
- I Accuse My Parents
- Igby Goes Down
- In the Time of the Butterflies
- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
- Inherit the Wind
- Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
- Kate & Leopold
- The Legend of Drunken Master
- Like Water for Chocolate
- Mermaids
- Milk Money
- Miller's Crossing
- Monster's Ball
- Monty Python's Life of Brian
- Mother Night
- Mystery, Alaska
- A Nightmare on Elm Street
- Nothing to Lose
- October Sky
- Old School
- Once Upon a Time in the West
- Open City
- Outside Providence
- The Outsiders
- Public Enemy
- Pump Up the Volume
- Raisin in the Sun
- Rebel Without a Cause
- Relentless
- Saturday Night Fever
- Scary Movie 2
- Smokey and the Bandit II
- Smooth Talk
- Sugar & Spice
- Teachers
- They Call Me Mister Tibbs
- 21 Grams
- Waterworld
- Way of the Gun
- Wild in the Streets
- William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet
- American Beauty (has 3 such scenes)
Now to be fair, here is a list of movies I have found where an adult hits a youth and the youth at least defends herself or retaliates afterward:
(none.)
In Portrait of Teresa, a man hits his wife, and the wife hits him back. In The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, a priest hits Eli Wallach, and Eli Wallach decks the priest. But violence against the young is not punished. It is accepted.
Whose dreams is Hollywood churning out? The dreams of hateful adults, apparently. Hollywood is telling youth they have no right to be safe from violence. Hollywood is telling adults they have a perfect right to assault and batter anyone they please, so long as that person is young.
They give aid and comfort to child-abusers, telling them they're not alone, that everybody does it.
Of course, film-makers sometimes encourage young people to be violent, too — against other young people. In the movie Heathers, our young "heroes" have fun bumping off classmates for such crimes as rude behavior. Yet they never commit a violent act against an adult, even though they are surrounded by adults who insult and hurt them. Heathers, of course, does not focus all its hatred on youth. It also displays hatred for those parents who actually love their children, portraying such parents as idiots worthy of scorn.
The appearance of They Call Me Mister Tibbs on the list above is rather ironic. Tibbs is the sequel to In the Heat of the Night, a film from the 1960's whose best scene shows a white man slap a black man and the black man slap him right back. Tibbs shows the same black man (played by the popular Sidney Poitier) slap a helpless child, portrayed without even a suggestion that such behavior should be challenged or even questioned. The point seems to be: violence is wrong when committed against black adults, but not when committed against black children.
Hollywood loves young people's money. They just don't seem to love young people very much.
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