A lot of talk has come up recently on whether or not films like NBK glorify violence. I haven't seen it yet (tomorrow for sure) but I have given a lot of thought to the issue of violence in entertainment. Conflict is innate to drama. Without conflict there are no obstacles to overcome, and we get left with a boring story. Violence is just an extreme resolution of conflict. In an ideal world, conflicts could always be solved without violence - but even the most optimistics would acknowledge that without a great deal of martyrdom, violence is often the only course of action left to counter a conflicting action. For example, you are assaulted by someone with a knife. Sure, you could be non-vioent and let him kill you, and the attacker will probably be caught anyway, but you'd still be dead. That may or may not be a bad thing, depending on your point of view. Most, however, would agree that they'd rather become violent in order to protect their lives rather than martyr themselves in the name of non-violence. Because violence draws on extreme emotions (not just Hate but also Love, such as when you fight someone to protect something dear to you) it also serves as the most authoritative assertion of power. Killing someone is a pretty final act - such that any act of violence inherently carries a great deal more weight than mere words can express. Violence is also cathartic. It doesn't matter if the character who commits a violent act - if the antagonist kills, death is a cathartic release for the victim, whereas if the protagonist kills, it's a cathartic sense of triumph over one's enemies. The trick about NBK (though I haven't seen it) seems to be that the protagonists are evil, bad people - mass murderers. Yet, because they are protagonists, we identify with them to a degree and when they kill, we share in their triumph even though revolted at their actions from an objective point of view. This is the heart of the violence question. On the one hand, good drama inherently forces the audience to identify with a character or set of characters. On the other hand, as a society we don't want people to identify with "evil" characters so much that they recreate their acts in real life. I don't know what the answer is - though I put forward the teaching of critical thinking skills. The ability to detach from observations and observe them in a different context is at least as importnat as reading, writing and arithmetic. Unfortunately, it seems that until we master the basics, we won't teach people the skills that cane truly make a difference in their lives - such as the ability to differentiate fantasy from reality. _________________________ Sometimes you just have to look Fate square in the eye and say: "You're Right!" [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask]