This whole thread has brought up a few thoughts on my own personal theory about escalation/hyper-reality in film and television over the past few years. Consider what it was like for the typical American consumer of media around 1950. Single screen theaters were the norm. There were few choices in television or radio -- they were truely "mass" media, and had to appeal to a broad audience. That all changed throughout the late 70's and early 80's. With multi-screen theater complexes, cable television offering dozens of channels, and now the Internet, entertainment has become a business of target marketing. A film such as "True Lies", although perceived as a "mass market" film, is really targeted to a particular socio-economic group of entertainment consumers. If you have one movie theater in town playing "Pulp Fiction", with few other choices for entertainment, a broader range of people are going to check out the film simply for the entertainment value and some of those people are going to be offended by what they see. However, marketing the film to a particular audience with certian values and taste makes it easier for Hollywood films, at least, to be more violent, more offensive, and more of everything. It also works to differentiate the film from other forms of entertainment (like cable television) that can't offer it's level of violence, "hyper realism", "unreality", what have you. Of course, when that film is ciruclated to video and television, something even "bigger" and "more" has to come along in the theatre to distract audiences once again -- thus the escalation process. People who would have enjoyed a "Pulp Fiction" or "Natural Born Killers" have always been around. The internationl conglomerates that have brought you *gasp* choice in entertainment have made it possible for these films to be made and find an audience -- to be economically feasible in a larger marketplace. So, it really makes me wonder how far the entertainment industry will go and if this is a good thing for society. Hollywood seems to be giving the child all the candy it wants and it will probably wind up with a tummy ache. RAND ------------------------------------------------- Randy A. Riddle, Winston-Salem, NC [log in to unmask] -- http://www.infi.net/~rriddle ------------------------------------------------- ---- To signoff SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]