Screen violence vs. real-life violence

In her comment to my "Cunts" post below, Candy Minx asked whether the violence wreaked by these men was as a result of watching the "ultraviolence" of A Clockwork Orange. I assumed this was meant in a tongue-in-cheek way, which is why I didn't directly refer to it in my reply comment.

However, some people do believe there is a connection between screen violence and real-life violence. I am not one of them. To a point.

I have always been fervently anti-censorship of everything, especially the arts, which include, in my humble opinion, film-making and writing. To a point. That point is at which someone or something becomes involved or injured or killed against his or her or its own wishes. Like the cat in that film that was made a few years ago. That's not art.

But I think the key element of the equation here is the viewer of violent films, or the reader of violent literature. And you can't legislate for stupid people. To do so is an infringement of our civil liberties.

So because some stupid people out there are undoubtedly influenced by what they watch, read, or even play on their games consoles, we responsible types are limited in our choices. Certain films are cut to reduce the possibility of copycat violence, for example, or banned outright.

The Jamie Bulger case of a few years ago was interesting – and probably an important moment in British censorship history.

Jamie Bulger was not yet 3 years old when he was abducted and killed by two 10-year-old boys. It was claimed that Bulger's killers (and I make no excuse for them; I hope they rot in hell) were influenced in the way they killed Bulger by the movie Child's Play 3, which they had allegedly watched, despite being under the age limit for that movie, because one of the boys' fathers had recently rented it.

The facts disclosed by the trial, according to the Wikipedia article on the story, include that "one of the boys threw blue modelling paint on Bulger's face. They kicked him and hit him with bricks, stones and a 22-lb (10-kg) iron bar." And The Sun newspaper decided that some of this violence was directly copied from the aforementioned Chucky movie.

I've not seen Child's Play 3, so I can't comment on that, but I have seen about a billion Tom & Jerry cartoons, many of which include the type of violence displayed by these "boys". And I've seen Home Alone, which also demonstrates to children that there are no ill effects suffered after being smashed in the face with full tins of paint and the like.

I'm not calling for censorship of the arts, no sirree. But at least "violent" films like A Clockwork Orange and horror films like Child's Play and disturbing literature such as American Psycho do present the realities of violence.

Remember, these films are not meant for children anyway, whereas cartoons and the Home Alone series are, and ask yourself what your kids are watching today.