Post by tobe whooper on Sept 3, 2008 22:11:40 GMT -5
I was going to post this on imdb, but I'm pretty sure it's a minority opinion and I think I'm more likely to get reasoned responses here.
Basically, over the past few years I've realized that--with very few exceptions--I do not like action movies anymore. Sure, I used to (I'm a dude), but nowadays every action movie I watch seems lamer than the last. And I have begun to think that the reason--and as a lifelong horror fan I NEVER imagined I'd say this--is senseless violence. I'm put off by it.
Let me explain.
I saw V FOR VENDETTA in the theater when it came out. The day before, I had watched A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, one of my favorite films of all time. When it came to the climax of V, where the hero is murdering all these masked bad guys in a sewer or something, I tuned right the fuck out. That's the part that's supposed to get your adrenaline pumping--I just found it distasteful.
I just kept thinking about the way Cronenberg portrays violence, and something he says in the commentary: "the violence in this movie is brutal, it is personal, and it does very bad things to the human body." Generally speaking, I think the same could be said of horror as a genre.
Everybody who dies in a horror movie has a name, has lines, is at least minimally developed as a character. Action heroes, on the other hand, mow down hordes of faceless henchmen and goons without a second thought. You don't see the funeral, you don't see the families.
Not that you see them in horror, either--but zombie movies, monster movies, etc. have a profound moral and often intellectual dimension. When you watch someone die in a horror movie, you feel something. It's not always remorse and it's not always terror, but it's almost never as basic as a cheap thrill.
Which plot synopsis portrays a saner attitude about violence?
Damn . . . actually, when it's put like that, it might be a push.
But anyway, I don't hate all action movies. I live and die by Die Hard, and I do have a soft spot for the Terminator. Martial arts movies I'm okay with, because it's more about people getting the shit kicked out of them rather than killed. I like a lot of John Woo and heroic bloodshed stuff, because they tend to have a tragic emotional edge.
But part of the reason I watch horror movies is that the violence in them makes me feel bad. It's a release for all that fucked-up shit that's rattling around in my brain. Negative emotion is cathartic.
I get the feeling that people watch action movies because the violence makes them feel good. I never want violence to make me feel good.
By the way, my karma here doesn't bug me at all.
WHOOP! WHOOP!
Basically, over the past few years I've realized that--with very few exceptions--I do not like action movies anymore. Sure, I used to (I'm a dude), but nowadays every action movie I watch seems lamer than the last. And I have begun to think that the reason--and as a lifelong horror fan I NEVER imagined I'd say this--is senseless violence. I'm put off by it.
Let me explain.
I saw V FOR VENDETTA in the theater when it came out. The day before, I had watched A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, one of my favorite films of all time. When it came to the climax of V, where the hero is murdering all these masked bad guys in a sewer or something, I tuned right the fuck out. That's the part that's supposed to get your adrenaline pumping--I just found it distasteful.
I just kept thinking about the way Cronenberg portrays violence, and something he says in the commentary: "the violence in this movie is brutal, it is personal, and it does very bad things to the human body." Generally speaking, I think the same could be said of horror as a genre.
Everybody who dies in a horror movie has a name, has lines, is at least minimally developed as a character. Action heroes, on the other hand, mow down hordes of faceless henchmen and goons without a second thought. You don't see the funeral, you don't see the families.
Not that you see them in horror, either--but zombie movies, monster movies, etc. have a profound moral and often intellectual dimension. When you watch someone die in a horror movie, you feel something. It's not always remorse and it's not always terror, but it's almost never as basic as a cheap thrill.
Which plot synopsis portrays a saner attitude about violence?
Damn . . . actually, when it's put like that, it might be a push.
But anyway, I don't hate all action movies. I live and die by Die Hard, and I do have a soft spot for the Terminator. Martial arts movies I'm okay with, because it's more about people getting the shit kicked out of them rather than killed. I like a lot of John Woo and heroic bloodshed stuff, because they tend to have a tragic emotional edge.
But part of the reason I watch horror movies is that the violence in them makes me feel bad. It's a release for all that fucked-up shit that's rattling around in my brain. Negative emotion is cathartic.
I get the feeling that people watch action movies because the violence makes them feel good. I never want violence to make me feel good.
By the way, my karma here doesn't bug me at all.
WHOOP! WHOOP!