I realized something disturbing tonight. I watched the film Amores Perros with some friends. I was the only one who hadn't seen it, but they all loved it enough to see it again. I'd heard it was an excellent movie, and I liked 21 Grams, so I was sure I'd like it too. I can honestly tell you if it weren't for being with my friends tonight, I may have turned off Amores Perros after the first fifteen minutes because I was so disturbed by the violence and gore. I never thought I'd say that about a movie. Not that I love violent films, but violence in films has never bothered me. Not until tonight. And the reason I was bothered by the violence bothers me even more than the violence itself.
One of the storylines in Amores Perros involves dog fighting. The dogs are vicious and often end up getting killed in the fights. Now, I'm not an uber-animal lover. I love my dog, and I pretty much like other people's dogs, but that's about as far as I go. But watching dogs fight and kill each other was way too much for me. I had to turn my head and really wasn't sure that I could handle it. But I soldiered on for my friends. (I'm glad I did, the film is excellent!) After the movie it dawned on me that I've seen people in films and TV doing the same and worse, but it rarely causes a reaction in me anymore. To say we are desensitized to violence from our exposure to it on film and TV is an understatement. Very disturbing.
to do #178: see Amores Perros
4 comments:
I have a harder time watching violence against animals in films than I do watching violence agaisnt people. I always use Amores Perros as an example
I'm the same with porn.
I can watch people doing it, but animals? I just cant look!
;-)
i'm not sure I could have watched that either to be honest.
animals are cute and cwuddly. Humans aren't (on the whole)....
I heard similar things about the UNICEF Smurfs commercial...it is very disturbing that it takes an animal or a cartoon to make us feel uncomfortable about the violence.
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