The question whether violence depicted in movies, television and video games has any influence on school shootings and other incidents was asked during a panel discussion in the Garvin Theatre.
Sigma Chi Eta, the communications honor society, and three Hollywood dynamos hosted a panel to discuss media violence on Wednesday, April 10 before an audience of nearly 100 people.
Speakers included producer, actor and stunt coordinator Tierre Turner, stunt actor Jonathan Arthur and independent film producer Michael Gilbert with Sarah Hock, City College communications professor, leading the panel.
The event began with a video montage of clips from action-packed movies such as “The Dark Knight” set to the song “Where is the Love?” by the Black Eyed Peas followed by news clips of events such as the Columbine and Sandy Hook shootings set to “Hallelujah” by Allison Crowe.
“The first few minutes were violent and cool and awesome and everyone’s eyes were glued to the screen,” Arthur said, “but then the images from Columbine came on and I get chills.”
The panel began by talking about how violence in movies may influence society’s violent behavior and remained there for the rest of the event because of conflicting ideas of Gilbert and Turner.
“We can’t say that people watch ‘The Dark Knight‘ and go attack schools, but we would be naïve to say that it didn’t play a part,” said Hock.
Gilbert said violence and media couldn’t be directly linked with each other because the statistics didn’t match. He also argued that entertainment value of movies and television shows also had to be taken into account.
“Obviously, I’ve done very violent movies, I’m part of a culture that produces movies that shoot and kill a lot of people, but we do it in a very safe environment,” said Turner. “We as producers have a responsibility to settle down the violence.”
Arthur said that the media has crossed a line and violence shown in movies is too much. However, he argued that while working, one doesn’t think about the repercussions.
An example he used was when he was working on a video game in a stop motion suit.
“You’re standing in a spandex suit covered in balls holding a piece of PVC pipe to use as a gun and you’re just like, ‘Run, run, run. Shoot, shoot, shoot. Fall.’ Okay. Another day at work,” he said.
Gilbert had a much more pessimistic perception toward violence in society. He mockingly recited the sentence “The media has a responsibility” in a nasal tone.
“What do you mean ‘the media has a responsibility’? To do what? On whose value? It’s your own responsibility. Our responsibility is to entertain and maybe educate. Show the world the way it is. It’s a violent world,” he said. “But if Mel Gibson wants me to see the anguish of Jesus Christ on every frame, I’m not going.”
Turner, however, refused to believe that movies couldn’t be any less savage.
“Actors are starting to speak up more. Obviously there are some actors that are like ‘They’re paying me 20 million dollars, I have to blow up this hotel,’ then there are some that say ‘Let the audience use their imagination,’” said Turner. “If I’m going to show violence, I’m not going to do it just so you can see someone’s head get cut off.”
Gilbert echoed this sentiment.
“In the overall sense, there’s just too much violence out there. It’s what people want. The ultimate audience is you,” said Gilbert.
