Sin City
"A-ha!" you might say. "I knew this crackpot would mention Sin City."
You'd be right, in that instance. But, in my defense, I feel that I would be remiss in my duty if I failed to mention this movie.
Sin City, the movie, is a gorgeous orgy of decandence. In this instance, it's mostly violence and women in slinky costumes. The women in slinky costumes have an obvious, harmless appeal, which I will skip over for now. However, I don't doubt that the level of violence in this movie will raise some hackles. I saw a review in the "Running the Voodoo Down" weblog earlier today about this movie. I agree with the other blogger's point about the marketing for the movie being dishonest:
What I really wanted to talk about, though, was the concept of whether a violent movie like this constitutes legitimate entertainment. There are a lot of people who maintain that it does not, ranging from people who make the highly questionable claim that witnessing violence in a movie will lead to more violence in society, to those who simply feel that decent, well-adjusted people shouldn't have any need to watch stuff like this, and if you actually enjoy it, there must be something wrong with you. Needless to say, I disagree. Not only do I maintain that a work of art (and I do think this movie qualifies as art) or entertainment should not be held responsible if some weirdo decides to go out and hack somebody up, I believe that watching a feature like this, in which the violence is highly stylized and exaggerated, and especially in which the violence exists within a meaningful emotional context (i.e., it's more than just random footage of people being chopped up), can have a highly cathartic value and because of this may actually lower the amount of violence in real life.
If one is seething with frustration on the inside, after working for years at a depressing, degrading job (for example), is it better to pay a few bucks to enjoy a movie like this, grinning with pleasure every time a bad guy gets his just desserts, wincing in sympathy every time a hero or heroine takes a hit, or is it better to hold that frustration inside while seeing the latest PG-rated crock, until, someday, perhaps, the frustration reaches a critical level and you go postal on your co-workers? Of course that is not very common--a more likely scenario is that, one day, the frustration will reach a critical level and you'll simply walk out of your job, or you'll semi-deliberately do something stupid and get your ass fired (and yes, this actually happened to me once). Or maybe you'll start deciding that life is frustrating enough without having to bother with trivialities like respecting all the other idiot drivers on the road, so someday, you'll end up causing an accident somewhere.
An obvious objection that can be raised at this point is, "Well, sure, but aren't there a lot of other methods of working out one's frustrations? How about competitive sports, for example?" Well, as a frustrated guy, all I can say in response to that is that competitive sports are far more likely to piss me off than to help. (Although, truthfully, I'm getting old enough now that the most likely outcome would be to simply land myself in the doctor's office with some kind of injury.) The point is that what works for one person may not work for another, and why should we, as a society, be limiting the avenues that people can use to help themselves?
Well, for now, I am out of time. Perhaps I will have further comment in the near future. In fact, I hope so--I think this is a movie that deserves more attention than I have been able to give it here, thus far.
You'd be right, in that instance. But, in my defense, I feel that I would be remiss in my duty if I failed to mention this movie.
Sin City, the movie, is a gorgeous orgy of decandence. In this instance, it's mostly violence and women in slinky costumes. The women in slinky costumes have an obvious, harmless appeal, which I will skip over for now. However, I don't doubt that the level of violence in this movie will raise some hackles. I saw a review in the "Running the Voodoo Down" weblog earlier today about this movie. I agree with the other blogger's point about the marketing for the movie being dishonest:
There's a difference between splatter and snuff, and this movie goes over the line, whether the blood is red, white or yellow. It's more horror than noir, and I think it's being marketed dishonestly.Anyone familiar with the previous works of Robert Rodriguez shouldn't be too surprised about all the splattered blood and gore in this movie, but I pity the innocent who goes into this expecting something along the lines of a highly stylized Humphrey Bogart movie.
What I really wanted to talk about, though, was the concept of whether a violent movie like this constitutes legitimate entertainment. There are a lot of people who maintain that it does not, ranging from people who make the highly questionable claim that witnessing violence in a movie will lead to more violence in society, to those who simply feel that decent, well-adjusted people shouldn't have any need to watch stuff like this, and if you actually enjoy it, there must be something wrong with you. Needless to say, I disagree. Not only do I maintain that a work of art (and I do think this movie qualifies as art) or entertainment should not be held responsible if some weirdo decides to go out and hack somebody up, I believe that watching a feature like this, in which the violence is highly stylized and exaggerated, and especially in which the violence exists within a meaningful emotional context (i.e., it's more than just random footage of people being chopped up), can have a highly cathartic value and because of this may actually lower the amount of violence in real life.
If one is seething with frustration on the inside, after working for years at a depressing, degrading job (for example), is it better to pay a few bucks to enjoy a movie like this, grinning with pleasure every time a bad guy gets his just desserts, wincing in sympathy every time a hero or heroine takes a hit, or is it better to hold that frustration inside while seeing the latest PG-rated crock, until, someday, perhaps, the frustration reaches a critical level and you go postal on your co-workers? Of course that is not very common--a more likely scenario is that, one day, the frustration will reach a critical level and you'll simply walk out of your job, or you'll semi-deliberately do something stupid and get your ass fired (and yes, this actually happened to me once). Or maybe you'll start deciding that life is frustrating enough without having to bother with trivialities like respecting all the other idiot drivers on the road, so someday, you'll end up causing an accident somewhere.
An obvious objection that can be raised at this point is, "Well, sure, but aren't there a lot of other methods of working out one's frustrations? How about competitive sports, for example?" Well, as a frustrated guy, all I can say in response to that is that competitive sports are far more likely to piss me off than to help. (Although, truthfully, I'm getting old enough now that the most likely outcome would be to simply land myself in the doctor's office with some kind of injury.) The point is that what works for one person may not work for another, and why should we, as a society, be limiting the avenues that people can use to help themselves?
Well, for now, I am out of time. Perhaps I will have further comment in the near future. In fact, I hope so--I think this is a movie that deserves more attention than I have been able to give it here, thus far.
posted by cke at 4:48 PM
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