by Ray Jason
Sometimes, when I am anchored alone in the far reaches
of the Archipelago of Bliss, I will see a group of Indios gathered around a camp
fire sharing stories as the twilight deepens into darkness. Everything in such a scene is primal and
elemental and authentic. If there are
children in the circle, I suspect that the adults are probably passing along
their tribal story. They are teaching
the young their shared history and their common values.
Because language was invented long before writing, the
importance of oral story-telling was enormous in our early evolution as a
species. Stories DO MATTER – they are
vital in our societal development. And
as humanity has progressed, so has the manner in which our stories are
conveyed.
Tribal campfire instruction was supplanted by medieval
theatrical productions. Shakespeare
replaced the shaman. But it wasn’t long
before The Book diminished The Bard.
With the moveable-type printing press, far more people could have access
to the shared wisdom accumulated during the human caravan. In the 20th Century, the written
word lost its pre-eminence due to the invention of movies and television. These tools, that combined moving images with
spoken words and music, were far more powerful than the story-telling systems
that had preceded them.
*******
I am mentioning these things as background perspective
for a startling experience that jolted me during my recent visit to San
Francisco. Because there is no movie
theatre down here in this forgotten outpost of the Banana Latitudes, it has
been years since I was in a big U.S. cinema.
Just getting through the previews of coming attractions was so
traumatic, that I barely made it to the feature film.
Why was it so troublesome? - Because almost all of the
soon-to-be-released films were violent and preposterous. They were gratuitously awash in gunfire and
explosions and “might makes right” smirks.
The so-called “heroes” were not just reminiscent of junior high school,
one dimensional, comic book, good guys – they WERE comic book characters.
When super-heroes have completely replaced heroic human beings in the
story that a society tells itself, then that society is Dysfunctional with a
Capital D.
The violence of these films is obvious, but the
"preposterous" aspects get muted because of how accustomed viewers have become to
the wizardry of special effects. The
deeds that these crime-stoppers and world-savers supposedly perform are utterly
ridiculous – unless one has been blinded by total immersion in such
absurdity. These characters routinely transcend
limitations of time and gravity and solid matter – and yet nobody in the
audience seems to question such ludicrous abilities.
*******
During my last few days in San Francisco, I would
mention my discomfort with these violent and preposterous movies to my
friends. They would usually attempt to
ease my mind by suggesting that “they are just movies.” But I am convinced that they are far more than
this, and that they are instead a significant part of our cultural conditioning. Here is some of the messaging that these
films are promoting – either knowingly or unknowingly:
·
Life is not nuanced and subtle and complicated. Instead it is
black and white and obvious to anyone who is bold and aggressive and of the
warrior mentality. This allows violence
to be the default setting for conflict resolution. It also absolves people from having to ponder
the complexities of any dispute. And so
these larger-than-life characters can just “waste ‘em” or “drone ‘em” or “nuke ‘em.” It also relieves these macho men (and women)
of having to try to understand their enemies.
They can believe the insane claim that “they hate us for our freedom”
rather than for our foreign policy of invasion, regime change, military
occupation and random slaughter.
·
Violence is painless. Movies display the shooting
and the explosions, but they do not accurately portray the carnage that results
from these attacks. You almost never see
a mother cradling what is left of her daughter as the helicopter gunship flies
away. Yes, you might view a sanitized image
of a traumatized woman, but you never see a close-in shot of the fact that her
gorgeous daughter is now a smoking, oozing sack of blood and entrails. And the film does not follow that mother
through the rest of her lifetime as she is unable to erase that image from her
mind’s eye.
·
Hierarchy is admirable. These movies,
full of military bravado, reinforce the belief that following orders is noble
and heroic. They support one of the key
principles of the civilized mode of living – namely that the world is divided
into leaders and followers. This was NOT
the model for the thousands of generations in which humanity embraced the
tribal way of living. Those societies
were largely egalitarian and free of the enormous gap between the rulers and
the ruled, which dominates the modern world.
Our Malignant Overlords are completely aware of what a powerful weapon a
movie is when it comes to shaping belief systems. And so they make sure that films
that convey their preferred messaging are the ones that get made.
·
Movie violence does not lead to actual violence. Certainly,
for the vast majority of people this is the case. But there is that small portion of viewers,
who feel that their lives are puny and meaningless. And so by imitating movie mayhem - whether it
is the actions of the hero or the villain – they could “make something of their
life.” Or at least they could grab some
headlines for a news cycle or two. The
people who make these violent films fully realize that their powerful images might
ignite the fuse that will set off the explosive personality of someone already wobbling
on the psychotic fringes of society.
*******
When I returned to AVENTURA after my journey to San Francisco,
I was still struggling with the movie violence that had troubled me so
deeply. A friend suggested what she
described as “the perfect antidote” for my anxiety. It was the film entitled CHOCOLAT. I rented it and am now forever indebted to
that friend.
Here was an example of powerful movie-making that
seeks to bring people together rather than to cast them aside as enemies. It exquisitely weaves a message of the
transformative power of tolerance and kindness.
In the film, real people actually have genuine conversations in which
they discuss important issues. The
characters have depth and eccentricities and flaws. They are not just cartoon cut-outs. They remind us of how profoundly challenging
life is - as we all try to navigate the troubled waters of the human voyage.
And CHOCOLAT achieved all of this without anyone
having to wave a flag or praise a god or vaporize an enemy.