Picture of the movie Serenity
Sometimes when too stressed out I like to go for a quiet walk in nature. It is very relaxing to feel the quietness of the place and listen to birds and little creatures running around under the bushes. But some other times I like to watch a movie that has no relation with reality, so it becomes more of an escape route. Some of those movies are bad Sci Fi, which in reality are Fantasy, and Action Movies, which also are Fantasy. And usually they come combined, so you can watch a Sci Fi Action movie that has no possibility of truly be associated with real life.
That’s fine, and even entertaining. Those are movies just to escape reality for a moment and let the brain rest from all the problems by simply forgetting about them. You get in connection with the main characters and want them to survive their ordeal, to find them at the end in one piece and smiling. That’s all fine and entertaining.
What I find a little worrying about those movies is that most of them follow the concept of “One hundred for One”. The main characters are chased down by many people that want to kill them, so they have to run away and kill one after another in order to survive. In those movies we get to like the main characters and want them to survive because we can identify with them, while those chasing to kill mostly we don’t know them, so it becomes almost natural to see them die!
And they die by the hundreds!
So we get used to those movies and is not of concern to see many people die, just so the ones we like survive! Then I tend to question; what effect can it make in young people to see that in almost every action movie? Do they get used to see the “bad guys” die, so they don’t care? What about the concept of self sacrifice in the idea of “One for One Hundred”? The concept of self sacrifice to benefit the majority!
At one hand people get used to celebrate those who died in the benefit of the majority, like the concept of Good Friday and Jesus Christ, yet the meaning get lost by the custom of celebrate, more than the action of remembering and feeling the reason why such celebration exist. And then at the other hand there are the movies that show it is OK to kill many just to save one. And those movies usually are the Summer Blockbusters!
By the movie rating system kids are not allowed to see nudity, yet they can see violence and killing for self benefit! It reminds me of the laws that prohibit young men to drink alcohol, yet they are allowed to go to war. Its not OK to drink alcohol, but it is fine to die in a war.
So my question is: Can this affect, or guide in the wrong direction the young population of a society? Basically teaching them it’s OK to kill for self preservation, even if it comes to kill many in favor of one? And while we can understand the motives of the One to survive, especially when family relationships are involved, what about the family relationships of the chasers who get killed? Just because we don’t know their personal situation it becomes OK to kill them? How does it affect in the forming concepts of the young people when it comes to understand and accept those who are different from us? When the general idea suppose to be of integration rather than segregation? What about when in real life it is about to understand and accept those who dress in a different way, speak a different language and hold different customs? Wouldn’t this concept of One Hundred For One slowly and continuously create subdivision and discrimination? And even worst, create the concept that is OK to kill the others so we survive? And on top of that, create the concept that those who seem to be different have to be the chasers that want to kill us all, so we have to be ready to kill them first?
Just a thought
Raul
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