Violence in Films-A Directors responsiblity?
...e more than anyone the dangers involved in censoring pieces of artwork. When we allow works or art to be censored (such as paintings, movies, books, sculptures, editorials) we open ourselves up to other kinds of regulations. Being expressive and entertaining people is one of the most basic forms of human freedom. The call for filmmakers to “take responsibility” for the actions created by their works is just a modernized form of the book burnings that took place my parents’ and grandparents’ generations. People were fearful of some of the non-typical reactions that could be incited by the ideas found in books. Books such as J.D. Sallinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, that depicts no acts of violence and in no way encourages people to commit a violent act, yet has been widely blamed for many murders, such as that of former Beatles front-man John Lennon. In “Unnatural Killers,” Grisham is mainly targeting Oliver Stone, for his movie “Natural Born Killers” which Grisham suggests is responsible for two murders that took place in the south. Grisham suggests that one possible course of action to be taken against Stone and other filmmakers like him is lawsuits that try and force the filmmakers to take on a financial responsibility to the people and their families who are injured because of acts brought on by a movie (Grisham 573). By doing this, Grisham points about an even bigger problem in society. The constant blaming of other people for the actions that people commit. Lawyers like Grisham tend to keep passing the buck of blame, hoping that it will fall somewhere other than on the person who committed the crime. In telling filmmakers to take responsibility for their actions these people are also telling everyone to else to blame others. Why is it that filmmakers must be held responsible for not only their own actions, but the actions of people that they have never even met before? If you kill someone because of something that you saw in a movie, you are the only one to blame. The filmmakers aren’t responsible for other peoples’ actions and they aren’t responsible for the lousy upbringing that led these people to not be able to tell the difference between right and wrong. As Oliver Stone points out in his retort to Grishams accusations, if we allow people to sue others for actions that they themselves commit then , “we may one day live in a lawyer’s paradise, (but) we will surely fine our...