How many times do you watch movies and think “…..mmmhhh…I didn’t know that?!” Well, we have numerous types of movies today. Some of them are entertaining, some are horrific and exciting, others are gore, some awaken our romantic side but others are questionable.
I love watching movies. I have watched almost all the blockbusters. I watch cartoons too. Yes, cartoons are so interesting. Shrek, Toy Story, Monsters, Ice Age, Angry Birds, you name it. They take you to that fantasy world where people fly and get hit by speeding cars and never die! They are also funny. Who doesn’t enjoy a little bit of humor and a hearty laugh? Above all, you get to appreciate the talent of those that put all this together. You ask yourself, “How did they do it?”
Now, the purpose of this discussion is to bring to the fore a concern about the movies and series we watch. Most of them contain a lot of violence. We all love violence. I think all humans are genetically wired to enjoy violence. We are animals after all! During the archaic ages, wars were actually real and fought in the arena with people cheering on as slaves mauled each other. Today, lucky we, technology has made it possible to create violence scenarios. Some of them look so real that you say” somebody got hurt for real”. But we love the movies anyway.
However, some movies have capabilities of twisting our thinking. They make us fantasize about killing people. Imagine this situation. A young man goes to school and gets bullied by this group of busy bodies. They hit him in the stomach, kick him and drag him into a pool of muddy water during break time. They then tear his books into pieces and trample on them in the same filth. The young man waits until they leave and he drags himself up and staggers home. Oblivious of his mother’s presence, he heads straight into his room and slams the door behind him. He locks himself in.
Later on that evening, the young man decides to watch a movie on his computer. He finds this weird movie. In the movie, the antagonist experiences the same ordeal that befell him earlier. What a coincidence! But unlike him, the antagonist stands up and rushes into the house knocking a few pieces of furniture on the way. His father is out in the farm. He grabs his father’s shot-gun and a few rounds in a hurry, dropping some on the floor.
He heads back to school. He finds the class going on. The bullies look at him standing at the door and smile at each other, making some faces and throwing some gestures. But their smiles suddenly fade away when they see the shot-gun. All this time it was well tucked away under the overcoat. The teacher shrieks at this realization and instinctively rushes for the gun. Then….bang! The first shot is heard and it sends the teacher flying over the desk and onto the floor with a thud. Confusion sets in. Screams are heard. People scamper for cover. More shots are fired. By the time the police arrives, half the class is laying in a pool of blood.
Our young man resolves to do exactly that. When everybody is asleep, he heads to where the father keeps his gun and hides it in his bag. Early in the morning, before everybody else is awake, he heads to school and replicates exactly what he watched the other night. Now, the main question is, “what provoked this young man to engage in such atrocity?” The answer is simple. The movie contributed. It gave him the push he needed. I think now you get the picture.
Apart from that, where do you think terrorist groups draw their dirty tricks to attack and to evade security personnel from? From the same movies of course! Script writers are geniuses, we must give them that. They come up with some of the weirdest ideas. Unfortunately, in the process of writing great stories and actors acting the roles perfectly, such movies about terrorist groups unleashing nuclear weapons on American soil etcetera simply act to provide terrorist groups with ideas on how to execute terrorist attacks on the people of the world.
Many of you have already watched movies like London Has Fallen by Gerard Butler and 24 by Jack Bauer. I shudder when I imagine that these guys are actually disclosing to the terrorist groups secrets that need to be closely guarded. What if terrorists did exactly what they watch on the screens? The outcome would be disastrous.
Fortunately, many countries have better anti-terrorism units to counter such extremist groups, otherwise the scale of harm would be unimaginable if they had a chance to use such ideas on real life. I would suggest an audit of the movies that find their way to the market but this is a tricky situation. Everybody is struggling to outdo the other. And in the process, they just have to include some of these scenes. But there is a danger in doing this. May God help us.
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