Much has been made here at RedState about the growing progressive rot permeating various film franchises, most noticeably comic book-based ones such as the MCU and Justice League. While the incessant preaching and corresponding drops in box office revenue are well worth covering, another omnipresent yet overlooked element warrants further examination. Filling this gap, Ladd Ehlinger Jr.’s (FilmLadd on Twitter) latest installment of his excellent video series dissecting both pop culture and political grifters compares Sam Peckinpah’s 1969 Western “The Wild Bunch,” one of the first films made taking full advantage of the Hays Code’s discontinuation, with Joss Wheldon’s 2012 “The Avengers.” The latter comes out decidedly second best on multiple fronts. //

Ehlinger Jr.’s video focuses on how violence is depicted in each film, comparing “The Avengers” outlandish cartoon stylization to “The Wild Bunch” and its utilization of slow motion and quick cuts not solely for cinematic effect but also to depict as accurately as possible violence’s horrific consequences, the suffering and death that come with the real thing. As he comments:

There’s no violence in movies, video games, and the rest; only depictions of violence. It then becomes a matter of depicting violence in a moral or immoral way.

Ehlinger Jr. explains that while “The Wild Bunch” has vast quantities of spilled blood, it does so not to shock or titillate but to emphasize violence’s graphic, messy nature. There are no bloodless bullet holes or immunity to gunfire based on gender or age. Women and children bleed and die just as agonizingly as men. Ehlinger Jr. compares this to the cartoonish ways the humans in “The Avengers” pull off stunts that would, in real life, mean certain death without getting so much as a glorified paper cut. //

Peckinpah’s life was hardly a quiet one centered on Bible study and prayer. Yet ironically, his films are laced with a strong moral code straight from Scripture. What a person plants, they will always harvest. The Old Testament prophet Hosea said it best: They have planted the wind and will harvest the whirlwind. As Ladd Ehlinger Jr. shows us, noting that which was done better in bygone days is not the sole prerogative of previous dusty generations railing against the wind. It is the raw truth. Ignore it at your peril. //

INTJ
2 years ago edited
So, Sergeant York or The Longest Day, both Hays-era films, never inspired violence? What's the difference? What about Psycho? The issue is much more complex and nuanced than is suggested. I would argue that the lack of societal consequences for acts of violence - think Soros D.A.'s - has a far greater impact. //

Cafeblue32 Real GOP 690
2 years ago edited
The avengers isn’t a moral tale? Of course it is.

Shakespeare I believe pointed out long ago there are basically only six stories that are told to describe the human condition. I can’t remember what they all are now, but one is starcrossed lovers who find each other, or they almost find each other. There is the rescuing of the maiden, the slaying of the dragons, the fulfilling of the hero’s quest. All of it is based in morality or to otherwise reenforce values and ideas we used to commonly hold.

There is no neutral input to humans. Whatever we see and hear is internalized and filed away by the subconscious mind. We present tales of murder and violence to others and punishment for it so that we don’t do it in real life. Hollywood is doing its best to strip entertainment of moral considerations, and that is one big reason it sucks. If there is no overall stakes of losing right, wrong, justice and freedom, then there is no conflict, only bitchy people whining about not getting what they want. And the violence becomes a glorified street fight we aren’t invested in because it isn’t about us.

Hollywood removes the consequences of violence and produces movies where people are bloodfilled meat bags to be killed in various ways while we cheer the heroes carnage. They are seldom ever about a larger societal benefit. It is usually personal revenge, or restoration, or some other McGuffin that is their reason.

Violence in superhero movies is sanitized. What happened to all those people in those city buildings they so casually demolish? Or all the cars they smash, or bridges they destroy, etc? People play such a minimal role in the superhero genre anymore that the new Flash movie had him racing around city streets without a single car or person on them. We are just CGI representations of NPCs, bodies incidental to the action.