Action movies will always be criticized because they are blamed for what happens in real life. Munger, D(2005) says “Research has consistently shown that exposure to violent content in the movies leads to aggression (pg.3).” But people should know that they are not realistic. Price, J (2002) says “Violence is in movies, games, and on television, and it is getting to younger children easier (pg. 1).
It is always a possibility that children might be doing something that they see in a movie, but that isn't the same for all children. Is it either the lack of parental involvement, or is it our violent culture that makes children violent? While teenage boys are perhaps the biggest lover of action movies, they have said that they have no desire to kill anyone (Fordyce n.d.).
The way the world is should be the teacher for them. Parents should be responsible enough to teach their kids right from wrong, so if they don't like what their kids are watching on TV, turn it off. Mostly it is the lack of parental involvement that are making their kids violent, not the violence in the movies.
Ozawa(2007) stated that “Violence in movies can make some kids aggressive, but they can learn about the world from that(pg. 7).” There is no evidence that they are being aggressive because they saw it in a movie or on television They could be learning to be aggressive from other kids that they go to school with and center it to other kids, which isn't always the case. Not only that, aggression can't always be a bad thing. People who play sports have to be aggressive to win.
Fordyce, F(n.d.) says “Violent problems are rooted in home life and not in entertainment mediums.”(pg. 6) The normal teenager knows right from wrong and a movie is not going to influence him differently. Plus if we are telling a story like it actually happened, it is best the have the events portrayed in the movie perfectly, so people can understand the true nature of the story. Movies like “United 93” or “Pearl Harbor” needed to be showed exactly how they happened to show audiences what people in the situation went through. War movies need to be violent because there is no such thing as a non-violent war. To portray the events as they actually happened, the movie needs to be violent.
Dahl, Delavigna(2006) stated “On days with a large audience for a violent movie, violent crime is significantly lower(pg. 2). Also, the people that are seeing the movies cannot commit crimes while they are watching the movie. Most of the crimes are committed at night, and people usually see movies at night, so people cannot commit a crime if they are at the movie theater.
There is no real evidence that violence in movies in connected with violent people. Violence is a learned behavior. People make their own choices about what they do and should blame movies for their behavior. Movies shouldn't suffer just because a few people made bad choices. If parents are concerned about what their kids are seeing, than they shouldn't let them go.
Here is a chart that shows the number of people in millions that saw violent movies on the day compared to how many assaults happened on the on the same day out of 100,000 people. Dahl, Delavigna(2006). As you can see, people tend to commit their crimes on the weekend, such as people like to see violent movies on the weekend. But that just means that people prefer the weekend to commit crimes. So there is no evidence that people commit crimes just because they saw it in a movie.
When there is a big action movie at the theaters, kids want to go see it, so if they are at the movies, they don't have time to commit crimes. If you think about it, movies are a deterrent. It keeps kids off the streets and into the movie theater.
Millions of people see movies at a time on the weekend, so they can't be killing each other while they are at the theater. If parents want to blame movies for their kids' violent behavior, then when they know that a movie is going to be violent, they should leave them at home. They should watch their kids at home when they are watching television and make sure they aren't watching things that will influence them. They should teach them about violent behavior and the consequences of it.
Also, they should tell them that the movies they are watching aren't real and they shouldn't imitate their behavior. Parent will always have someone to blame besides themselves. It is also possible that the movies are making kids susceptible to violence, by seeing it in the movie they might realize they might not want to do something like that.
Action movies today are and will continue to be a good source of entertainment for people. People love violence, and they will always line to see movies with good guys against bad guys. Movies are blamed for violence, but there isn't enough evidence that movies are where they are learning it from. There is lots of violence in this world, but people should think twice before they commit a crime, and not blame movies for it.
If parents think that a movie is too violent for their children, turn it off. They should teach their kids right from wrong and keep an eye on them. Don't blame movies for their behavior, instead, teach them the consequences of violence. Watch the movie before they see it and see if it is appropriate for them. Don't let them see rated “R” movies until they are old enough.
Just because a few kids are violent, doesn't mean that we should ban all violent movies. There will many more good action movies in the years to come, and people will always enjoy them.
