Rockin’ Killing: When Movies Tell Us that Killing People is Soooo Cool

Posted on by theageofthediary

It’s that moment when the action star comes under fire, and he takes his machine gun and BANG! BANG! BANG! Bullets raging, the camera whirls, and of course, rock music starts playing.

When ma and I saw one of these scenes on a bus’ TV, she said, “Notice that they use rock and roll for killing scenes, so you’ll think, this is just play.” But killing people should never be seen as a fun and playful activity. It should be regarded for what it is–a horrific and deplorable act.

That bald guy with the tattoos? What if the screenwriter told you he has a nine-year old son who loves it when his dad cooks kaldereta? What if that female Asian assassin has a mentally challenged friend depending on her? Would you have wept when they died?

No one knows the back stories of the hundreds of characters easily killed on screen because they were dehumanized under uniform. These people might just be characters, they don’t exist, but the same reaction is seen when one hears the news of the death of Pakistanis, Israelis, Afghans, and other individuals in war-torn areas.

War victims are like those movie characters who appear on screen merely to be gunned down in a second and without an inch of hesitation. Flat, without a story, but the real-life victims actually lived as flesh and bone and were loved by sisters, brothers, friends, children, and parents. But when we hear about these individuals, they are merely statistics.  They are nobody, and we don’t care.

Even in killing an evil person, there are consequences, and these aren’t shown in action movies. The act of killing itself affects the psychology of that person who has pulled the trigger. That’s why soldiers come home from war depressed and damaged.

Recently though, I’ve noticed that these action scenes also use classical music.

Why?

Is it to make killing grand?

Is it to make killing timeless?

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2 thoughts on “Rockin’ Killing: When Movies Tell Us that Killing People is Soooo Cool”

  1. Violent films, filled with killing and murder, do have an influence on some people to copycat what they see on the screen. They think it is cool! Those who are already predisposed to homicidal tendencies are super charged by violent films, especially those with rock music, and it only adds fuel to their burning fire to actually act out their thoughts.

    Psychology was my major and I was also a law enforcement officer for 4 years in Florida. I counseled with troubled teenagers and I worked with the high profile inmates, serving life prison time for murder, with some on death row awaiting execution. Some of them admitted that violent films aroused them.

    I haven’t really watched the violent movies in the Philippines in comparison to the extremely violent ones in the States, so I can’t really compare from personal experience but maladjusted people in society are still maladjusted people in society around the world and it is best those people did have access to violent films. I am not for censorship and I don’t know the method to control who sees certain films but some films ring out the killer in sociopaths, who have no regard for others.The worse is the sociopathic psychopath! Committing heinous crimes to them is nothing more than their sipping a cup of coffee.

    Very Interesting topic!

    ~ Gary ~

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    1. It’s really interesting that you shared your experience about prisoners who are aroused by violent films. But I’m also with you when it comes to opposing censorship. I guess it’s hard to blame just one thing for the choices that criminals make. There must have been a dozen other factors that led them to commit those heinous acts, but it’s still disturbing to note that those prisoners themselves recognized that those films were their triggers.

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