郭晉汝
Violence has always been one major part of human culture, and movies are
making it more visually accessible for the audiences. While most films
are using violence as a tool to create heroic images and make people
look cool doing it, a different breed of films has sprung up to examine
violence itself and its function in society.
England has a particular relationship with the portrayal of violence in
movies. The film If…. by Lindsay Anderson (1968), tells the
story of public school boys violently rebelling against the school』s
oppressive regime. With the film』s ambiguous attitude toward violence,
it successfully presents its anti-establishment message. Some of its
memorable lines read: "One man can change the world with a bullet in the
right place," and "There's no such thing as a wrong war. Violence and
revolution are the only pure acts."
Three years later the tactic was followed by a famous director Stanly
Kubrick. A Clockwork
Orange,
set in the near future in
England, portrays a violent juvenile undergoing harsh consequences from
a controversial experiment which makes criminals ill when facing
violence or sex. The film brings out how violence becomes temporary
control and fulfillment when humanity fails to keep up with the
development of technology.
David Fincher picked up where Kubrick left off in the 1996 film Fight
Club. While If…. and A Clockwork
Orange
are both British films dealing with violent youth, Fight Club
turns toward the crisis of generation X in an American context. The
movie talks about a Yuppie disgusted with the empty consumerism his
generation inherits and searches for his liberation in manhood fist
fighting. The film suggests that in lack of engagement with culture and
too much indulgence in advertisement, people need to gain spiritual
relief from violence to break through their aimlessness and
soullessness.
Art
reflects reality; art doesn』t invent violence. Movies cannot be blamed
for what』s unhealthy in a culture. Screen violence came into being so
that people would be aware of what』s gone sour in our society. Any
culture that doesn』t examine its violence is a culture in denial.
If…., A Clockwork Orange, Fight Club, and other films from the same
breed play an important role mirroring what』s happening in reality so
that we wouldn』t ignore the fact that we live in a very violent world.