I certainly wouldn't want to have gone through what he did. It would have been horrific, especially losing a friend. So I can empathize which him, and I do feel bad for anyone having gone through such a traumatic ordeal. That being said, I think he's going about this in the wrong way. The guy was caught, he's going to stand trial, that should be justice enough.

Not exactly back on topic but closer anyways:

The 5 Stages of Coping with a negative Dark Knight Rises Review
http://tdylf.com/2012/07/16/the-five-st ... es-review/

-Jeremy

The Christopher Nolan Batman movies are not exactly life affirming, so why do pundits refuse to connect those films to last week’s Aurora, Colorado, massacre at the midnight showing of Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises? Instead, the problem of the films themselves has been swept away by a torrent of political distraction over gun control. After this clash of cinema and reality, have we forgotten that culture either dooms or defines us?

Over-smart responses to the shooting resemble the mindless state of most contemporary cultural commentary. It takes escapism–whether in movies or journalism–to a maniacal extreme by uniformly ignoring the causal relationship between the Christopher Nolan franchise and the murderous actions of James Egan Holmes (12 deaths and 70 injured persons) whose disguise resembled the role that Heath Ledger played in 2008’s The Dark Knight; even referring to himself as Ledger’s character, The Joker.

Holmes’ joke made the connection plain. Yet, standard-setting media consistently ignores the effect of movie content and idly promotes film as product.

Armond White's take



the rest here

http://cityarts.info/2012/07/25/cultures-clash/

To draw a connection between Holmes’ killings and Nolan’s negativity requires rigorous critical thought which media pundits, quack psychologists and politicians are reluctant to do.

My favorite part of this:



Actually, it's about the most simple-minded connection one could make and seems to be made more out of a lack of intelligence than made from "rigorous critical thought". I mean, seriously, how arrogant can someone be? He's essentially saying that he's made this connection and he's done so because he's so much smarter than everyone else. Aside from the arrogance, the great irony of it is that it's the most simplistic explanation possible! Does this guy have even a shred of self-awareness? Good grief. It'd be funny if he wasn't using his "intellect" to exploit what happened so he can stand on his soap box.

I think sociologists are reluctant to draw a line between violent media consumption and acts of violence because there simply isn't one. One person engaging in this type of shooting, out of the millions who probably saw The Dark Knight, does not exactly suggest a correlation. There are some psychologists who have shown that violent media can lead to an "aroused/aggitated" mental state in the viewer (I'm not sure that's the best way to put it in technical terms but then I'm not a psychologist) and these studies are usually put out there by an uncritical news media.

But the thing is, is that you can get a much better effect simply by smashing your finger with a hammer. Now how many people do you know who've gone on violent killing sprees after they've been making repairs to the roof?

Think about that.
-Jeremy

It's one thing to think there is, or might be, a correlation

Well, this is all I'll claim to do at this point. I'd just like people to accept the fact that someone can be legitimately be bothered by the violence in these movies, particularly Avengers. I wish something would change, regardless of this whole incident.

And, unlike many in Hollywood, he was willing to acknowledge that violence in movies may exert some influence over individuals like James Holmes, who killed 12 people after opening fire at a midnight screening of "The Dark Knight Rises" last Friday.

"It’s a question that I wrestle with all the time," said Weinstein, who has produced all of director Quentin Tarantino’s blood-spattered films, including the upcoming slave-era revenge fantasy "Django Unchained." "I’ve been involved with violent movies, and then I’ve also said at a certain point, ‘I can’t take it anymore. Please cut it.’ You know, you’ve got to respect the filmmaker, and it’s a really tough issue. My heart goes out to those kids and those families."

Weinstein said he hoped that members of the Hollywood community would take this opportunity to have an honest conversation about how on-screen violence influences real-world events. "I think, as filmmakers, we should sit down – the Marty Scorseses, the Quentin Tarantinos, and hopefully all of us who deal in violence in movies – and discuss our role in that."

interesting comments by Harvey



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/2 ... ertainment

I think Harvey's really lost it this time, Hollywood played no such role in Holmes rampage.

Whether you think it's necessary or not, that serious conversation he's talking about could never hurt; it could only help. Personally, I don't think it could hurt for the content in a movie to be taken a little more seriously...for aesthetic reasons, even more so than moral ones. Violence is overused in mainstream movies these days, which isn't immoral so much as lazy and bland from an aesthetic point of view.

I just don't everybody getting all censor happy for no reason, if it wasn't Dark Knight, Holesm would've founed another excuse to go on a rampage, trying to draw a link between the media and violence in real life is futile.

So tell me, how would one go about blaming the media for the killings?

I don't care. What I care about is how shitty blockbusters have been lately, and how lazy all the action (and therefore the violence) has been. I want to see better movies and more creative direction, and constraining certain aspects of production could help with that.