For years, pundits have been trying to connect violent movies and video games with actual crimes.
The arguments typically end up more theoretical than reality based. In one famous instance, the 1994 Oliver Stone film “Natural Born Killers” supposedly inspired a young couple to kill a person and leave another paralyzed.
More recently, celebrities like Elizabeth Banks, Roger Ebert, Patton Oswalt and Michael Moore twisted the blame game for partisan reasons, using their Twitter accounts to accuse Sarah Palin of inspiring the Tucson shooter without a shred of evidence.
Now, we have a direct tie between an anti-war film and the murder of two U.S. soldiers. So … will the media cover the story? Will it change how the film industry treats the subject matter? And will Miss Banks and co. rush to Tweet their condemnation of the movie in question?”
Yes, I’m being rhetorical on all three fronts, but let’s plow on all the same.
“Redacted” by Brian de Palma (“The Untouchables,” “Scarface”) cast U.S. soldiers as racist, violent thugs. The film flopped in spectacular fashion, earning $65,388 for its entire theatrical run. Apparently, audiences weren’t too keen on seeing the men and women of the Armed Forces smeared.
But “Redacted” impacted Arid Uka, a Balkan Muslim who saw the film and went on to kill two U.S. Air Force servicemen in March. Uka told a judge this week he was inspired by “the movie’s graphic depiction of U.S. soldiers raping a girl in Iraq,” says The Daily Caller citing a BBC report.
The men killed were Senior Airman Nicholas Alden, age 25, and Airman 1st Class Zachary Cuddeback, aged 21.
The Daily Caller (full disclosure – I freelance for the publication) not only reported on the situation today but reached out to “Redacted” producer Jason Kliot for comment. What Kliot says is both stunning in its shallowness and so nakedly partisan even Ed Schultz might balk at saying it.
“I’m terribly sorry to hear that, but I don’t understand how my movie would impel anyone to commit murder,” he said. “I don’t see how people would be made to commit acts of violence [after watching “Redacted”], any more than they would for watching Fox News.”
Will de Palma be asked to comment by the press? How about Mark Cuban, who also helped produce the film?
Ultimately, the price of having artistic freedom means writers and directors can say what they want to say via film, television and music. But it sure would help if those same artists gave serious thought to the ramifications of their content, especially material specifically designed to impugn a population.
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{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Well said. Excellent post. I dispise the “double-standard” which Hollywood always hung around the necks of anyone daring to be “not liberal enough”, yet convienently ignoring their own double standards. Grotesque.
I am back and alive from Hurricane Irene. My area of my town was the hardest hit in my state. 27 houses either destroyed or swept out to sea. 3 dead bodies discovered in the houses (they were evacuated prior) are believed to be looters who got what was coming to them (in my opinion). No electric, land-line phone or internet/wifi until today (4 days later).
Welcome back, safe and sound, Mike B!
I’ve noticed that this story hasn’t really gained any traction out there and also know that you can bet that if it were the other way around (as has already been demonstrated) it would travel the world faster than anything known to man before.
Its amazing really, how people who are as smart as some of these people are would be so dense as to miss the elephant in the room. On one hand we are told (without any evidence) that the Arizona shooter was inspired by Palins Map, and a narrative is born from a lie. On the other we have a convicted murderer ADMITTING AND STATING PROUDLY THAT A HOLLYWOOD FILM INSPIRED HIM TO COMMIT HIS ACTS, and all we hear is crickets from the peanut gallery.
And then in the next moment they find out that people don’t trust them and wonder why.
Its pathetic and sad.
They won’t say a word. I doubt anyone outside of FOX would ever say anything about it even if FOX does.
I would not be suprised if they use the excuse of “it was just a movie” and they can’t be held responsible if some random nut job acts on it. There is some validity to that arguement. But if you want to make movies “that make a statement”, you also have to accept some responsibility when people act out because of what you are saying. Of course I doubt anyone will ever call them out on in and get widespread media exposure. I would like to be proven wrong though.
Guys like DePalma make these kinds of movies because they want to influence people. But then when that influence turns bad, they hide behind the “I have no responsibility for my work” excuse. Responsibility goes both ways. If you make the movie, then you own it.
I would not be suprised if they use the excuse of “it was just a movie”
The lie to this is given by the prevalence of product placement ads in movies. I would suggest a lawsuit, but sooner or later someone is going to screw up and do a right leaning movie and the left will use the precedent for lawfair against the producers.
Hollow-wood won’t recognize anything except $$ signs. If it’s a controversial film, then more people will be willing to watch, then rant about it later, whether or not the film was factual or not, or incited violence, or not. I honestly think it does not matter if a movie supposedly inspires anyone to commit crimes. The tendency to commit any crime–even murder–existed long before watching a film. Blaming filmmakers and producers is just a scapegoat.
I think it matters if the film in question puts the idea out there or re-enforces the idea the US Soldiers are murderous thugs who rape and kill at will.
If the person who made that film was in the military they could be brought up on charges of doing things that were prejudicial to good order and discipline, not to mention giving aid and comfort to our enemies by producing what amounts to propaganda for the people we fight. But since the filmmaker isn’t in the military and those in polite society find it uncomfortable to question someone’s patriotism (unless you don’t want to the government to go further into debt…then it’s OK)…we just shrug it off and say things like, people commit murder all the time, it was just a movie. that person was crazy or a combination of any of the above.
Hollywood is more interested in political grandstanding than $$ – this is why all of these money-losing anti-war movies keep getting made, while we’ve only gotten a few pro-America, anti-terrorism movies like “Vantage Point” and “The Kingdom” since the start of the Iraq war. These anti-war movies are made to garner respect and awards from their industry, American troops be d*mned.
And to K’s point, I wonder how many of those in Hollywood who advocate making any movie that depicts smoking “R” rated would explain that there is no direct link between redacted and the soldiers’ deaths.
@Outlaw and why not make a military film that is representative of some of the personalities that may have been present at war time? Why should we always view the world in rose colored glasses? It is remotely possible a solider, during wartime, experience some form of mania, and cause harm to the very people they were sent to protect. I remember that being portrayed a bit in Platoon, even in the film Casualties of War? I think it would be an under representation to feature films that don’t a very possible shady side of war, and, to include the legal consequences of these actions. Is it possible even, to feature a film from a victim’s point of view?
Consequences from leftists’ cinematic actions? That’s “unpossible.”
@Aidy as soon as they make films that represent the 90% of us who serve and who manage somehow or another not to rape or murder, as soon as they make films that show the heroism that occurred on battlefields around the world then maybe they can make a movie about the crap weasel who did something wrong. I sort of take it personally given that I was a Soldier for 25 years and deployed 3 times to Iraq. I have seen what is real and know what it not…that crap isn’t and when Soldiers are on the field of battle, it is almost criminal to make a move like Redacted.
I didn’t care for Casualties of War or Platoon either if you must know. But at least they were made after we were gone from Vietnam.
@Outlaw, I see your point now. I still would like to see the film. It seems to be great fodder for criticism. Thanks for answering my questions.