"The Wild Bunch" never killed a single person

     I'd like to talk a minute about my grandfather Gordon Dale Munn, or as most of the grandkids refer to him "Beepa."  My Beepa is almost 83 years old and a military veteran.  He raised five wonderful children including my mother and was married to my late grandmother Mary ("Geeka") for over sixty years.  Beepa is a Christian who tries to live a good wholesome life and for the most part he succeeds.  He's a fan of sports particularly the Washington Redskins and the Los Angeles Dodgers.  He even got to see a game a Ebbets field back when the Dodgers were in Brooklyn.
     Beepa is also a movie fan, in particular Westerns.  His favorite film of all time (and one of mine) is The Wild Bunch, a film thought by many movie critics to be the best Western ever made.  It is also an incredibly violent film even by today's standards.  In fact noted critic Vincent Camby wrote at the time that it was "the first truly interesting American made Western in years.  It's also so full of violence that it's going to prompt a lot of people who do not know the real effect of movie violence (as I do not) to write automatic condemnations of it."
      Yet even at thirteen years of age my Beepa thought it was OK to sit me down and have me watch this film...and I loved it.  It didn't corrupt me. I didn't become deranged.  I knew and still know the difference between real and imaginary events as well as movie violence and real violence. 
     At this point you've probably figured out where I'm going with this post.  I'm not here to argue gun control laws or what should or shouldn't have happened in Connecticut.  I don't consider myself well versed enough to make a cogent argument either way and quite frankly I could give two shits.  It doesn't interest me.
     But I do know a thing or two about movies.
     For those of you who read this blog you know that I thought Django Unchained was one of the best films I saw in 2012.  Yes it was bloody but no more than The Wild Bunch or The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly and certainly not as much as any of the Saw movies.  Yet despite this The Christian Film and Television Commission tried (unsuccessfully) to have Django Unchained re-rated to NC-17.  Here is their press statement:

"In light of the recent shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut where 20 first-graders and 6 staff members lost their lives, we are calling on the MPAA to give DJANGO UNCHAINED an NC-17 rating.

DJANGO UNCHAINED is the most violent movie of the year and is full of brutality, graphic violence, and crude language. The violence is extremely grotesque including blood spurting like lava from gunshots, a man hung upside down, several people shot point blank, and a slave is eaten by dogs. The extreme violence and bloodshed is no surprise coming from director Quentin Tarantino who also directed extremely violent movies KILL BILL VOL. 1, PULP FICTION, and INGLORIOUS BASTARDS.

     I have to say that personally this disgusts me.  This is one of the "automatic condemnations" that Camby warned about.  It is nothing more than a blatant attempt by a group to use a tragic public event to forward their political agenda. They could have picked any movie.  Django Unchained was the closest hat available and they scooped it up.  Had the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary not occurred, I seriously doubt The Christian Film and Television Commission would have tried this crap. 
     No Christian group, no institution, no individual, will EVER convince me that there is a direct causality or even a correlation between violent movies and acts of violence.  The proof is simply not there.  If there was a straight forward connection then theoretically I should have gone on a shooting spree by now.  But I haven't.  Because I know the difference between right and wrong.  I take personal responsibility for my actions.  I don't try to blame others for my mistakes and I certainly don't blame the cinema.  There are millions of movie goers who watch violent films yearly and yet manage to still be kind and decent human beings who support their communities and live clean wholesome lives.  People like my Beepa. 
     Rather than shift unfair blame to violent movies and video games how about focusing on the emotional problems of the shooter?  We live in a society where mental illness is still a stigma, particularly among men.  Thousands don't get the help they need and thousands ignore the signs that a person is really hurting inside.  I've lived with clinical depression for over fifteen years.  Thankfully I had a great support system, a good therapist, and access to medication that's helped me live a relatively normal life.  Unfortunately, not everyone is so lucky.  If others had seen the signs earlier could it have prevented the shooting?  Only God knows, and in thirty-four years of life I know only two facts when it comes to spirituality:  there is a God, and I'm not him.
     Maybe just as important is the personal responsibility aspect that I mentioned before.  Bottom line is that if you don't want to expose yourself to violent movies then don't watch them.  If you don't want your children exposed to Django Unchained then change the channel or set usage controls on your television.  And look I'm no babe in the woods, I know that kids will find a way to watch violent movies or videogames somehow.  (Hell I saw Robocop when I was ten.)  As parents you can only regulate so much and be with your kids so many hours in the day.  But in my opinion if you've done your job as a parent and taught your children the difference between right and wrong, then in the long run (hopefully) you don't have anything to worry about. 
     At the end of the day everyone is personally responsible for their actions both good and bad.  The Wild Bunch never killed a single person.  That's something I think my grandfather and I could both agree on.