I was asked the question what is happy violence. It took a while for this question to sink in. It never occurred to me that 'happy violence' is very prominent in my life.
To me happy violence means violence that doesn't have any true lasting consequences, as well as violence that is deemed 'good' by those who consume it.
Take The Avengers For example. I love a good Marvel movie, the action, the plot, the quippy one liners. However, this is textbook happy violence.
Have you ever watched an action movie and tried to keep track of all the property damage? If you watch a marvel movie you'll fully understand why in Captian Amercia: Civil War, the government/world wanted their butts under control. However, the Marvel universe is probably one of the only ones that actually addresses that issue no matter how minor they do.
Action films have so many explosions, death, and violence that has no lasting consequences. Transformers for example, they destroy almost a whole city and no one seems to care until two movies later. The violence was deemed good becasue 'the bad guys were defeated' but no one took into consideration that all the building that collapsed HAD PEOPLE IN THEM. Its kinda ridiculous.
So next time you watch an action movie I emplore you to try and estimate how many people died, how much property is destroyed, and how many fights could have been solved without actually fighting. Its an eye openeing experience for sure.
The whole Transformers example is so true. In that moment of action, when the heroes are fighting for "the good of mankind" mankind is forgotten. We watch buildings being destroyed, cars being bulldozed, and yet we are supposed to assume that those cars and building are completely empty and don't hold the very people the heroes are trying to save?
ReplyDeleteI guess this is that Hollywood effect that most of us, especially unhealthy film goers (guilty) can't shake. After being exposed so long to scenes like this in movies we forget all logic. The "happy violence" becomes what we crave the most because for whatever reason it is only after violence that we can have a satisfactory ending for our heroes.