Dear LPG readers,

I have been asking myself why so many script writers sit down and write a movie script that glorifies violence?  I supposed that the answer is obvious really.

I am an individual who aspires to write and I have written millions of words in many formats.  I know that I could think of many gruesome things to write if my sole objective was to make money.  I suspect that I refer to the many writers who would sell their mothers for a pound.

If wishes could come true, I would wish that every individual who writes such violence might have a taste of that violence perpetrated on themselves and, even though some of the writers I am referring to may well write from experience, wishes don’t always come true and I make a point of avoiding such movies where the violence is advertised as one of its major selling points.

The negative side to movie violence is that more and more individuals are now seen to go out and re-enact what they see in movies, hence violence in the streets, and movie makers cannot see the need to take responsibility for their part in inciting much of the consequences of their actions.

I think that it is up to us, the consumers to become a little more conscious of what they are paying for when watching such films on TV or at least consider one question, ‘were the really gruesome scenes truly necessary to the plot?’  perhaps the answer might help them to see the morals that, in my opinion, are staring them in the face.

Having switched television channels over and finding a film that seemed fairly harmless during the first five or so minutes, I recently decided to watch a movie. It was entitled ‘Hobo with a shot gun’ and turned out to contain some of the most gruesome scenes that I have ever seen.  After some ten minutes of watching I worked out that I was never going to really understand the story behind the violence which was portrayed in the worst possible way and turned over.

I, as a pensioner, think that such ‘dubious entertainment’ is not vital to human enjoyment but its availability to the younger members of our society, in so many formats, is obviously doing them no good while it continues to show the most impressionable amongst humans the most violent possibilities, and they continue to blur the lines between reality and fantasy.

Rudy