August 25, 2010

Archbishop: Film violence can make a point, should steer from undermining human dignity

By John Gleason

Film helps to shape popular culture, and for that reason Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., took part in a recent public discussion about violence in movies.

“I like movies,” the archbishop told the Denver Catholic Register.  “It’s important for people who are involved in the Church to be publicly involved in the broader culture.  Movies have a huge impact on our culture and it’s vital that people can come together and talk candidly about how they affect us.”

Other participants in the Aug. 12 discussion, “Blood on Our Hands,” included local actor and filmmaker Donnie L. Betts and film critic Robert Denerstein. The event, held at the Starz Film Center on the Auraria campus downtown, kicked off the Colorado Cinema Salon series of talks about movies sponsored by Denerstein and the Denver Film Society.

The evening began with a series of clips from 30 motion pictures depicting violence.  The clips represented more than 60 years of movie making from “The Big Sleep” (1946) to “Inglourious Basterds” (2009).  Betts began by saying that movie violence has been around since the first hand-cranked cameras began churning out film.

“We’ve seen a long line of violence in films,” he told the audience. “You can go back to ‘Birth of a Nation’ in 1915, a groundbreaking but incredibly violent film filled with racial violence and violence against women. But let’s remember that violence is part of our lives, so how can it not be portrayed in motion pictures?”

Archbishop Chaput told the audience he had seen most of the films from which the clips were taken and had liked many of them.

“I remember the slow-motion shoot outs from ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ (1967) and ‘The Wild Bunch’ (1969),” he said, noting they were the first to use that technique. “In those movies, the violence was used as an important part of the story.”

To stress the point, the archbishop mentioned “Saving Private Ryan” and how that 1998 film brought home the violence and horror of war to those who had never been on a battlefield.

“During the Vietnam War, I was in the seminary,” he said, “but I did lose friends who served there.  It wasn’t until I saw ‘Private Ryan’ that I had a real idea of what it was like for them.”

While admitting that violence can have an appropriate place in movies, the archbishop reminded the audience that violence for the sake of violence has no legitimate place on the screen.

“Humans have a dignity that shouldn’t be undermined,” he said, adding that unfortunately, film violence often does exactly that.

When the discussion was opened up to the audience one member stood and said that the 2004 film “The Passion of the Christ” was one of the most stirring and compassionate films she had ever seen, yet also one of the most violent. Others cited the slapstick violence of the “Three Stooges” as well as the always expected gun play found in Westerns and the excessive violence that has been a part of animation for decades.

“Look at the (2009) movie ‘Avatar,’” Betts told the audience. “People were singing its praises, its groundbreaking special effects and animation but for all that, it was a very violent film.”

Closing out the evening, Archbishop Chaput said the use of violence to simply entertain is wrong and compared it to the gladiatorial spectaculars of ancient Rome.

“It was used to control the crowd, and the crowd loved it,” he said. “It was one of the reasons for their undoing. I hope that we’re not on that road, too.”