http://viewpointjournal.com/archives/2005/05/02/the-war-of-the-worlds-according-to-spielberg/ You've Entered The Room With a View! Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:21:38 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.1 http://viewpointjournal.com/archives/2005/05/02/the-war-of-the-worlds-according-to-spielberg/#comment-9332 Martin Gorda Mon, 06 Jun 2005 11:08:00 +0000 http://viewpointjournal.com/archives/2005/05/02/the-war-of-the-worlds-according-to-spielberg/#comment-9332 You gotta learn to take the bad with the good, Mr. Flanagan. After all, we <em><em>homo sapiens</em></em> have a very violent history. Perhaps all this fictional mayhem and virtual violence you lament is somehow cathartic. Or perhaps it's simply the price we pay for being aware of our own mortality. Whether or not we want to be reminded, humans beings are complicit in a quotidian carnage across the planet. Millions of animals are slaughtered for food or for sport and entertainment (Prada handbags don't grow on trees, you know, and neither is bullfighting an abstract activity -- the bulls really die). Thousands of people are raped, murdered and mutilated by other people (not only in Iraq and Afganistan but <strong>all over the world</strong>). Can it be surprising that perpetrators of violence on so a grand scale are haunted by these terrible deeds? Can we really expect to avoid complicty in wholesale violence that is conducted -- if not by us directly -- then in our name and for our benefit? Whether on the movie screen or in the voting booth, each of us are obliged to look deep within our souls to see what we have wrought. It's not a pretty picture but there's no one to blame but ourselves. You gotta learn to take the bad with the good, Mr. Flanagan. After all, we homo sapiens have a very violent history. Perhaps all this fictional mayhem and virtual violence you lament is somehow cathartic. Or perhaps it’s simply the price we pay for being aware of our own mortality. Whether or not we want to be reminded, humans beings are complicit in a quotidian carnage across the planet. Millions of animals are slaughtered for food or for sport and entertainment (Prada handbags don’t grow on trees, you know, and neither is bullfighting an abstract activity — the bulls really die). Thousands of people are raped, murdered and mutilated by other people (not only in Iraq and Afganistan but all over the world). Can it be surprising that perpetrators of violence on so a grand scale are haunted by these terrible deeds? Can we really expect to avoid complicty in wholesale violence that is conducted — if not by us directly — then in our name and for our benefit? Whether on the movie screen or in the voting booth, each of us are obliged to look deep within our souls to see what we have wrought. It’s not a pretty picture but there’s no one to blame but ourselves.

]]> http://viewpointjournal.com/archives/2005/05/02/the-war-of-the-worlds-according-to-spielberg/#comment-7649 Blogcritics Tue, 03 May 2005 03:26:40 +0000 http://viewpointjournal.com/archives/2005/05/02/the-war-of-the-worlds-according-to-spielberg/#comment-7649 <strong>The Mass Murder Movie Experience</strong> How many humans can we can kill in a single movie? The Mass Murder Movie Experience
How many humans can we can kill in a single movie?

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