As a man of two cultures I had noticed one interesting feature of the US scripts, whether on TV or on main cinema: they are painstakingly honest about everyday tendencies in people's lives. The story itself usually is sloppy or stupid but everyday details are impeccable. US scriptwriters never had a need to hide the realities of the people's ways and means- there is no such thing as national pride also truth is for sale. This unique American feature (also West European to lesser extent) makes it possible to perform fascinating observations and come to stunning conclusions.
Like for instance- cruelty scores. The guy who on the screen kills, maims and mutilates can be sure that he gets the girl. Gone are the times when such activity repulsed; it is now an aphrodisiac. Smell of blood is an attraction. It is also "the usual'. In the prominent movie " Mr. and Mrs. Smith' two murderers live together as a couple apparently without knowing about each- others activities. Works fine even after they found out. Makes the bond stronger. No bad feelings.
Sometimes cruelty is subtle. In another popular movie "Black Swan' cruelty is performed with good intentions. The company director sexually harasses the young ballerina in the name of art. She must relax and uncover her true dark sexuality or she would never be able to perform. That's his motto. If Tchaikovsky, the composer or Marius Petipah, the first director of the Swan Lake would have seen this they both would have shot the bastard, but now we all rejoice and the movie gets even Oscar rewards.
Perpetual cruelty is exercised in so -- called suspense thrillers, sometimes even without purpose. In the movie "Enemy Of The State' the hunting CIA team in the heat of the hunt violently attacks a bystander, just to discharge the frustration -- and nobody seems to mind. In the overwhelming majority of those movies protagonists either torture other people or just inflict pain in other ways. In the movie "Taken' an apparently good guy shoots at the wife of a person in front of that person. Granted, that person was a corrupt policeman but the act is the act. I had never read a review of such movie ( after it was released) criticizing or just lamenting the encroaching cruelty. That is considered a necessary thing to have.
One of the most disgusting forms of cruelty perpetrated is the one presented as the virtue and necessity. In the famous movie " A Girl With A Dragon Tattoo' the main female character tortures a man and then carves a message on his chest. Of course, that man was a horrible bastard and abuser but it does feel uneasy that such girl goes around as if nothing happens. In other movies people are tortured by putting a gun at their heads or into their mouths, by pointing guns at their children, all on routine basis.
In the so- called war movies CIA torturing had become routine, it is frequently administered in all gory details. I believe it is also sometimes deliberately exaggerated, as if those scriptwriters add their own inner sadism to the story. Routinely and regularly people are hit, shot, intimidated and blackmailed my all kinds of "good guys and gals' in the alleged pursuit of justice.
Cruelty by women, for women and of women is a separate and highly luxurious set applied in the Hollywood movies. The artificiality of that cruelty is obvious but nobody cares. It is quite stupid to assume that such characters as the ones in the " Kill Bill' would exist or even survive in reality but the everyday life atmosphere MAKES THEM REAL and cruelty goes gaga. Sex always goes hand-in- hand with cruelty in those movies. Women are sexually harassed or raped openly on the screen like, for instance, in the series about sex slave trades. The intentions could be good but the result is the opposite- the scenes where girls are raped demonstrate the techniques openly asking for the following down to the book. On the other side there is an abundance of cruelty committed by women. Women kill, mutilate, torture and kick butts. One of the most popular is hitting men on genitalia; guys look so funny when they cringe. I would advise some of my readers to try to do it to themselves; it is not a funny feeling at all. Hot teenage girls hitting boys in private places while doing blowjobs at the same time is the ideal role model for our future strong females.
There is also a special case of cruelty committed for women. That is usually done by men under a female supervision or just to impress a female. Whatever a female M in the last James Bond series could think about 007, she never stops him on the cruel path. Female CIA and FBI agents unleash the teams of goons on whoever they want and none of those macho warriors defies her ways and means. We see a cohorts of blank- eyed, chromium- blood dolls obsessed with manhunt, with squeaky voices and lacking any real human qualities who afterwards are praised as portraits of "strong and feminine' on numerous pages of glossy magazines. I would advise some parents not just to throw those out but read them beforehand.
One of the most covert and thus most damaging types of cruelty promoted is cruelty by proxy or rather the one acceptable by default. That is if exposed it is openly explained as not the one, something normal or, to the least, slightly regrettable. One of the most interesting cases is the very popular movie "The Few Good Men'. There the script subtly solves a very tricky problem: a murder committed by the two Marines is to be presented as anything but the influence of the Marine Corps itself. The idea is exercised perfectly, we really can call it a perfect murder: military justice uncovers that the two Marines were given a direct order through the chain of command to exercise an illegal infliction on their "substandard' comrade, called the Code Red. He died but they are exonerated because the commanding colonel confessed. Murder suddenly becomes just conduct unbecoming. But was there a murder? By all normal standards if two people attack one in order to inflict the bodily harm and the victim dies as result of that attack that is at least a second- degree murder. That aspect is craftily avoided. We remain with a question- even if those two had been ordered to do something to that boy, did they have to do it with the cruelty described? I was a reservist officer myself, in the Russian army which has much more tougher internal unwritten rules. There were many cases of cruel behavior. But I do not remember even one case where personal responsibility was somehow taken off the table and a perpetrator of cruelty (if uncovered) would not have been punished as an adult, so to speak. I hope we all agree that dishonorable discharge is a slap on the wrist for murder even not intended.
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