Sex and Violence on the Big Screen, what ... - SAE Institute UK

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Chapter 1.2 Key Concepts Natural Born Killers <strong>and</strong> Irreversible both deal with topics that are considered extremely taboo, for example, Natural Born Killers deals with two central characters who become serial killers, whilst simultaneously becoming media superstars due to media coverage in what is essentially a society dominated by television <strong>and</strong> the media. Irreversible is a rape/revenge story that sees it’s two main characters discovering what in fact they are capable of carrying the same horrific violence that they themselves are exacting revenge for. The topics of the films no doubt become a strong rationale behind the controversy that arose from both films. One of the main key concepts concentrated in this analysis is the idea of realism vs. fantasy violence <strong>and</strong> its depiction on screen. Analyzing both Stone <strong>and</strong> Noe’s work allows for a wide diversity of cinematic techniques used to evoke shock within audiences. This analysis will also allow the chance to compare, Natural Born Killers, A film made by an incredibly successful <strong>and</strong> well respected director, that in theory, should follow the Hollywood conventions of film making, with a film like Irreversible, a French film made under completely different circumstances. By looking at the theories expressed earlier, Stone <strong>and</strong> Noe’s work will be compared. These theories introduced by Bertolt Brecht <strong>and</strong> Walter Benjamin will be used to gain a great underst<strong>and</strong>ing of how the use of controversial depictions shocked audiences. For example, Brecht’s distancing technique ‘alienates’ the audience through stylistic depictions of action often exaggerated by actors. This causes audiences to not get lost in the story, instead becoming detached from it <strong>and</strong> as a result looking more deeply at the action portrayed on screen. Ultimately all of the key points focused on in this essay will serve to answer the primary question at h<strong>and</strong>, “How are these techniques employed to actually evoke shock within audiences?” 6
Chapter 2.1 Natural Born Killers Historical/Cultural Influences Overall, it is important to emphasize that Natural Born Killers was not the first of its kind to provoke shock amongst audiences through its graphic depiction <strong>and</strong> taboo subject. Perhaps two of the most interesting examples to note are Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange (1971), which equally caused controversy not just in the US but in the UK as “It proceeded to ignite a serious controversy that penetrated all sections of society in a way that was unprecedented in the history of cinema in Britain. It’s depiction of a young gang of anarchist hooligans raping, mugging <strong>and</strong> v<strong>and</strong>alising their way through a futuristic dystopian Britain caused outrage <strong>and</strong> significant attention.” (Bugge, 2005) The film itself is incredibly similar to Natural Born Killers in the way that the story is told through the perspective of anti-hero Alex, the leader of a gang of thugs. The film shows our ‘protagonist’ inflicting violence upon innocent people, with little thought of the consequences much like in Natural Born Killer. The film was also banned by Kubrick, due to being faced with pressure from the public, (Bugge 2005) something that Oliver Stone had done himself for the UK release of Natural Born Killers. To fully underst<strong>and</strong> the impact that Natural Born Killers had on American culture, it is important to acknowledge the historical <strong>and</strong> cultural advances of the 90’s. According to Kingwood College Library Online (Whitley, 2007) the 90’s was the ‘electronic’ age. The introduction of the Internet in 1992 “changed the way people communicated, by 1998, 100 million people were on-line’. (Whitley, 2007) News websites such as BBC news online had been introduced <strong>and</strong> according to the website (BBC.co.uk, 2007) was one of the leading websites in Europe by the end of 1999. Though this doesn’t directly link to American culture, it does demonstrate the enormous effect that the Internet had, with news <strong>and</strong> current affairs allowing Internet surfers availability of the news, thus resulting to the increasing popularity of it. The ‘digitalisation’ of television <strong>and</strong> radio in the 90’s also offered people ‘more channels <strong>and</strong> wider interactivity’ (BBC.co.uk, 2007) therefore giving audiences much more choice over what they wished to watch. According to the Statistical Abstract chart 910 (Whitley, 2007) over 98% of households in the US had a television with the average viewer spending seven hours a day watching it, with the television series Cheers (James Burrows, Glen <strong>and</strong> Les Charles, 1983) being one of the most popular shows of the 90’s. One article by David T Courtwright (1998) suggests, “the electronic environment has encroached upon, <strong>and</strong> partially supplanted, fact to face social interaction” thus questioning the effect television <strong>and</strong> the internet have in socialization. Other than the history of technology, film was beginning to see a change in the action genre. According to an article written by Tim Dirks (2007) action films had become more hyperkinetic, violent <strong>and</strong> expensive to produce with powerful <strong>and</strong> muscular heroes, which were unlike the swashbuckler action heroes of the past. Actors such as Bruce 7
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Page 31 and 32: Conclusion Both Irreversible <stron
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Page 37: 53 Nesselson, L. (2002) ‘Film Rev

Sex and Violence on the Big Screen, what ... - SAE Institute UK

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