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Carl Rowan s
Commentary
by Carl Rowan
Syndicated Columnist
Attorney General Janet Reno
warned that if movie producers
and TV brass don't get right with
God, the government will have to
impose restraints.
Hillary Rodham Clinton told
TV Guide that she is "really
appalled by the steady diet of
violence and impulsive sexuality
that we see all the time" on
television.
What bothers me is that the
bluenose and the political blue
bloods seem to have movie
makers and TV producers running
scared, and that's very bad for this
or any free society.
I know gratuitous, money
grubbing violence and sex when I
see it. I saw on TV, in a few
hours of inescapable insomnia, a
preposterously implausible
Steven Seagal movie, "Under
Siege," about a hijacked U.S.
naval vessel. This film oozed
with wanton violence, as do
"Marked for Death," "Hard to
Kill," "Above the Law" and other
skull-busting, bone-crackling
Seagal films. Let Hollywood
abandon this meaningless
carnage.
1 felt that Sharon Stone didn't
have to bare her crotch in "Basic
Instinct,” become so lustily
involved in the sex acts during
which she knifed her lovers to
death. But these are the
unimpassioned judgements of one
columnist who has absolutely no
right to impose them on others.
Alfred Hitchcock produced
some of the most violent movies
of this century. But we would be
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poorer if we had not seen
"Psycho" and its Bates Motel
shower murder scene, or had not
experienced cinematically the
grotesque honor of "The Birds.”
In 1971, Gene Hackman starred
in "The French Connection," a
movie of much violence, but of
great socially redeeming value. It
alerted you and me to the reality
that drug lords were not only
poisoning our children, but
corrupting the lawmen sworn to
protect us.
In 1961, we overlooked the
violelence in "West Side Story"
because it froze into our psyches
the existence of urban gangs - a
sad phenomenon that now casts a
grim pall over our great cities.
Would I be a better human
being if I had not seen any of the
movies listed above? No.
Jack Valenti, president of the
Motion Picture Association of
America, said recently that in
Hollywood "the creative
community already is trying to
do something about violence."
Let all of us remember,
though, that movies and TV
shows are not the primary
teachers of violence and mayhem.
The real-life environments of
millions of American kids
produce more bloody shootings
and stabbings, more rapes and
acts of sodomy and incest, more
abuse of women and children, in
a month than Hollywood, TV,
Broadway and the other media can
produce in a year.
We must not become so
overwhelmed by the would-be
censors that we cease trying to
change those environments of
grotesque abuse - and death.
Collegia* Staff: Dawn Anderson, Michelle Bauer, Ilia Belkin, April Bogdanski, Laura Borawski, Maria Cemadas, T.J. Cochis, Jen
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Thursday, December 2, 1993
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