In her book Mayhem: Violence as Public Entertainment, Sissela Bok discuses the effects of media violence on individuals and society as a whole. Bok notes that there are contrasting views on this issue. Some people believe that media violence contributes to increased violence in society. Others believe that media violence provides cathartic experiences as well as important messages about the nature of human life. This paper will argue that violence can be an important and meaningful theme in works of cinema. However, the use of violence can also cross the line, as seen, for example, in films that have been labeled "torture porn." This idea will be discussed with examples from three recent films: Brokeback Mountain, Gladiator, and Hostel.
Sissela Bok refers to the view of the ancient writer St. Augustine, who claimed that violence-based entertainment results in the "stabbing of the soul" (31). In other words, Augustine believed that violent entertainment causes people to be insensitive to the pain and suffering of others. Bok elaborates on this by describing four possible negative effects of heavy exposure to media violence: "increased fearfulness, progressive desensitization, greater appetite for more frequent and more violent programming, and higher levels of aggression" (11). However, Bok also discusses the claim that "media violence might provide a cathartic effect and allow viewers to live out their aggressive impulses vicariously" (138). Furthermore, it has been argued that violent entertainment provides lessons about life which result in "soul enlargement" rather than "soul stabbing" (138). Examples of this use of violence can be found in classical works as well as in the works of Shakespeare. A more recent example can be seen in Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, which used violence to make "a political point" (Cochrane 4). As noted by Bok, some writers believe that exposure to media violence makes people stronger a...